From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 31 01:14:18 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0C94A22AF; Thu, 31 May 2007 01:14:17 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #151 Message-Id: <20070531051417.0C94A22AF@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 01:14:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 31 May 2007 01:15:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 151 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (Gene Johnson, AP) AP to Use Copyright Protection Service (Michael Liedtke, AP) Incoming AT&T Chief Sees Possibilities in Overseas Buys (USTelecom daily) Google Adds 'Street Level View' to U.S. Maps (Eric Auchard, Reuters) Kilobytes for Minutes? (Chris Kantarjiev) Re: I Want to Pay For Basic Service and Extras Separately (Rick Merrill) Re: I Want to Pay For Basic Service and Extras Separately (Queensbridge.us) Re: Voicemail Messages Get BUZzed (Mr Joseph Singer) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 23:26:10 -0500 From: Gene Johnson, AP Legal Affairs Writer Subject: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail. Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails. "He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day." A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that -- even with four bank accounts seized by the government -- he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer. He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined to comment. Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected. He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said. U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face. The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization. The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Department of Social Services said it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and other businesses and individuals complained of having their reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their computers. "This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance," Warma said. Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said. People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said. The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest. "Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet -- both in terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam service," organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org. Soloway remained in federal detention pending a hearing Monday. 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: Wed, 30 May 2007 23:33:03 -0500 From: Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer Subject: AP to Use Copyright Protection Service By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer The Associated Press will intensify its efforts to protect its copyrights on the Web and possibly uncover new sources of revenue by working with a Silicon Valley startup that's trying to help the media gain more control over digital content. Under an agreement to be announced Thursday, the AP will subscribe to a service developed by Attributor Corp. to track how its stories are distributed across thousands of Web sites. The monitoring tools eventually will be expanded so the news cooperative will be able to keep tabs on the use of its photos and videos on the Internet, too. Although precise terms aren't being disclosed, the AP's fees will depend largely on how heavily it relies on Attributor's service. With the deal, the AP becomes Attributor's first major customer. The Redwood City-based startup, led by former Yahoo Inc. executive Jim Brock, has spent the past 18 months developing a system for determining whether Web content is authorized or unlicensed. Attributor so far has indexed more than 13 billion Web pages, providing the AP with a potentially powerful tool for better understanding how its content is being consumed online and, ultimately, detect copyright violations, said Srinandan Kasi, the news cooperative's general counsel. "What we are trying to say is that if someone wants to use our news, they have to pay for it," Kasi said in an interview. Rather than trying to scan all the material that AP produces each day, Attributor initially will focus on a few hundred stories likely to attract a lot of readers. Web sites that are updated frequently will be tracked more intensively. The AP can log in to Attributor's service to track usage and flag potential copyright violations. Protecting copyrights is becoming increasingly important to long-established media like the 161-year-old AP as people spend more time on the Web instead of reading newspapers, watching television or listening to the radio. While many Web publishers are paying for content or working out other licensing agreements, copyright disputes continue to crop up on the Internet -- vexing media executives already trying to cope with eroding revenue as more advertisers shift their spending to the Web. Some of the online advertising appears to be flowing to Web sites that include copyrighted material without proper authorization. The not-for-profit AP has been affected by the trend because it relies on fees from its member newspapers and other commercial media sources for much of its revenue. The market conditions prompted the AP to freeze its basic rates for newspaper and broadcast members this year and keep them at the same levels again next year. Boosted by more online income, the AP's revenue last year rose nearly 4 percent to $679.8 million. But the cooperative's net income plunged 28.5 percent to $13.3 million. The AP doesn't intend to take a litigious approach in its enforcement of its copyrights and instead will try to negotiate licensing agreements consistent with its mission of keeping the public informed, Kasi said. Attributor's monitoring tools also could help AP's management get a better handle on what kinds of stories attract the most online traffic -- knowledge that Kasi said could be used to develop more creative approaches that generate more revenue. The AP's patronage could open more doors in the media for Attributor. The startup is already testing its service with about a dozen other undisclosed companies, said Brock, who hopes the AP proves the effectiveness of the service. "It's a very important feedback loop from one of the most important content producers in the world," Brock said. Privately held Attributor has raised more than $10 million so far from a list of investors that includes five venture capital firms: Sigma Partners, Selby Venture Partners, Draper Richards, First Round Capital and Amicus Capital. 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/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 12:18:56 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Incoming AT&T Chief Sees Possibilities in Overseas Buys USTelecom dailyLead May 30, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gZzsfDtusXsuAQCibudddYnb TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Incoming AT&T chief sees possibilities in overseas buys BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Windstream to buy CT Communications * Alcatel-Lucent signs on for WiMAX trial * Vodafone to invest heavily in India * Broadcom completes Octalica deal USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Secure Your Optical Network FoundationTuesday, June 5, 1 p.m. (ET) TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Redline to build WiMAX network in Paraguay * Mobile ads coming to a phone near you * Analysts predict growth in surveillance-technology market * SMS voting guidelines set IP DOWNLOAD * Telecoms stepping up on IPTV rollouts * Microsoft unveils tabletop computer REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Court ruling revamps cell phone security EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gZzsfDtusXsuAQCibudddYnb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 15:47:15 -0500 From: Eric Auchard, Reuters Subject: Google Adds 'Street Level View' to U.S. Maps By Eric Auchard Google Inc. said on Tuesday it was introducing street-level map views of various U.S. cities, giving Web users a panoramic, 360-degree images as well as the overhead views Google Maps has offered. With the new "Street View" feature in Google Maps, street level imagery is available for maps of the San Francisco area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami, and will soon expand to other metropolitan regions, Google said in a statement. Users looking at Google Maps through a Web browser can navigate around a city, "virtually" walking the streets, checking out restaurants and landmarks and even zoom in on bus stops or street signs to make travel plans. Google is playing catch-up with street-level viewing features, following in the footsteps of A9.com's BlockView mapping feature introduced in early 2005 and showing street-level views in roughly two dozen major U.S. cities. A9.com, a unit of Amazon.com Inc., discontinued the feature in September 2006. A9 Chief Executive Udi Manber subsequently joined Google as vice president of engineering. Microsoft Corp. has offered what it calls a "birds-eye" view on parts of its MSN Virtual Earth three-dimensional mapping service for several big U.S. cites since late in 2005. Google also announced plans for "Mapplets," a tool for independent software developers to build mini-applications that be displayed within Google Maps. Mapplets can display a variety of information, from housing listings to crime data as well as ways to measure distances between different points on the map. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Inc. and MapQuest, a unit of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL online business, all continue to compete aggressively to create new online mapping features, said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Web sites now rely on one of the major online map providers to create hybrid mapping applications, popularly known as "mashups," he estimated. Google made the announcements at the Where 2.0 conference taking place in San Jose this week. More details can be found at http://maps.google.com/preview . 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/internet-news.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 15:25:06 PDT From: Chris Kantarjiev Subject: Kilobytes for Minutes? I've got a smartphone on Cingular that I use more for data than for voice. As a result, I pay extra for a data plan, and have lots of minutes left over every month. I'd really like it if Cingular made those two commodities fungible -- I'd happily trade one of my bucket voice minutes for every kilobyte (or SMS). They don't seem to offer such a plan. Does any carrier? Thanks, chris [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I thought either Cingular or Cellular One offered an unlimited data transfer package for some sum of money each month. You'd have to ask them if 'unlimited' actually means 'unlimited' or not. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 18:53:52 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: I Want to Pay For Basic Service and the Extras Separately John Mayson wrote: > On Mon, 28 May 2007, lbrtchx wrote: >> Hi, >> I would like to pay for a basic service ideally as part of a family plan >> and if my son needs long distance, internet, or any other service, he would >> have to pay for it himself upfront. >> The thing is that I would like for the basic services to be always >> available. >> Is there any company offering such services? > Having looked into something similar I can say "no", at least not in > the United States. The billing doesn't work when part of it goes to > "dad", but "son" wants to add to it. All I can suggest is "dad" agree > to pay for the added service and "son" reimburse dad. > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA Most cable companies (Charter, Verizon, Comcast) offer phone service that has free long distance and unlimited local calling and basic TV and internet access. ------------------------------ From: www.Queensbridge.us Subject: Re: I Want to Pay For Basic Service and the Extras Separately Date: 30 May 2007 14:01:06 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On May 29, 9:00 pm, John Mayson wrote: > On Mon, 28 May 2007, lbrtchx wrote: >> Hi, >> I would like to pay for a basic service ideally as part of a family plan >> and if my son needs long distance, internet, or any other service, he would >> have to pay for it himself upfront. >> The thing is that I would like for the basic services to be always >> available. >> Is there any company offering such services? > Having looked into something similar I can say "no", at least not in > the United States. The billing doesn't work when part of it goes to > "dad", but "son" wants to add to it. All I can suggest is "dad" agree > to pay for the added service and "son" reimburse dad. > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA Original poster does not state if he is referring to hardwired or wireless. With wireless it is easy. Use prepaid. I use Virgin and pay $16.21 with tax every 3 months. I removed voicemail so no one pays for a call if I do not anwer in person. For long distance you can prepay thru OneSuite and log on WWW to check on usage and to replenish. OneSite is as low as USA-Canada 1.9CPM! Works as prepaid phone card. PIN not needed for calls from home or cell phone. Compare the rates at https://www.OneSuite.com No monthly fee or minimum. Use Promotion/SuiteTreat Code: "FREEoffer23" for FREE time. Works FROM many other countries ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:11:00 PDT From: Mr Joseph Singer Subject: Re: Voicemail Messages Get BUZzed communicationsdirect pointed to this article: > http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24628?11228 > Sure, your mobile phone has a unique, personal ringtone. But what > does your phone's voicemail message sound like? BUZ Interactive > is betting there's a lot of people who think that a musical, > personalized voicemail message is a great idea. That's why the > Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is offering GETaBUZ, a new way to Maybe I'm turning into an old fart, but I'm getting severely annoyed with the "need" to fix something that ain't broken. "Personalizing" voicemail with someone else's music is just another way to annoy people who are calling you. It's very likely that this "special" music which you like a lot others may not be so crazy for. Another in the same vein of annoyance is the service where you call someone's number and instead of the familiar ringback tone you get the person's choice of music blaring in your ear until such time as they decide to answer. We know the reason for these services ... to make a buck. ------------------------------ 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #151 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 31 13:05:24 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5820422B1; Thu, 31 May 2007 13:05:24 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #152 Message-Id: <20070531170524.5820422B1@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 13:05:24 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 31 May 2007 13:06:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 152 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (Reuters News Wire) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Time Warner Digital Phone Question (John Mayson) Re: Touch Tone vs. Rotary -- Desk vs. Wall Sets? (Paul Coxwell) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (Rick Merrill) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (Steven Lichter) Re: Voicemail Messages Get BUZzed (Rick Merrill) Re: FCC Should be Required to Accurately Count Users (Matt Simpson) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 11:27:22 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. At 10:14 EDT (1414 GMT), CBS affiliate KOTV reported that a lightning strike had caused a fire at an Oklahoma refinery -- sparking a flurry of excitement among energy traders and boosting U.S. crude prices 40 cents. The refining company announced the story was "completely wrong" and the station withdrew the story. "All it takes is a screw-up on a Web site to move the market. It just goes to show how tense this market is," said a Houston-based oil trader. A string of refinery problems in the United States has propelled retail gasoline prices to record highs in recent weeks. 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 ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 11:56:53 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For May 31, 2007 ******************************** Ukrainian Telesystems Extends 3G Network to Crimea http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24653?11228 Ukrainian CDMA operator Ukrainian Telesystems has launched 3G services in Simferopol, the capital of the Ukrainian republic of Crimea, reports Ukrainian News. The operator will now offer high-speed mobile internet and mobile communication and multimedia under the 'PEOPLEnet' brand, and has plans in place to extend its coverage ... Government Awards $20B Telecom Contract http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24650?11228 WASHINGTON Five companies -- AT&;T Inc., Level 3 Communications, Verizon Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. -- on Thursday were awarded a federal telecommunications contract worth up to $20 billion over 10 years. Getting on the so-called Networx Enterprise ... VSNL Combats Falling Voice Margins http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24644?11228 International data connectivity provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) is feeling the pinch from falling profit margins in its wholesale voice business, and upcoming reforms to bandwidth pricing at home in India threaten to increase the pressure. In its financial results for the year ended March 31, the India-based operator ... Original WiMAX Entrants Still Lead Market http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24642?11228 According to the latest report from In-Stat, the original vendors who entered the WiMAX market -- Alavarion, Aperto, Redline and Airspan -- still hold the dominant market positions. However, better-known equipment vendors such as Motorola, Nokia Siemens and Samsung received more press coverage in 2006, for their high-profile ... Survey Sez: Enterprise Comms Users Dissatisfied http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24640?11228 Lack of open standards may be the cause of dissatisfaction of enterprise communications by nearly 70 percent of users, according to an independent survey of hundreds of respondents who attended the CeBIT 2007 show in Hannover, Germany, last March. Siemens Communications sponsored the research, which was conducted by an independent ... Palm's Constant Companion http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24638?11228 Palm Inc. has finally unveiled its long-awaited new mobile computer -- a small notebook-like device intended to be used in conjunction with a smartphone for mobile email, Web surfing and more. Analysts, however, question who exactly will buy the symbiotic new device. Palm founder Jeff Hawkins unveiled the $500 Foleo "mobile... Will the Apple iPhone Ignite the US Multimedia Phone Market? http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24636?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Despite a rapid increase in the number of multimedia-capable phones, US wireless subscribers have not yet been persuaded to take advantage of these capabilities, reports In-Stat. More than one-third of respondents to an In-Stat wireless subscriber survey now carry a wireless handset that can play MP3 tracks, ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Reply-To: John Mayson Subject: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Organization: http://www.mayson.us Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 11:05:15 -0500 I hope this isn't too inappropriate a question for the digest. I finally fired Ma Bell. I had once-upon-a-time worked for AT&T and remainded a loyal telephone customer. However I just got tired of waiting for DSL on my street so I could take advantage of their phone/DSL/satellite package deal. I already had Road Runner high-speed Internet from Time Warner so I signed up for digital cable and phone. The Time Warner website is rather sketchy and I'm having trouble finding an answer to this, so I'm asking here. I understand I can continue using my existing telephones and jacks with digital phone. But can I use my computer to make/receive calls on my digital phone number? I have both Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X at my disposal. Note, I'm not talking about using Skype. I would like to be able to place and receive calls on my home number from my computer regardless of where my computer may be. Is this possible? Thanks, John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 07:09:23 PDT From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Touch Tone vs. Rotary -- Desk vs. Wall Sets? > P.S. While we're on the subject, would anyone know what percentage of > lines are still served by exclusively dial equipment? I don't think > they charge a premium for TT anymore. Also, many people have some old > rotary sets still in service (like me) even if their primary sets are > TT. Over here in the U.K. we didn't get TouchTone until the 1980s, but there was never any premium and it was made available on all lines automatically as soon as the C.O. equipment could handle it. All lines will still accept rotary/pulse dialing, at least regular "old fashioned" lines (some cable services might not). In fact the automated BT line test function still includes dial-tests for both DTMF and pulse. I still have rotary phones in service around the house, both Western Electric 500s and the old GPO 706 (nearest British equivalent of the WECo 500). Paul ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 07:16:23 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Gene Johnson wrote: > By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer > A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific > spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer > users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk > e-mail. > Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised > "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails. > "He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a > Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's > Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our > customers. This is a very good day." > A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against > Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, > aggravated identity theft and money laundering. > Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a > judge determined that -- even with four bank accounts seized by the > government -- he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer. > He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive > Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are > seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his > business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. > A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined > to comment. > Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to > send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called > "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have > been infected. They should try using the Rico Laws because of his use of zombies. Seriously! ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 08:30:53 -0700 Gene Johnson wrote: > By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer > A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific > spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer > users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk > e-mail. > Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised > "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails. > "He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a > Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's > Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our > customers. This is a very good day." > A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against > Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, > aggravated identity theft and money laundering. > Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a > judge determined that -- even with four bank accounts seized by the > government -- he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer. > He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive > Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are > seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his > business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. > A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined > to comment. > Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to > send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called > "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have > been infected. > He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million > civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small > Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, > prosecutors said. > U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first > in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft > statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's > Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though > prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing > range he might face. > The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds > of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known > spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam > organization. > The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Department of Social Services said > it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and > other businesses and individuals complained of having their > reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their > computers. > "This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance," Warma > said. > Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out > unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing > company to advertise their products, authorities said. > People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web > site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 > million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment > said. > The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest. > "Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet -- both in > terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam > service," organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org. > Soloway remained in federal detention pending a hearing Monday. > Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. I think they should shoot him and posted a picture of his dead body on the net!!!! The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2007 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 07:18:14 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Voicemail Messages Get BUZzed Mr Joseph Singer wrote: > communicationsdirect > pointed to this > article: >> http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24628?11228 >> Sure, your mobile phone has a unique, personal ringtone. But what >> does your phone's voicemail message sound like? BUZ Interactive >> is betting there's a lot of people who think that a musical, >> personalized voicemail message is a great idea. That's why the >> Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is offering GETaBUZ, a new way to > Maybe I'm turning into an old fart, but I'm getting severely annoyed > with the "need" to fix something that ain't broken. "Personalizing" > voicemail with someone else's music is just another way to annoy > people who are calling you. It's very likely that this "special" > music which you like a lot others may not be so crazy for. Another in > the same vein of annoyance is the service where you call someone's > number and instead of the familiar ringback tone you get the person's > choice of music blaring in your ear until such time as they decide to > answer. We know the reason for these services ... to make a buck. You can find your "mute" button? ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Re: FCC Should be Required to More Accurately Count Broadband Users Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 12:29:43 -0400 Organization: None In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Sounds rather expensive. How much would it cost the taxpayer? > Of what benefit would it be? One possible benefit of more accurate reporting of broadband coverage might be more chance of somebody providing coverage to those who don't have it. An area with no existing competition might be more attractive to a provider who is considering serving that area. In my area, for example, a provider who looks at the false maps created with my tax dollars might assume that they would have a hard time convincing users to switch from cable. In fact, customers don't have cable and might happily jump at any option that was offered. Whether or not this is worthy of taxpayer dollars may be a matter of opinion, which may depend on whether or not you already have broadband coverage and don't care if anybody else does, or whether you're one of those on the wrong side of the digital divide. There are many in government (state, local, and federal) who feel that reliable broadband access for all is a plus for economic development, and that efforts to make that happen are worthwhile. Unfortunately, they're currently doing it in such a half-assed manner that their efforts may be worse than nothing at all. ------------------------------ 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #152 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 1 01:44:00 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4DC642271; Fri, 1 Jun 2007 01:44:00 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #153 Message-Id: <20070601054400.4DC642271@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 01:44:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Jun 2007 01:45:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 153 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (Jill Serjeant, Reuters) Canadian Natives Want Cut from Cell Phone Traffic (John Mayson) Report: Broadband Subscribers to Almost Double by 2011 (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Rick Merrill) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Linc Madison) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Robert Bonomi) Re: Touch Tone vs. Rotary -- Desk vs. Wall Sets? (Adrian) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (Tom Horsley) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (mc) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 23:19:29 -0500 From: Jill Serjeant, Reuters Reply-To: John Mayson Subject: Canadian Natives Want Cut from Cell Phone Traffic Organization: http://www.mayson.us Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 13:23:15 -0500 http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/05/canadian_native.html "Mobile phone calls in Canada may get a little more expensive if a native tribe there is successful with plans to levy a fee on every phone call that passes through its airspace. Manitoba First Nations is negotiating with Manitoba Telecom Service to take a cut of every call that passes over tribal land or water." In my humble opinion, this is ridiculous. Will they next demand a cut from satellite radio? Will they demand a cut of advertising revenue from radio and TV stations? Will amateur radio operators have to pay for a special license if their signals pass through First Nations airspace? What about airplanes that fly overhead? John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is equally ridiculous for the various carriers to claim some sort of 'privacy in communications' rationale, and attempt to punish those persons who intercept or monitor or otherwise tamper with the carriers' signal, yet they (carriers) attempt to do that here in USA. Consider 'pay television' here in the United States. The carriers of same keep insisting that no one has a right to intercept their radio signals without the proper payment of their fee for service. On the other hand, some radio pirates insist upon their right to examine any/all particles entering upon their land, electronic or otherwise. A good illustration of this would be those persons who _routinely_ monitor radio-telephone communications and challenge the FCC to make them stop doing so. Their rationale seems to be 'if it is on my property I have the right to inspect it. If you do not like that, then build an impenetrable 'wall' around my property, forcing your radio signal to travel in some other direction, or possibly not travel at all past that point.' If it (radio signal) penetrates my property then I have the right to charge a 'transit fee' for same. Are radio waves suppoedly inviolate? I think not; since there are many theatres, restaurants, other public places in the USA which use 'mesh-like' devices to specifically neutralize or diminish radio transmissions. You might feel that radio waves have the right to do their own thing, or travel at will, wherever. Obviously not everyone would agree with that. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 12:50:34 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report: Broadband Subscribers to Almost Double By 2011. USTelecom dailyLead May 31, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/harcfDtusXsAzuCibuddfzLo NEWS OF THE DAY * Report: Broadband subscribers to almost double by 2011 BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel among winners in latest government telecom contract * Motorola cutting an additional 4,000 jobs * Verizon discounts bundle in Delaware * Alcatel-Lucent lands network-extension contract in Pakistan * AT&T offers smallest QWERTY BlackBerry * Executive at Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems resigns USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Register Now for VIP NXTcomm Access! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Apple to stream YouTube to TVs * Are you prepared for more mobile security threats? * Searching the Web, one phone call at a time IP DOWNLOAD * Opinion: OCS 2007 creates opportunities for VoIP * Cyber-criminals target VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Georgia governor signs video-franchise bill Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/harcfDtusXsAzuCibuddfzLo SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005=A0 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 16:21:37 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question John Mayson wrote: > I hope this isn't too inappropriate a question for the digest. > I finally fired Ma Bell. I had once-upon-a-time worked for AT&T and > remainded a loyal telephone customer. However I just got tired of > waiting for DSL on my street so I could take advantage of their > phone/DSL/satellite package deal. I already had Road Runner > high-speed Internet from Time Warner so I signed up for digital cable > and phone. > The Time Warner website is rather sketchy and I'm having trouble > finding an answer to this, so I'm asking here. I understand I can > continue using my existing telephones and jacks with digital phone. > But can I use my computer to make/receive calls on my digital phone > number? I have both Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X at my disposal. > Note, I'm not talking about using Skype. I would like to be able to > place and receive calls on my home number from my computer regardless > of where my computer may be. Is this possible? > Thanks, > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA Well, "no" because your computer's modem isn't connected to the internet, "yes" because your new ATA (analog telephone adapter) MAY be able to muster enough REN to handle all your phones and your modem(s). "maybe" because some VoIP services have limitations on FAX and modem operation that use older technologies. You will just have to try it and see. I'll bet it will work! ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 13:36:08 -0700 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: telecom@lincmad.com Organization: Linc Mad dot com In article , John Mayson wrote: > I hope this isn't too inappropriate a question for the digest. Not at all; it's right on target. > The Time Warner website is rather sketchy and I'm having trouble > finding an answer to this, so I'm asking here. I understand I can > continue using my existing telephones and jacks with digital phone. > But can I use my computer to make/receive calls on my digital phone > number? I have both Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X at my disposal. > Note, I'm not talking about using Skype. I would like to be able to > place and receive calls on my home number from my computer regardless > of where my computer may be. Is this possible? I don't think you can. I have cable telephone from Comcast, but I would guess it's nearly identical to Time-Warner. My cable comes into my apartment building, and then over the in-building coax cable wiring to my apartment, where I have a special cable modem that splits out the Internet signal to an Ethernet cable and the telephone signal to a wire that feeds into my existing in-home phone wiring. Without the special cable modem, with its serial number registered on Comcast's system, I don't have telephone service; however, if I take the cable modem with me and plug it in somewhere else, it wouldn't work. (I would guess that even if I plugged it in on a cable belonging to another Comcast customer with the same services, it would still generate an error because of the mismatched serial numbers.) I used to have RCN, also with cable/net/phone service. Their setup was a little bit different. The cable came into the building, but the phone signal was split off at the demarc into the existing in-building phone wiring, allowing me to use just a regular cable modem in my apartment for the Internet part. I also haven't tested how or whether the phones work in a power outage. I think the Comcast system, since it relies on the cable modem in my apartment, probably wouldn't. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom at Linc Mad d0t c0m URL: < http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits Read my political blog, "The Third Path" US, California, and Washington State laws apply to LINCMAD.COM e-mail. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: VOIP services _will_ work when there is a power interuption assuming that you have a battery backup on the line. You would need to have your router and ATA get their power from the backup supply; something that might kick in when the power other- wise fails. Or perhaps you have, like myself, a power supply sufficient for your entire network, but only to allow for an 'orderly shutdown' of your computer system as needed. I experimented with this one day recently. I went over to the circuit-breaker box on the wall and flipped off the circuit serving my computer area. Instantly I heard something sounding like a 'click' as the battery backup started going. (Oh, on my battery backup I also have the telephone network wired in to it also.) After flipping the circuit breaker 'off' I went over immediatly to try this test: Dial '8' for the Vonage line; I heard dial tone, and dialed a number. Now, it would not work for very long; the battery is not that large, and it is mainly intended for the 'orderly shutdown' of my computers, _not_ to just keep on using them. But you probably see my point. Now, if the cable service went out, that would be a different matter entirely. But if your telephone central office went on the blitz, you would not be able to use your landline phones very long either. Typically, when my power goes off for some reason or another (which would also affect my telephone system) I 'cheat' by plugging the phone line directly into the central office line, enitirely by-passing the mini-PBX I normally run everything through. Its not a trivial effort in any event. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 17:21:46 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , John Mayson wrote: > I hope this isn't too inappropriate a question for the digest. > I finally fired Ma Bell. I had once-upon-a-time worked for AT&T and > remainded a loyal telephone customer. However I just got tired of > waiting for DSL on my street so I could take advantage of their > phone/DSL/satellite package deal. I already had Road Runner > high-speed Internet from Time Warner so I signed up for digital cable > and phone. > The Time Warner website is rather sketchy and I'm having trouble > finding an answer to this, so I'm asking here. I understand I can > continue using my existing telephones and jacks with digital phone. > But can I use my computer to make/receive calls on my digital phone > number? I have both Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X at my disposal. > Note, I'm not talking about using Skype. I would like to be able to > place and receive calls on my home number from my computer regardless > of where my computer may be. Is this possible? Possible? yes. Trivial effort? no. Probably requires some extra hardware. Definitely requires some _significant_ extra software. On a Unix-esque platform, I'd be looking at Asterix as a starting point. On Windows, 'yate' maybe?? (dunno much about it). ------------------------------ From: Adrian Subject: Re: Touch Tone vs. Rotary -- Desk vs. Wall Sets? Date: 31 May 2007 15:41:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On May 31, 7:09 am, Paul Coxwell wrote: >> P.S. While we're on the subject, would anyone know what percentage of >> lines are still served by exclusively dial equipment? I don't think >> they charge a premium for TT anymore. Also, many people have some old >> rotary sets still in service (like me) even if their primary sets are >> TT. > Over here in the U.K. we didn't get TouchTone until the 1980s, but > there was never any premium and it was made available on all lines > automatically as soon as the C.O. equipment could handle it. > All lines will still accept rotary/pulse dialing, at least regular "old > fashioned" lines (some cable services might not). In fact the > automated BT line test function still includes dial-tests for both DTMF > and pulse. > I still have rotary phones in service around the house, both Western > Electric 500s and the old GPO 706 (nearest British equivalent of the > WECo 500). > Paul Have you made any adjustments to your WECo 500s for compatibility with the UK system? Adrian ------------------------------ From: Tom Horsley Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 23:00:05 GMT On Wed, 30 May 2007 23:26:10 -0500 Gene Johnson, AP Legal Affairs Writer wrote: > federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice > a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail. Yea right. If kept detailed statistics I might notice a statistically significant decrease in the 4th digit to the right of the zero in the percentage of mail I get that is spam. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Quite frankly, I was not that impressed with the feds' efforts, either in this case. Now, if the feds did that sort of thing day after day for a couple weeks or so, _then_ I think we would see a substantial decrease in spam. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 19:45:10 -0400 >> Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to >> send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called >> "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have >> been infected. > They should try using the Rico Laws because of his use of zombies. Definitely. And look at where his money was coming from. How many people were knowingly paying him to do fraudulent and illegal things? They're guilty, too. And was anybody paying him to sabotage and degrade the nation's e-mail system? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To answer your question 'how many people were knowingly allowing this ...' my answer would be 'the spam enablers are equally guilty'. The 'enablers' are the users who sit there and try to convince you that 'email filtering' is the answer; that we can repeatedly and without ceasing apply filters to our email and newsgroups, all the while Soloway continues to plug up our filters to the point they are almost unusable. Oh, when really pressed on this issue, they will bitch and moan about users (or actually, ABusers) like Soloway and how evil they are, yet they will rarely, if ever, 'vote' with either their money or their efforts to put people like Soloway out of business on his own, and if anyone dares to suggest some guerilla-like tactics to accomplish the same thing, they will shudder and tell you how awful you are for thinking and speaking about it. We should NOT have to use email filtering; why should WE have to endure it? But, that's the enablers for you. They prefer to punish the rest of us. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #153 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 1 16:04:51 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1327A22A9; Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:04:50 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #154 Message-Id: <20070601200450.1327A22A9@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:04:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:06:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 154 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson More Old Movie Phone Scenes (Lisa Hancock) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) AT&T Adds International Text-Messaging Plan (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (mc) Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (John Mayson) Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (mc) Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (Fred Atkinson) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Jax) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: More Old Movie Phone Scenes Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:24:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The cable channel TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is excellent. It shows great old movies. Many of the films were very well written and produced. In B&W, the artful use of lighting and shadows to create mood is excellent. The film "The Night Holds Terror" (1955) was about a kidnapping. At the end of the film they're waiting for the kidnappers to call with the ransom demand. The victim's wife (who would get the car) was told she must stall them as long as possible to trace the call. The call came, and the scene switched to the phone company central office, showing technicians checking various Strowger switch units. Other units were still running. Then they showed the service center and lookups in the tub file (a file of each line and its repair history). Very realistic. Another film, "Dial 1119" (1955?) had some phone scenes (I couldn't stay up for the whole film, work calls). The film opened with the front page of the phone book listing 1119 as the emergency number for police fire and rescue. (I wonder if this was a common number for police back then, in those days we were taught to simply dial 0- operator). This film had an escaped murderer taking a group of people hostage in a bar, and using the telephone (an old 202 set with an E1 handset) to talk to police. Pay phones in the film were all two- piece. Part of the drama was that murderer dialed his calls in a very slow and deliberate manner. ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communications Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:45:10 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 01, 2007 ******************************** Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent Wins GSM Network Contract from China Mobile Pakistan http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24687?11228 Ericsson yesterday announced that it has been selected by China Mobile Pakistan Limited (CM Pak), a company created after the former Paktel was acquired by China Mobile Communication Corporation (China Mobile), for the expansion of its GSM network throughout the southern Pakistan. Under the contract, Ericsson will provide a complete GSM ... EU Outlines Plans for "Super" Regulator http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24684?11228 The European Union (EU)'s Information Society Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has outlined plans to launch proposals into the creation of a single 'super regulator' for the region. In a statement released on 31 May, Reding said she will launch the proposals by end of October 2007, seeking further powers to strengthen telecoms ... Ericsson Wins Vodafone Spain's 3G Deal http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24682?11228 Global mobile giant Vodafone has selected Ericsson to modernise and expand its existing WCDMA/HSPA radio-access network throughout Spain. In a statement, Ericsson said that under the three-year deal, it will deliver WCDMA radio base stations to enhance Vodafone Spain's network coverage and add the latest Ericsson HSPA functionality .... Mirror Promises Better Telecom Lasers http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24678?11228 A new high-performance mirror, developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, could dramatically improve the design and efficiency of next generation telecom devices relying on laser optics. The new mirror packs the same 99.9 percent reflective punch as current high-grade mirrors, called distributed Bragg ... Why Telcos Need Web 2.0 http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24675?11228 IMS might not be the answer, it turns out. Service providers looking to create new revenue-driving applications will instead have to adapt to the Web 2.0 world, using the concept of 'mashups' to quickly create new Web-based services, according to the latest Services Software Insider report, Telco Web 2.0 Mashups: A New ... AT&T Offers International Text Messaging http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24670?11228 AT&T has announced an international text-messaging plan. The new plan will include 100 international long-distance text messages for $9.99 a month. "A text package specifically for international use helps make friends and families across borders seem less far away by allowing them to communicate when time zone differences ... BT's Flat Fusion http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24663?11228 BT Group plc has not given up on its fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) service, Fusion, despite flat subscriber growth. The operator now has 40,000 Fusion customers, which is the same number of customers it had about two months ago. With nearly two years of experience since BT first launched Fusion in 2005, BT says its FMC ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 12:11:37 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: AT&T Adds International Text-Messaging Plan USTelecom dailyLead June 1, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hbdwfDtusXsDuICibuddvAjb TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * AT&T adds international text-messaging plan BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Qwest in discussions with movie studios * Covad makes good on ADSL2+ promise to businesses * Converged optical Ethernet networks boost Ciena * Google outlines mobile strategy, mum on handsets rumors * Nacchio may have to forfeit $52 million USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Secure Your Optical Network FoundationTuesday, June 5, 1 p.m. (ET) TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Clearwire completes WiMAX-spectrum buy * Life after dial-up: Company looks to diversify * Study: Mobile TV to attract 155.6 million subscribers * EarthLink nears completion of Texas wireless network IP DOWNLOAD * Avaya buyout speculation reflects unrest in VoIP world REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC to wireless: Improve emergency-call standards EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hbdwfDtusXsDuICibuddvAjb ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:01:30 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To answer your question 'how many > people were knowingly allowing this ...' my answer would be 'the > spam enablers are equally guilty'. The 'enablers' are the users who > sit there and try to convince you that 'email filtering' is the > answer; that we can repeatedly and without ceasing apply filters to > our email and newsgroups, ... Well said! The spam-filtering and antivirus industries have often struck me as enemies disguised as friends. They rely on spam and viruses to continue, so they can continue selling us their technological solutions to human problems. And locksmiths don't want the burglary rate to drop ... it's bad for business ... What bothered me about the Soloway case is the time scale. They let him keep spamming for something like 5 years while slowly gathering evidence. Computer criminals just don't think in a 5-year time scale. Things happen too fast. They're like shoplifters -- they need to face substantial consequences on the *day* of the crime, or there will be little or no deterrent effect, and massive needless damage done. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And, midst your examples above of people and industries who want to maintain the status quo for various reasons -- generally financial -- be sure to include the 'corrections industry' along with the locksmiths. Doesn't it almost make you go spastic with laughter when a police officer notes how 'all we are trying to do is reduce the crime rate; nothing would be better than for us (police officers) to be out of a job from lack of crime?' (or words to that effect; they are not too original in their thinking.) Once in our kindergarten class at school Officer Friendly came around to tell all us students about how 'police officers were our friends' and how they were trying to eliminate or do away with crime. I thought back then that sounded a bit odd, but it was not until fifth or sixth grade I began to grasp the irony of it all. So when Officer Friendly came around again to address us in seventh grade, I held up my hand when he asked if there were any questions or comments: I am sure he was expecting me to snitch on my parents or friends, claiming they were either (a) drug users, (b) drug pushers, (c) sex molestors or (d) other breeds of malevolent individuals; (no, I take that back, we did not have _open_ drug abuse nor sex offenders in those days, but he sure was looking for some type of malevolence to be certain so that he would make a big show of adding yet one more intake to his score of corrections industry inmates.) Drug use came along in the seventies and sex offenses came along in the 1990s. I held up my juvenile hand and asked him, "Officer Friendly, are you going to really stand there and tell us you'd like to see the ten thousand employees of the Cook County Jail and Sheriff's Department out of work? And you really want to see the several thousand police officers of the Chicago Police out of work? And what about the millions of dollars spent each year for the construction of new prisons? And what about the thousands of employees in the prison system?" Officer Friendly's face became sort of contorted with hate, but our teacher was unable to get me to shut up either. Finally, Officer Friendly looked at me and said, "you know something, kid, you really are a smart-aleck son of a bitch." And over the next half-century or so, we have witnessed an unbelievable growth in the corrections industry and its peripheral occupations, such as prison phone services, prison food service, private corporate prisons, etc. We had none of those 'periperies' back in the 1950-60's of course. To say nothing about MSNBC's thice weekly hour long program entitled 'LOCKUP' where we television viewers are given guided tours of the many correctional facilities in the USA. Lots of people depend on the status quo to gve meaning to their own lives. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Reply-To: John Mayson Subject: TELECOM Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets Organization: http://www.mayson.us Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 09:51:49 -0500 On Thu, 31 May 2007, Reuters News Wire wrote: > World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station > in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an > erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. Someone explain something to me. Why would the price of a raw material go up due to a refinery fire? It'd be like the price of wheat rising on news of a fire at a Wonder Bread factory. I could see the price of gasoline rising, but not oil. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not really, since there is a more than ample supply of wheat with which to make more bread, but oil is a somewhat more limited substance. And, refineries do more with crude oil than simply make gasoline. How about all sorts of 'petroleum-based' by-products? PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 10:58:11 -0400 I don't think the people who run eHarmony should lose their freedom to run the business the way they want. They are clearly not setting out to harm anyone. They simply believe that heterosexual matchmaking is different from homosexual matchmaking, and they've chosen to do one and not the other. They have (or can have) any number of competitors that make the other choice. There is also a free exercise of religion issue. As I understand it, the founder of eHarmony is an evangelical Christian and is specifically setting out to promote and uphold the conservative Christian concept of marriage, which is entirely heterosexual. Nobody sues Jewish grocers to make them sell non-kosher meat. Do they? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you substitute the word 'black' for the word 'homosexual' in your comments above, (which is how _many_ but not all GLBT activists would have you handle it) perhaps you can see the problem. _Many_ LGBT (interchangeable with 'GLBT') activists place themselves on the same level as during the black/white struggles in the USA prior to the 1960s. Regards Jewish grocers and non-Kosher products, the fellow across the street from the Skokie Bus Station is Jewish, and operates a specific- ally Kosher market. One day I was joking with him and said "Please fix me a bologna and cheese sandwhich". His reply was "I will sell you the bread and a slice of bologna, then I will sell you a slice of cheese. What you choose to do with them when you get back to the bus station is your own business." His deli market was a large, sort of busy place, with many clerks on duty. But he (owner) always had a nice sense of humor. Over the delicatesan counter was a large sign, apparently due to complaints in the past: Entitled "Your Assurance of Kazruth (or Kosher)it said: "When there are at least two employees on duty at this counter, one will prepare your meat product. The other will prepare your cheese or other dairy (like potato salad) product. The products will be bagged separately if you request it. In the event there is only one employee on duty, then that employee will prepare your meat product, *then wash his/her hands*, and then prepare your dairy product. If our employees do not follow this procedure then your products will be given to you free of charge." The notice was signed by the chief Rabbi in charge of (Jewish) food sales for Village of Skokie. On this particular day, his shop was quite busy. Only one person was on duty at the deli counter. Two people were ahead of me in line, but I was known to be a regular customer, getting lunch to take back to the bus station. The owner himself was working there at the deli counter, obviously harassed and busy. He asked me what I wanted to eat that day, and I told him a liver sausage sandwhich (and then as a sort of afterthought, after pausing a couple seconds) give me an order of cream cheese to go with it. At first he said, "well, it will be a couple minutes before I can get to you," and he turned to the lady who was waiting there ahead of me and _touched_ the meat he was going to cut up for her. Then he said to her, "Do you mind waiting a couple minutes while I get Patrick's order ready?" No, she said she did not mind ... he placed the roast (or whatever she had ordered) back in its bin, turned around a bit and _touched_ the cream cheese he was fixing to add to my sandwhich order. I immediatly made a 'tsk, tsk' sound and he looked at me and said, "You are not Jewish are you?" ... I assured him I was not. "Well then," he said, "our laws do not apply to you." I told him that was correct, they did not apply to me, "but they apply to you, Mr. Rosen, so I will take my order for free today." He fixed my order at no charge, handed it to me, and he said "but the only reason I have that (rabbi-ordered) sign at the counter is because of the young black guys working here who don't give a damn and my regular customers who moan and bitch all the time about Kosher requirements. My clerks have to follow Kosher requirements at all times (even though they are not Jewish). I gave him his two dollars for my sandwhich and told him 'do not let that happen again; or I will have to report you to the chief rabbi for food sales here in Skokie. (smile). His reply was "yeah, yeah, go ahead and report me, you would not be the first." PAT] ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 05:45:05 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Gay, or LGBT persons may wish to get > in touch with attorney Todd Schneider in San Francisco in inquire > about being added to the pending lawsuit. PAT] Hi Pat, I don't understand why the LGBT community would want someone who is not well qualified to evaluate the dynamics of their relationships to be providing such a service to them. It would probably turn into a disaster (because of shortcomings in such unqualified evaluations) and result in a lot more lawsuits from people being 'mismatched' because of those shortcomings. Those lawsuits would probably be far more justified. There are plenty of sites that do offer this service and could have been developed by people who are far more qualified to do it. The students of Gallaudet University underwent DPN (Deaf President Now) to bring about the first deaf president of Gallaudet University because they wanted their education to be managed by someone who understood (from having lived it) the problems faced by the Deaf community (if you do not know about DPN, you should read a book entitled 'The Week The World Heard Gallaudet'). They did not want the Hearing (who did not live the Deaf experience) to be the ultimate manager of their education (this did not mean that teachers from the Hearing community could not teach them, just that they wanted their deaf leader to be the ultimate manager of their educational affairs). Would not the LGBT community want their own qualified professionals to do the same for them and not rely on someone who hasn't lived their own experience? It makes very little sense to me. I would liken it to going to a podiatrist to be evaluated for a problem with your hands (the dynamics are not the same). It would probably require Dr. Neil Clark Warren go back to pyschology school to study a new speciality (or do a bunch of costly independent research) to resolve this issue. I'm not entirely sure that that is fair to him especially since other specialists are already more qualified to do it. Why should he reinvent the wheel? The result would probably not be as good as with someone who lived the experience. So now do we sue general practitioners for discrimination because they do not provide pyschological services? Would you not be better suited to choose an experienced mental health practitioner? Do we sue psychologists who specialize in child psychology for not providing counseling to adults as well? These adults can get refered to a psychologist that specialize in their dynamics. Do we sue magazines that specialize in writing about the Black community for not writing about the White or Hispanic communities? Or do we subscribe to a magazine that writes articles about events in our own respective communities? Do we sue Yahoo or Google for not providing dictionary services when we could go to dictionary.com or m-w.com for those services? Do we sue the Reverend Farrakhan for not providing ministries to Protestants or Catholics? What about atheists and agnostics? How about The Washington Blade? Do we sue them because they exclusively support the Gay community and not the Heterosexual community? I don't think so. It's just that I don't see it as a discrimination issue. I see it as an issue of professional specialization. Just my two cents worth. Regards, Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Please see the first part of my reply on the previous message. Substitute the word 'black' for the word 'gay'. Now you perhaps see where many GLBT activists are coming from. And you are correct -- when the shoe is on the other foot, discrimin- ation is not a lot of fun. In Australia, where GLBT 'rights' are very strong, a couple of restaurant/tavern owners have specifically banned _heterosexual_ people from using their establishment. _Many_ (not all, but a substantial number of) LGBT Americans are making the comparison to the white/black struggles in America a half-century ago. I am not sure that is an accurate comparison, but it is a very common one these days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jax Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:19:13 -0000 Organization: http://groups.google.com On May 31, 11:05 am, John Mayson wrote: > I hope this isn't too inappropriate a question for the digest. > I finally fired Ma Bell. I had once-upon-a-time worked for AT&T and > remainded a loyal telephone customer. However I just got tired of > waiting for DSL on my street so I could take advantage of their > phone/DSL/satellite package deal. I already had Road Runner > high-speed Internet from Time Warner so I signed up for digital cable > and phone. > The Time Warner website is rather sketchy and I'm having trouble > finding an answer to this, so I'm asking here. I understand I can > continue using my existing telephones and jacks with digital phone. > But can I use my computer to make/receive calls on my digital phone > number? I have both Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X at my disposal. > Note, I'm not talking about using Skype. I would like to be able to > place and receive calls on my home number from my computer regardless > of where my computer may be. Is this possible? > Thanks, > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA As a former Time-Warner Technical Support employee, I will have to say no, this can't be done with just the eMTA (that's the phone modem.) It is possible to get this working with additional hardware/software that others have suggested, but beware - Time-Warner will not troubleshoot this connection, since it is not an ordinary phone jack and therefor beyond their scope of work. If you had any problems getting this to work, or keeping it working.....the only place you could go for help is a forum - assuming others have tried this and succeeded. Also, in our division at least, the service goes out A LOT. It is not the most reliable to say the least ... You'd be amazed at how much we, as a culture, have come to assume that when you pick up the phone there will always be a dialtone. If you have gotten Digital Phone, please leave that notion at the door ... and try not to get too frustrated with Tech Support -- they're there to help ... If the service goes out too much for you to handle, then cancel it. No harm, no foul. I know it sounds unrelated, but I am trying to do something similar but without phone service at all. I want to hook my computer, cell phone, and house phone (which has no dialtone) all to run off of Bluetooth technology, but I'm running into a lot of road blocks. Phreaking just isn't as easy as it used to be. ~Jax ------------------------------ 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #154 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 1 23:25:52 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A28C02296; Fri, 1 Jun 2007 23:25:51 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #155 Message-Id: <20070602032551.A28C02296@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 23:25:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Jun 2007 23:26:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 155 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (Fred Atkinson) Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (mc) Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (Rick Merrill) Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (John Mayson) Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (Robert Bonomi) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (John Mayson) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 16:56:08 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Please see the first part of my reply > on the previous message. Substitute the word 'black' for the word > 'gay'. Now you perhaps see where many GLBT activists are coming from. No, I really don't. And I'm not trying to be condescending. This Web site supports blacks and people of other races who are *heterosexuals*. Are you honestly going to tell me that the dynamics are essentially the same for homosexual relationships? I'd find that hard to believe, and no disrespect is intended. I would agree that it was discriminatory if eHarmony was refusing service to people it was qualified to serve. This fellow has made his career out of a study of heterosexual relationships. He is not qualified to evaluate alternative relationships. Why would they want to put themselves at risk like that? Today my landlord told me a story about a woman he knows. She used an online dating service and met a guy she fell in love with via the Internet and the phone. She never met him face to face.n They swapped pictures and messages via email. It progressed to the point where they starting phoning each other. After several months, he said he was in financial trouble and asked her for help. Then again. Then again. In all, I think he said that this fellow was into her for about twenty-two hundred dollars (someone she had never seen face to face). More time went by and she got suspicious. She had the calls traced. Guess where they were coming from? Nigeria. With your knowledge of Internet scams, I guess that I don't need to explain to you any more. If this story is true and complete (I don't know for sure that it is, of course), then that particular dating service has been compromised and their customers have been exploited. Whether or not it was the service's fault will take more information. But if there is legal action it could be costly to the service company even if they win. My only point in telling this story is that there is a weakness in that service if this story *is* true. I would leave it to the lawyers to determine if there is any legal liability here. Maybe or maybe not. It would probably require a lot more information before they could determine anyway. And maybe it's a weak comparison. I only want to point out [by telling this story] that there can be legal pitfalls in running any service of this (or other) kind(s). If you're sued and have to defend yourself, it can be costly. Even if you win, you lose [because you are out money to your attorney]. To the original point I was trying to make was for someone from the LBGT community [evaluation by someone who was only qualified to evaluate heterosexual relationships]: This well might open eHarmony to legal liability (the lawyers would have to fight this out to settle it. But I suspect their opinion would mirror mine) if there was any negative issue that might arise as a result of what a court would probably say was an unqualified evaluation. This is just my evaluation of the situation. I'll be very surprised if they don't ultimately dismiss her case. But not until after eHarmony has to spend a bunch of money on a lawyer. Is this a case of 'you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't'? Regards, Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A few points for you on this: There are many (again, not all) 'gay activists' who compare being gay in America to formerly being black in America. Whether or not this is a good, intellectually honest and sound comparison, I, of all people, am not in a position to judge. I know that we Episcopalians these days are almost constantly having this hammered in our heads by our rectors and bishops; that is, by the more liberal bishops and rectors. Regards 'who is qualified to administer a romantic web site directed to GLBT people', I am reminded that for many years in the 1960-70's, formerly 'white only' barber shops, the barbers used as their excuse for not wishing to cut a black person's hair was that 'they' (the barber) 'did not know how to do it properly'. That statement (either truthful or a guise to cover up their bigotry, suit yourself!) managed to get them out of cutting a black man's hair for many years. And no one, black or white, wishes to have their hair screwed up by someone doing a bad job, re: "I would not mind cutting his hair, if only I knew how." Some then suggested that the barber shop hire a black barber (presumably with experience in knowing 'what do to') to handle black customers who came in seeking a haircut. Then, the truth came out; many barbershops had racist white owners who did not wish to do that. Regards 'the dynamics of _properly_ servicing GLBT clients in a dating service', I _personally_ do not think there is that much difference in gay and straight relationships. Again, many GLBT folk would disagree with me on that point. But as my friends tell me, since I had my brain aneyrysm in 1999, and now mostly just sit here in my shell, I am not a very good person to evaluate gay relationships, having had so few of them in the past seven years, not of choice, but out of health reasons. But, I retort, "touche! and all that rot; I am not now nor was I ever in a position to evaluate heterosexual relationships all that well either." Regards the high cost of justice -- either way -- in the USA these days, truely this case will cost plenty of money for the winners and the losers. On that topic -- the cost of justice -- I am sort of qualified to speak: we Episcopalians (and by far, we are not the poorest church body in the USA) are getting eaten alive by legal fees already established by lawyers (read, $475 per *hour*) in the liberal Episcopalian vrs. conservative Anglican battle currently going on; a battle we are told will last at least through September over our property rights in Virginia and elsewhere, all on account of that damned gay bishop in New Hampshire. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 18:08:23 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you substitute the word 'black' for > the word 'homosexual' in your comments above, (which is how _many_ but > not all GLBT activists would have you handle it) perhaps you can see > the problem. Not comparable. Black people marry exactly the same way white people do. But heterosexual mating is (mathematically provably) different from homosexual mating. Look up "stable-marriage theorem." eHarmony is being asked to provide a fundamentally different type of service, not merely provide the same service to a wider range of people. If they tried to provide it, there would be immediate (and valid) complaints that they're not doing it competently. Their software would probably perform very poorly (again, look up the relevant theorems). I don't think gay activists would actually support this lawsuit if they thought about the probable consequences: (a) eHarmony moves to Texas and continues as usual but no longer contributes to California's economy. (b) Gay activists come to be viewed as enemies of personal liberty. Until now, they wanted freedom to do their own thing; now they seem to want to take freedom away from people different from themselves. (c) Legislators conclude the California anti-discrimination law is too broad, stamping on personal liberties, and decide to narrow it. If somebody wants to set up a same-sex matchmaking bureau, why not do so, and take advantage of the lack of competition from eHarmony? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, they already have. Without making any references to eHarmony except in a very veiled, obscure way, this televison commercial for chemistry.com (? I think ?) seems to imply they want GLBT business. Regards your (b) and (c) above, gay activists are typically liberal Democrats, and liberal Democrats tend to have no problem with taking away personal liberties. The gay activists who, conversely, are conservative Republicans -- and yes there are a few -- spend most of their time merely explaining themselves to whoever will listen. They by and large will say they are 'traditional Republicans' but they object to the party's evangelical religous leanings in recent years. And then, there are the gay activists who are libertarian either with an upper case /L/ Libertarian (as in political party membership) or lower case /l/ libertarian (as in general philosophy and sympathies but without formal party membership). I place myself in this latter category. Geeze, I could start an entire mailing list/newsgroup on this topic, and I wish I had some help from gay activists one way or the other on it. But, as Ralph Blair (founder and head of the gay religious group *Evangelicals Concerned*) phrases it, "There is overall so much hated and building of agendas in the world these days. Everyone has their own agenda, and refuses to listen to the agendas of anyone else." On that topic -- agenda building and protecting -- he is absolutely, one hundred percent correct. If anyone wants to read what I believe is a _comprehensive_ 'gay rights' view on things, I suggest they go to my web site for same: http://gaynews.n3.net . And this discussion on the eHarmony lawsuit is getting a lot of coverage in the gay press. Lots of GLBT people hate me for 'allowing' all these views to be present in my daily newspaper. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:34:02 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets John Mayson wrote: > On Thu, 31 May 2007, Reuters News Wire wrote: >> World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station >> in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an >> erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. > Someone explain something to me. > Why would the price of a raw material go up due to a refinery fire? > It'd be like the price of wheat rising on news of a fire at a Wonder > Bread factory. I could see the price of gasoline rising, but not oil. > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not really, since there is a more than > ample supply of wheat with which to make more bread, but oil is a > somewhat more limited substance. And, refineries do more with crude > oil than simply make gasoline. How about all sorts of 'petroleum-based' > by-products? PAT] I think that is a good question. Perhaps the competition says, "hey, buy us more oil so we can make a run at the marketplace while that refinery is down." Thus bidding up the price of crude. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:04:35 -0500 From: John Mayson Subject: Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, John Mayson wrote: > On Thu, 31 May 2007, Reuters News Wire wrote: >> World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station >> in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an >> erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. > Someone explain something to me. > Why would the price of a raw material go up due to a refinery fire? > It'd be like the price of wheat rising on news of a fire at a Wonder > Bread factory. I could see the price of gasoline rising, but not oil. > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not really, since there is a more than > ample supply of wheat with which to make more bread, but oil is a > somewhat more limited substance. And, refineries do more with crude > oil than simply make gasoline. How about all sorts of 'petroleum-based' > by-products? PAT] Let's say we have 10 refineries and each can handle 10 barrels of oil per day (this is a very simplisitic example). So everyday the market sells 100 barrels of oil to the 10 refineries. One of the refineries goes offline. Now the market can only supply 90 barrels, but still has the capacity to supply 100. My understanding of supply and demand would say the price should fall since the supply remained the same, but the demand fell. However on the opposite end of the refinery, I could understand the price of GASOLINE rising because the supply fell 10%. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 00:46:23 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , John Mayson wrote: > On Thu, 31 May 2007, Reuters News Wire wrote: >> World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station >> in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an >> erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. > Someone explain something to me. > Why would the price of a raw material go up due to a refinery fire? > It'd be like the price of wheat rising on news of a fire at a Wonder > Bread factory. I could see the price of gasoline rising, but not oil. Because the amount of oil being 'sold' on the market is _many_times_ higher than the actual volumes delivered. Many operations buy and sell oil 'futures' to protect themselves against changes in the price of various kinds of refined products -- especially when they do not have the ability to buy/sell futures on the particular product they require. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:16:10 -0500 From: John Mayson Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Jax wrote: > As a former Time-Warner Technical Support employee, I will have to say > no, this can't be done with just the eMTA (that's the phone modem.) It > is possible to get this working with additional hardware/software that > others have suggested, but beware - Time-Warner will not troubleshoot > this connection, since it is not an ordinary phone jack and therefor > beyond their scope of work. If you had any problems getting this to > work, or keeping it working ... the only place you could go for help > is a forum - assuming others have tried this and succeeded. I'm not all that interested in a "hard" solution. :-) As a consumer, I think offering the ability to make calls on my home number from my home phone, computer, or wifi phone would rock!! > Also, in our division at least, the service goes out A LOT. It is not > the most reliable to say the least ... You'd be amazed at how much we, > as a culture, have come to assume that when you pick up the phone > there will always be a dialtone. If you have gotten Digital Phone, > please leave that notion at the door ... and try not to get too > frustrated with Tech Support -- they're there to help ... If the service > goes out too much for you to handle, then cancel it. No harm, no foul. Which is exactly why I refused to drop Southwestern Bell/SBC/at&t for so many years. When I lived in Florida we had a hurricane that took out our electricity and cable TV (the power came back on days before CATV, that's how I knew CATV went out) but good ole BellSouth kept our phones going. My decision is strictly financial. Right now we have at&t telephone, rabbit ears, and Road Runner. For LESS money we can have digital phone, digital cable TV, and Road Runner. Even after the introductory pricing it's still a small savings. I have called/emailed at&t practically begging them to get DSL out this way. They have service literally three streets over. I understand the technical barriers of DSL, but given we're a somewhat affluent neighborhood, it seems like it'd be worth their while to install the necessary equipment to get this section online. But 5 years have gone by ... Since we all have cell phones, our home phone has become somewhat superfluous. > I know it sounds unrelated, but I am trying to do something similar > but without phone service at all. I want to hook my computer, cell > phone, and house phone (which has no dialtone) all to run off of > Bluetooth technology, but I'm running into a lot of road blocks. > Phreaking just isn't as easy as it used to be. No it's not. I can think of a lot of projects I'd love to tackle, but these days it can't be done (or the cost is too prohibitive). John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ 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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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 V26 #155 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 3 00:12:45 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C1BF922E3; Sun, 3 Jun 2007 00:12:44 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #156 Message-Id: <20070603041244.C1BF922E3@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 00:12:44 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 3 Jun 2007 00:13:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 156 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Acquires Web Media Distributor Feedburner (Eric Auchard, Reuters) Life Online (Monty Solomon) For Pornographers, Internet's Virtues Turn to Vices (Monty Solomon) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Curtis R Anderson) Re: More Old Movie Phone Scenes (Curtis R Anderson) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (Tom Horsley) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:34:52 -0500 From: Weix Auchard, Reuters Subject: Google Acquires Web Media Distributor Feedburner By Eric Auchard Google Inc. said on Friday it is acquiring Feedburner Inc., bolstering the Internet advertising leader's capacity to distribute both media and advertising to blogs via Web syndication technology. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, a Google spokesman said. Various blog reports in recent weeks had put the price of a potential deal at about $100 million, but those reports could not be confirmed. Feedburner is a pioneer in the market for delivering the latest updated information to other Web sites using technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Customers include the Wall Street Journal, BBC and Amazon.com Inc.. "We're constantly looking for ways to identify and offer new tools for content creators and Website publishers," Susan Wojcicki, Google's vice present of product management, said in a blog post, adding that the purchase helps it provide new tools for its hundreds of thousands of advertising customers. Feedburner also offers analytics to help Web publishers understand who reads their sites, as well as embedded advertising allowing Web site publishers to get paid based on the audiences they attract via RSS feeds. The deal, while small in financial terms, is the latest in a series of rapid moves to consolidate the fast-growing online advertising market. The deal would expand Google's existing blog advertising service, known as AdSense for feeds, which delivers targeted advertising tied to Web page content. Two weeks ago, Google rival Microsoft Corp. announced its largest-ever acquisition, a $6 billion deal to buy aQuantive Inc., the largest independent online ad company. In April, Google agreed to acquire an Quantive competitor, DoubleClick, for $3.1 billion. Feedburner, based in Chicago, counts more than 430,000 Web site publishers as users of RSS. A total of 736,000 RSS feeds, including roughly 110,000 audio or video feeds, are delivered to readers as publishers update their Web sites, according to Feedburner. Feedburner was funded by venture capital firms Mobius Venture Capital, Portage Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Union Square Ventures. 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: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 01:19:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Life Online Here and Now : Life Online http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/06/20070601_17.asp Hasan Elahi is an assistant professor of art at Rutgers University whose entire life is available at his web site: Tracking Transience. He says he was inspired by his own experience post 9-11 when his Palm Pilot helped prove his whereabouts to the FBI who considered him a person of interest. Guests: Hasan Elahi Related Links: http://elahi.org http://trackingtransience.net http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/herenow/2007/06/hn_0601.rm?start=34:40 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 13:43:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For Pornographers, Internet's Virtues Turn to Vices By MATT RICHTEL June 2, 2007 The Internet was supposed to be a tremendous boon for the pornography industry, creating a global market of images and videos accessible from the privacy of a home computer. For a time it worked, with wider distribution and social acceptance driving a steady increase in sales. But now the established pornography business is in decline - and the Internet is being held responsible. The online availability of free or low-cost photos and videos has begun to take a fierce toll on sales of X-rated DVDs. Inexpensive digital technology has paved the way for aspiring amateur pornographers, who are flooding the market, while everyone in the industry is giving away more material to lure paying customers. And unlike consumers looking for music and other media, viewers of pornography do not seem to mind giving up brand-name producers and performers for anonymous ones, or a well-lighted movie set for a ratty couch at an amateur videographer's house. After years of essentially steady increases, sales and rentals of pornographic videos were $3.62 billion in 2006, down from $4.28 billion in 2005, according to estimates by AVN, an industry trade publication. If the situation does not change, the overall $13 billion sex-related entertainment market may shrink this year, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, the magazine's publisher. The industry's online revenue is substantial but is not growing quickly enough to make up for the drop in video income. Older companies in the industry are responding with better production values and more sophisticated Web offerings. But to their chagrin, making and distributing pornography have become a lot easier. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/technology/02porn.html?ex=1338436800&en=be6f7a83f149ccbd&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:19:01 -0400 From: Curtis R Anderson Organization: Gleepy's Chaotic Henhouse Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Jax wrote: > Also, in our division at least, the service goes out A LOT. It is not > the most reliable to say the least ... You'd be amazed at how much we, > as a culture, have come to assume that when you pick up the phone > there will always be a dialtone. If you have gotten Digital Phone, > please leave that notion at the door ... and try not to get too > frustrated with Tech Support -- they're there to help ... If the service > goes out too much for you to handle, then cancel it. No harm, no foul. In our Buffalo, NY radio market, I hear numerous ads for Verizon plugging "it's always on when you need it." At another point in the hour on the same (Citadel Broadcasting owned) station, listeners were treated to an ad from Time Warner Cable plugging their services. While on my lunch break at work, the television station we watch had an ad for satellite televison services. In clear earshot of our service manager and IT person, I mutter "I'll be impressed enough with satellite when I can get high speed, low latency internet service!" I got a good chuckle out of her! A coworker of mine groused about Time Warner's high download but low upload speed of his cable internet service. He lives too far away from one of the Niagara Falls central offices to have Verizon for DSL. DSL works for us at home. It works flawlessly for our landlord living below us in the flat. I like getting these services from a phone company who understands the concept of having a duty to continuously provide service. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:19:01 -0400 From: Curtis R Anderson Organization: Gleepy's Chaotic Henhouse Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > The cable channel TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is excellent. It shows > great old movies. Many of the films were very well written and > produced. In B&W, the artful use of lighting and shadows to create > mood is excellent. > The film "The Night Holds Terror" (1955) was about a kidnapping. At > the end of the film they're waiting for the kidnappers to call with > the ransom demand. The victim's wife (who would get the car) was told > she must stall them as long as possible to trace the call. > The call came, and the scene switched to the phone company central > office, showing technicians checking various Strowger switch units. > Other units were still running. Then they showed the service center > and lookups in the tub file (a file of each line and its repair > history). Very realistic. I wanted to ask a film question quite recently, and I'm glad this was brought up. I remember seeing in 1985 on TV some kind of thriller where the phone company technicians were tracing calls through a panel switch. I remember seeing the selector rod rise up as the technicians were scrambling to find the bad guy. This one was in color, if I remember correctly. I would spend time some years after that trying to find a VHS copy of that film to have, just to see that panel in action. Without knowing the name of the film, it was hard enough to try to find. And this was many years before I even heard of the Telecom Digest. Does anyone know the name of the film I'm thinking of? 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Might you be thinking of the movie called 'Tandem Rush' which was about a very sick phreak who enjoyed killing people 'over the phone' who he felt had been 'discourteous' to him? There was a central office scene similar to your discription in it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tom Horsley Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:30:25 GMT On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:01:30 -0400 mc wrote: > Well said! The spam-filtering and antivirus industries have often struck me > as enemies disguised as friends. They rely on spam and viruses to continue, > so they can continue selling us their technological solutions to human > problems. And as near as I can tell, the only difference between anti-virus software and an actual virus is that you pay money to deliberately infect your system with anti-virus software which will render it sluggish and useless just like the viruses it claims to protect you from. (Or with the recent Norton debacle in China, will completely break your computer). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but the way you can almost always guarantee a virus-free computer is by putting up with that sluggishness while the virus checker thing literally examines the entire page you are atempting to download. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't, it would seem. 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. 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #156 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 4 22:30:45 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7386122EC; Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:30:45 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #157 Message-Id: <20070605023045.7386122EC@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:30:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:31:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 157 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Online Porn Merchants Dodge Internet Dragnet (Reuters News Wire) MySpace to Seek Court Help to Release Predator E-Mails (Kenneth Li,Reuters) House Panel Sets Hearing on Internet Gambling (Reuters News Wire) Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too) (Monty Solomon) iPhone TV Ads (Monty Solomon) Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine (Monty Solomon) Apple Announces iPhone Release Date (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Fred Goldstein) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Jax) Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions (Mark Atwood) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:47:26 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Online Porn Merchants Dodge Internet Dragnet China's Internet police have claimed tangible results in the "people's war" against online pornography with the help of tip-offs, but they only scratched the surface, state media reported on Tuesday. A month-long crackdown against online porn sponsored by 10 ministries had shut down 300 Web sites and deleted 10,200 links to pornographic Web sites and 10,000 online "porn games," the China Daily said, citing the Ministry of Public Security. "Determined to protect their huge profits, porn distributors will do anything to avoid detection," the paper quoted Li Baozhong, an official with the General Administration of Press and Publication, as saying. "They are becoming more and more insidious," Li said. In April, Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a campaign to rid the country's unruly Internet of "unhealthy" content and make it a platform for Communist Party doctrine. China's burgeoning Internet population reached 137 million in 2006, up 23 percent on the year before. But despite a vast system of filters and tens of thousands of Internet monitors employed to wipe out salacious content and ideas contrary to Communist ideology, pornography remains prevalent in Chinese cyberspace. "It is a constant battle to uncover the latest tricks," Li said, adding that the country's banking regulator had been recruited to cut off porn operators' funding channels. Li said a new system regulating Internet content and limiting the amount of time the nation's youth could spend online was expected to be launched next month. China in April released a string of regulations aimed at curbing excessive online-game playing to curb Internet addiction in the nation's youth, including a real name and identity registration system, but within weeks, newspapers had printed articles about the ease of subverting the regime. 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, 04 Jun 2007 20:52:24 -0500 From: Kennth Li Subject: MySpace to Seek Court Help to Release Predator E-Mails By Kenneth Li News Corp.'s MySpace filed a request on Monday in a Pennsylvania state court to seek guidance on how it can legally provide local authorities with the private e-mails of convicted sex offenders who had lurked on its service. A federal law prevents Internet service providers such as MySpace from turning over a user's electronic communications without a search warrant. But obtaining search warrants is difficult for offenders not currently under investigation. The request comes after some U.S. state authorities, including Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, began seeking more information on convicted sex predators who they worry could be using MySpace to find child victims. "We got the court order from Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett, which we can't comply with," MySpace general counsel Mike Angus said in a phone interview. The resolution is seen as a test case for how local U.S. authorities and MySpace can cooperate in sharing information without violating federal law. MySpace and a coalition of U.S. attorneys general reached an accord in May on how the Web service could turn over information on convicted offenders who register on its site. MySpace said it has deleted their profiles from its service, but retained their information in its database. MySpace has provided the profiles of offenders, such as names and addresses, a process made easier after it contracted background verification company Sentinel Tech Holdings last year to develop a national database of registered sex offenders. Before the database's launch in early May, sex offender data was collected on a local level, making nationwide searches difficult. However, MySpace has not provided private e-mail correspondence, citing legal restrictions. The service, popular among teens as young as 14 years old and young adults who share their interest in music and new bands, has been the target of adult predators over the past year. U.S. state authorities began investigating the service after several teens fell prey to adult predators posing as minors. The families of several teenage girls, who said they were sexually assaulted by MySpace members, sued the service in January for failing to do enough to protect its members. MySpace said it is restricted from complying with the Pennsylvania AG's demands as the federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit prevents the disclosure of electronic correspondences before obtaining a search warrant. "The 9th Circuit has determined that ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986) requires a search warrant to produce private messages and unfortunately, in some cases, this is proving difficult," Angus said. "Absent an existing investigation, having the name of a registered sex offender isn't enough to produce a search warrant." It is now up to the state courts to decide whether disclosing the private communications of its members is legally sound. "We want Attorney General Corbett to get this information to provide them with whatever they need to use in their investigation," Angus said. But, "We don't want the information to become tainted." Angus said MySpace has provided e-mail correspondence of sex offenders to the Pennsylvania court, leaving it up to the court to release the information at its discretion. MySpace filed the request in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on Monday morning. 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/internet-news.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:54:31 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: House Panel Sets Hearing on Internet Gambling A U.S. House of Representatives panel said on Monday it will hold a hearing on Friday to look at Internet gambling, which is effectively banned in the United States. The hearing will examine whether Internet gambling can be regulated to protect consumers and the payments system, said the House Financial Services Committee. Committee Chairman Barney Frank introduced a bill in April that would repeal an effective ban on online gambling imposed last year by Congress. The Massachusetts Democrat said the ban was "imprudently adopted" and the pastime is "a matter of individual freedom." Frank's bill would make it legal again for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. The bill includes provisions for licensing and regulating online gambling companies to protect against underage gambling, compulsive gambling, money-laundering and fraud. The Internet gambling payments ban was signed into law last October by President George W. Bush. It has been closely monitored by investors in some British-based gaming companies, such as PartyGaming Plc. Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:45:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too) By JOHN MARKOFF The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO, June 3 - During an onscreen demonstration of the iPhone in Apple's sprawling retail store here recently, an employee, clad in a black T-shirt, of course, surprised a potential customer. Nonplused, the customer stammered, "You mean it's a cellphone, too?" Such is the spell that Steven P. Jobs has cast on the American consumer. It has been almost six months since Mr. Jobs, the world's consummate salesman, introduced the iPhone as the Ronco Veg-O-Matic for the Internet era. Tongue only partly in cheek, Mr. Jobs promised that Apple's entry into the cellular handset market would be a better phone, Web browser and music player. Mr. Jobs succeeded in building expectations for what some have called "the God machine." The bar-of-soap-size phone is being coveted as a talisman for a digital age, and iPhone hysteria is beginning to reach levels usually reserved for video-game machines at Christmas. Although the phones are expected to cost as much as $600 when they go on sale at Apple and AT&T stores later this month, each company has received more than a million inquiries about the product's availability. Apple disclosed in television commercials Sunday night that the phone would be released June 29. Further evidence that expectations have been wound up to a fever pitch: the phones, or promises to deliver a phone, are already on sale on eBay for $830. A pundit as unlikely as Arianna Huffington sought out Mr. Jobs directly for advice on being the first to score a phone. (He told her to go to an AT&T store.) Last week, during an appearance at a technology industry conference in Southern California, Mr. Jobs teased the audience by briefly pulling an iPhone out of his jeans pocket and immediately slipping it back out of sight. The anticipation, which is intense even by Jobsian standards, has led to some quiet, behind-the-scenes anxiety at Apple. Some Apple executives worry privately that expectations for the one-button phones may be too high and that first-generation buyers will end up disappointed. Certainly there are skeptics. The high price will limit the phones' appeal to true believers. The cellular network that the iPhone operates on is slower than those of many of its rivals. Several of Apple's handset competitors hope that its decision not to include a keyboard, relying instead on a touch-screen virtual keyboard, will limit the attractiveness of the iPhone in text-intensive business markets. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/technology/04iphone.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 09:35:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: iPhone TV Ads http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 16:25:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine By SAUL HANSELL The New York Times June 3, 2007 Mountain View, Calif. THESE days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere. It takes pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit books in India, charms its way onto Madison Avenue, picks fights with Hollywood and tries to undercut Microsoft's software dominance. But at its core, Google remains a search engine. And its search pages, blue hyperlinks set against a bland, white background, have made it the most visited, most profitable and arguably the most powerful company on the Internet. Google is the homework helper, navigator and yellow pages for half a billion users, able to find the most improbable needles in the world's largest haystack of information in just the blink of an eye. Yet however easy it is to wax poetic about the modern-day miracle of Google, the site is also among the world's biggest teases. Millions of times a day, users click away from Google, disappointed that they couldn't find the hotel, the recipe or the background of that hot guy. Google often finds what users want, but it doesn't always. That's why Amit Singhal and hundreds of other Google engineers are constantly tweaking the company's search engine in an elusive quest to close the gap between often and always. Mr. Singhal is the master of what Google calls its "ranking algorithm" -- the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer each user's question. It is a crucial part of Google's inner sanctum, a department called "search quality" that the company treats like a state secret. Google rarely allows outsiders to visit the unit, and it has been cautious about allowing Mr. Singhal to speak with the news media about the magical, mathematical brew inside the millions of black boxes that power its search engine. Google values Mr. Singhal and his team so highly for the most basic of competitive reasons. It believes that its ability to decrease the number of times it leaves searchers disappointed is crucial to fending off ever fiercer attacks from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft and preserving the tidy advertising gold mine that search represents. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html?ex=1338523200&en=f003aaab287c0a72&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 12:23:01 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Apple Announces iPhone Release Date USTelecom dailyLead June 4, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hbuMfDtusXsHrrCibuddmbCe TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Apple announces iPhone release date BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon files suit against suspected "spammer" * Deutsche Telekom narrows search for T-Systems partners * Motorola CEO: Company will rebound with multimedia handsets * AT&T offers bundled services in San Diego County * Unwired launching prepaid wireless broadband * Verizon to take on Cox in Rhode Island USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Secure Your Optical Network FoundationTuesday, June 5, 1 p.m. (ET) HOT TOPICS * Incoming AT&T chief sees possibilities in overseas buys * TV over phone lines: How does it compare? * AT&T offers smallest QWERTY BlackBerry * Windstream to buy CT Communications * VeriSign signs up new leadership TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Ericsson lands 5-year field-maintenance contract * Analysis: Position FMC as complement to broadband, mobile services * NXP announces home-Wi-Fi module for HDTV IP DOWNLOAD * Opinion: Heavy lifting ahead for IPTV REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Ofcom OKs doubling power output of broadband-wireless base stations EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hbuMfDtusXsHrrCibuddmbCe ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:21:17 -0400 From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:19:01 -0400, Curtis R Anderson wrote, > In our Buffalo, NY radio market, I hear numerous ads for Verizon > plugging "it's always on when you need it." At another point in the > hour on the same (Citadel Broadcasting owned) station, listeners were > treated to an ad from Time Warner Cable plugging their services. Clever. Of course at the same time, Verizon is flogging its FiOS product, which, like Time Warner's PacketCable, uses local battery. Old-fashioned POTS uses central office power, of course, but many lines now are served by digital loop carrier systems, which have their own local batteries whose backup isn't as strong as a CO's. I don't know if it's always the case, but PacketCable is generally provided via an "embedded multimedia terminal adapter" -- a phone adapter -- built into a cable modem that contains some hours of battery backup. Older cable telephony systems, like the one Comcast is phasing out here in the Boston area (but RCN is keeping), are powered by batteries on the poles. That service has proven quite reliable over the years. My service was off for a few minutes, after midnight, a couple of weeks ago; it turned out to be scheduled system maintenance. Of course if you care about the phone's working during a power failure, don't rely on a cordless phone with its mains-powered base. > ... I like getting these services from a phone > company who understands the concept of having a duty to continuously > provide service. So would I, but your DSL comes from Verizon. And on a separate note, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Might you be thinking of the movie > called 'Tandem Rush' which was about a very sick phreak who enjoyed > killing people 'over the phone' who he felt had been 'discourteous' > to him? There was a central office scene similar to your discription > in it. PAT] I cannot find anything about that movie anywhere except here. It is not in IMDB, and googling it doesn't turn up any references to it except by Pat. Are you sure that's the name? Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: Jax Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:14:56 -0000 Organization: http://groups.google.com On Jun 1, 9:19 pm, Curtis R Anderson wrote: > Jax wrote: >> Also, in our division at least, the service goes out A LOT. It is not >> the most reliable to say the least ... You'd be amazed at how much we, >> as a culture, have come to assume that when you pick up the phone >> there will always be a dialtone. If you have gotten Digital Phone, >> please leave that notion at the door ... and try not to get too >> frustrated with Tech Support -- they're there to help ... If the service >> goes out too much for you to handle, then cancel it. No harm, no foul. > In our Buffalo, NY radio market, I hear numerous ads for Verizon > plugging "it's always on when you need it." At another point in the > hour on the same (Citadel Broadcasting owned) station, listeners were > treated to an ad from Time Warner Cable plugging their services. > While on my lunch break at work, the television station we watch had > an ad for satellite televison services. In clear earshot of our > service manager and IT person, I mutter "I'll be impressed enough with > satellite when I can get high speed, low latency internet service!" I > got a good chuckle out of her! > A coworker of mine groused about Time Warner's high download but low > upload speed of his cable internet service. He lives too far away from > one of the Niagara Falls central offices to have Verizon for DSL. > DSL works for us at home. It works flawlessly for our landlord living > below us in the flat. I like getting these services from a phone > company who understands the concept of having a duty to continuously > provide service. EXACTLY!!!!! TWC continues to increase the download capability, but refuses to expand it's upload speeds ... WTF?!?!?! Ok, so I can download faster from my friend ... but it doesn't really matter because he can't upload any faster!!!! Again, this is from a former employee ... in San Antonio, at least, most of the people I came in contact with HATED working where they were because of the horrible business practice, but couldn't walk away due to the free cable bill ... sad really ... I'm seriously considering DSL, my father has worked for SBC, now AT&T for about 30 years now and has always tried to get me to go that route ... I think it may be about time ... On Jun 1, 7:16 pm, John Mayson wrote: > On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Jax wrote: >> As a former Time-Warner Technical Support employee, I will have to say >> no, this can't be done with just the eMTA (that's the phone modem.) It >> is possible to get this working with additional hardware/software that >> others have suggested, but beware - Time-Warner will not troubleshoot >> this connection, since it is not an ordinary phone jack and therefor >> beyond their scope of work. If you had any problems getting this to >> work, or keeping it working ... the only place you could go for help >> is a forum - assuming others have tried this and succeeded. > I'm not all that interested in a "hard" solution. :-) > As a consumer, I think offering the ability to make calls on my home > number from my home phone, computer, or wifi phone would rock!! >> Also, in our division at least, the service goes out A LOT. It is not >> the most reliable to say the least ... You'd be amazed at how much we, >> as a culture, have come to assume that when you pick up the phone >> there will always be a dialtone. If you have gotten Digital Phone, >> please leave that notion at the door ... and try not to get too >> frustrated with Tech Support -- they're there to help ... If the service >> goes out too much for you to handle, then cancel it. No harm, no foul. > Which is exactly why I refused to drop Southwestern Bell/SBC/at&t for so > many years. ****I'M NOT SURE WHAT YOUR DISCLOSURES WERE WHEN YOU SIGNED UP!!!!! But they were supposed to tell you not to cancel your "normal, analog- land line" (because it is more reliable, honestly). Keep a few things in mind ... consider this: You're in Austin, so I'll assume you may have a home security system. If your CABLE goes out -- FOR WHATEVER REASON!!!! EVEN A DRUNK ON 6th STREET HITTING A POLE!!!! Your phone has no dial tone ... until that pole is repaired ... so this means that the police are on their way, thinking there is a problem, due to your alarm being offline. *ADT has a program with our division to upgrade for a "low price" but it's still unnecessary considering all technology up until now has worked with the "current phone system", and ADT is the only company offering this, that I know of.....additionally, if someone tried to put a splitter (a normal frickin' splitter!!!) on your coax cable line that goes to your modem, you could lose dial tone ... also, you can't move the modem to a new room, this is also the same with Road Runner though ... The batter back up is a joke, because ... I know this isn't a reasonable question but: How many times do you think your power goes out and your cable still works? It's a difficult thing to check, since your TV won't work without power ... but ... think about it ... I tried to buy into the whole Time-Warner mindset ... thinking that this was the company of the future, but it's a little ahead of it's time, due to the fact that they don't test their systems, equipment or databases nearly enough to make them effective in a live CONSUMER environment. To prove this point even further, the past MULTIPLE Pay Per View events have had problems ... the IT department was aware of these problems and never did anything to FIX them (I know because I was in direct contact with many individuals who worked in IT)... they simply "wished for the best" ... until the worst happened ... then the phone reps, and customers paid the price ... Sadly, the motto of Time Warner Cable is not to be on the CUTTING EDGE, but to be on the BLEEDING EDGE, defined by the President of our division to be: Always ahead of technology ... so much so, that our technology is out BEFORE IT'S PERFECTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This makes the employees take a huge hit when all this crap doesn't work, and frustrates consumers who expect a dial tone that's been there for countless decades ... or a HD picture that doesn't suck more than analog TV. I think my point is that TWC is a horrible company and should not be supported ... Call DirecTV or Dish, whoever is in your area and tell them you're a "Winback customer", this means that you're THINKING about coming from another provider and will prompt them to give you the VERY BEST DEALS you can get ... quite honestly. > When I lived in Florida we had a hurricane that took out our > electricity and cable TV (the power came back on days before CATV, that's > how I knew CATV went out) but good ole BellSouth kept our phones going. > My decision is strictly financial. Right now we have at&t telephone, > rabbit ears, and Road Runner. For LESS money we can have digital phone, > digital cable TV, and Road Runner. Even after the introductory pricing > it's still a small savings. I have called/emailed at&t practically > begging them to get DSL out this way. They have service literally three > streets over. I understand the technical barriers of DSL, but given we're > a somewhat affluent neighborhood, it seems like it'd be worth their while > to install the necessary equipment to get this section online. But 5 > years have gone by ... > Since we all have cell phones, our home phone has become somewhat > superfluous. Then cancel digital phone, call, and ask for the RETENTION department, they're the ones who give you the world for only pennies a day ... you can get Road Runner for $29.95 for a year in some cases, without getting a trio "package", if internet is all you're concerned with ... I canceled my Digital Phone for the same reason you cite though ... I have a cell phone. Again, my father has worked for SBC for over 20-30 years and just got DSL 2 years ago in his neighborhood ... up until then, he had Road Runner for internet, Dish for TV and SBC for phone. > No it's not. I can think of a lot of projects I'd love to tackle, but > these days it can't be done (or the cost is too prohibitive). > John Mayson > Austin, Texas, USA Indeed, I must agree with that. ~Jax PS, don't know if I mentioned before, but I'm in the San Antonio division, so we're not that far away as far as technology goes ... actually, I think both divisions work out of Austin. PPS, sorry for the lengthy response. heh ... ------------------------------ Subject: Re: eHarmony Sued For Discriminatory Actions From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:36:42 GMT Fred Atkinson writes: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Gay, or LGBT persons may wish to get >> in touch with attorney Todd Schneider in San Francisco in inquire >> about being added to the pending lawsuit. PAT] > I don't understand why the LGBT community would want someone who > is not well qualified to evaluate the dynamics of their relationships > to be providing such a service to them. It would probably turn into a > disaster (because of shortcomings in such unqualified evaluations) and > result in a lot more lawsuits from people being 'mismatched' because > of those shortcomings. Those lawsuits would probably be far more > justified. I *am* a member of (and lord help me, even a leader of sorts) in the "LGBT Community", and I have to agree with Fred. Relationships are the most personal of things, and forcing someone to take part in them, when they expressly don't want to, is worse than counter productive. Who brought this lawsuit, and what where they smoking when they did it? Mark Atwood When you do things right, people won't be sure me@mark.atwood.name you've done anything at all. http://mark.atwood.name/ http://fallenpegasus.livejournal.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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #157 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 5 15:45:59 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8688E227B; Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:45:58 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #158 Message-Id: <20070605194558.8688E227B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:45:58 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:46:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 158 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson "Amateur" Charges Infuriates Blogosphere (Eric Auchard, Reuters) A Telephone Museum in Texas (PRN Newswire) Selling City Halls on Wireless as a Utility (Candace Lombardi) Nacchio Attorneys File for New Trial (Reuters News Wire) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Avaya Snapped up by Private-Equity Firms (USTelecom dailyLead) June Share Day (TELECOM Digest Editor) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:34:40 -0500 From: Eric Auchard, Reuters Subject: "Amateur" Charges Infuriates Blogosphere By Eric Auchard Internet culture, often portrayed as the vanguard of progress, is actually a jungle peopled by intellectual yahoos and digital thieves, according to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-dissenter. Andrew Keen, a 47-year-old Briton who founded dot-com era music startup Audiocafe, argues that basic notions of expertise are under assault amid a cultural shift in favor of the amateurism of blogs, MySpace and other popularity-driven sites. "Millions and millions of exuberant monkeys ... are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity," Keen writes in a book published Tuesday. His views have infuriated bloggers and others, especially in Silicon Valley, who argue he is an elitist intellectual, a conservative pining for a return to old ways, and a writer who cannot keep his facts straight. The villains in Keen's narrative are a "pajama army" of mostly anonymous writers who spread gossip and scandal, "intellectual kleptomaniacs," who search Google to copy others' work and the "digital thieves" of media content in the post-Napster era. For a technology industry used to basking in the glow of self-promotion, Keen's work is shocking for its unforgiving view of Silicon Valley's utopian aspirations. The book "is designed as a grenade," Keen, a native of north London who now lives in California, said at a recent debate with bloggers and journalists in Berkeley. "It is not designed to be particularly fair or balanced." The title of his polemic, "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture," attacks what he calls the "cut and paste" ethic of Web users, who he says are robbing professionals of their livelihoods. The Web allows anyone to post their most intimate thoughts, views or even outright lies, without any editing, under the assumption that the crowd will correct any mistakes. Keen calls for efforts to balance out the Web's powers of instant publishing against society's need for accountability. COUTERATTACK Some of the biggest names in Internet publishing are hitting back against Keen, including video blogger Robert Scoble, media critic Jeff Jarvis, citizen journalism advocate Dan Gillmor and blog pioneer Dave Winer. Jarvis, on his blog BuzzMachine, refers to Keen's thinking as "Snobs.com." He recently asked readers to advise him whether he should bother to debate Keen or shun him. The outcome was that the two have agreed to debate online. But some would-be detractors find themselves sticking up for Keen, at least for his ideas, if not his bombastic tone. Clay Shirky, a lecturer on new media technology at New York University, came spoiling for a fight with Keen at a recent online politics conference in New York. Instead, Shirky says he found himself defending Keen. "So much of the conversation about the social effects of the Internet has been so upbeat that even when there is an obvious catastrophe ... we talk about it amongst ourselves, but not in public," Shirky wrote in a blog post afterward. INTELLECTUAL-FREE ZONE? Keen, for his part, rejects any notion that he is a modern Luddite out to break the machinery of the Web. He keeps up a regular dialog with friends and opponents at his blog at http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/. He points to intellectual influences such as German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt, known for her work on the nature of totalitarianism and the "banality of evil," and Jurgen Habermas, the German philosopher who defined the concepts of the private and public spheres in politics. "The price we pay for the growth in egalitarianism offered by the Internet is the decentralized access to unedited stories. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus," Habermas said in a 2006 speech. Keen first staked out his views in a 2006 magazine article in the Weekly Standard magazine, and in online debates since then has won some supporters, who say they too have second-thoughts about the Web's ultra-democratic ethos. "If I ever need surgery, I damn sure hope my surgeon is one of the elite in his field," one disgruntled blogger wrote. 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: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:46:50 -0500 From: PRN Newswire Subject: A Telephone Museum in Texas Verizon Ensures Telecom History Lives On Deep in the Heart of Texas One of Two Original Alexander Graham Bell Telephones Still in Existence Are Part of Museum Exhibit to be Donated by Company to Fort Concho Museum in San Angelo. SAN ANGELO, Texas, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine years before Alexander Graham Bell successfully tested his new invention by calling out, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," to his assistant, Thomas Watson, West Texas settlers and the Fourth U.S. Cavalry established Fort Concho to defend against hostile enemies who rode the range on horseback. Much as Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876 changed the way the world communicates, the formation of Fort Concho in 1867 along the banks of the Concho River dramatically shaped how the mighty Texas frontier was settled. And now, thanks to Verizon, Fort Concho, 140 years after its creation, will be the permanent home for one of the most famous telephones ever made, along with a collection of other historical pieces of telephone equipment, photos and memorabilia of Texas telephone pioneers who paved a path for future industry leaders. This Saturday (June 9), Verizon will transfer to the city of San Angelo ownership of the antique telephone equipment and related artifacts that make up the E.H. Danner Museum of Telephony. The city manages the museum, housed inside former officers' quarters at Fort Concho, which is listed as a National Historic Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Verizon Roots Run Deep in Texas "Verizon's predecessor-company roots run long and deep in the heart of Texas, and we're very proud of our positive, long-standing relationship with the city of San Angelo," said Trinidad Aguirre, senior vice president and general manager f1or Verizon Communications' Texas division. In 2000, GTE Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. merged to form Verizon, but for many years the headquarters for the then-General Telephone Company of the Southwest was based in San Angelo. Today San Angelo is home to more than 1,400 Verizon employees, the second-highest concentration of company employees in the Lone Star State. Aguirre, who began his career in 1980 as a central office technician in San Angelo, calls the E. H. Danner Museum - named on behalf of former General Telephone Company of the Southwest president E.H. Danner -- a "lasting legacy to the pioneer spirit that formed our great state and our great company." "I am a true believer that San Angelo people have the capability to do anything they aspire to do," said Aguirre. He will be joined by officials from the Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, San Angelo, Concho Valley Telephone Pioneers Association and the Fort Concho Museum at an 8:30 a.m. outdoor ceremony at the Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, 630 S. Oakes St., to commemorate the Verizon donation as part of the annual Fort Concho Frontier Day celebration. "We know the historical items that trace our industry and company's past are in good hands, and future visitors to the E. H. Danner Museum of Telephony will enjoy walking and talking down memory lane," Aguirre said. In addition to possessing one of the two known models of Bell's Gallows Frame telephone still in existence, the museum features other novel items such as a Kellogg single-position manual magneto switchboard from 1910; an 1898 solid oak hotel lobby telephone; the Independent Telephone Pioneers Association Hall of Fame, which features photos and biographies of former company leaders; and a personal collection of former GTE Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rocky Johnson's career memorabilia. For years, Johnson worked in San Angelo. Verizon Investment in San Angelo Museum Tops $250,000 to Date; Museum Assets Top $100,000 Since 1990 when the E. H. Danner Museum was rededicated at its present location at Fort Concho, Verizon has invested more than $250,000 to establish, maintain and operate the telephone museum. The museum telephone equipment and related artifacts are valued at more than $100,000, according to Verizon. Much has changed since Bell transmitted those first well-known words via telephone after accidentally spilling acid in his Boston workshop and reaching out for help to Watson, who was in another room; but some things remain the same, said Aguirre. "In Alexander Graham Bell's day, people didn't have the convenience we have now of picking up the phone and knowing we can speak to a friend or family member during even the worst of thunderstorms, thanks to our network reliability," said Aguirre. "The one constant that remains through the years is the need for people to communicate. No matter when or how people communicate - either by landline or wireless phone; a local or long-distance call; an e-mail, text or video message - Verizon helps people enjoy life and be productive by connecting with others." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:49:42 -0500 From: Candace Lombardi, News.com Subject: Selling City Halls on Wireless as a Utility Candace Lombardi, for News.com NEWTON, Mass.--At this week's MuniWireless New England conference, leaders in municipal broadband are extolling the benefits of their technology to urban officials. But is the pitch falling on deaf ears? On Monday morning, "MuniWireless 101" panelists said that high-bandwidth broadband infrastructures become public safety tools for law enforcement and first responders, help alleviate costs for public schools, aid the rising population of telecommuters, back future entertainment for personal computers, and support public wireless networks. The U.S. isn't exactly in the lead when it comes to building such infrastructures, though. Some at the two-day conference here pointed to Asian countries that compete economically with the U.S., such as India and Malaysia, as being far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to building high-bandwidth broadband infrastructure nationwide. "Is it happening? Yes. Is it happening in the U.S.? No. I'm sorry to say it's a bloody mess," said Ken DiPietro, the chief technology officer of NextGen Communications. Access to high-capacity broadband service is one of the benefits of public wireless networks, but there are numerous others. DiPietro said that the popularity of the Joost video-on-demand program, for example, points to an inevitable switch to Internet Protocol television, or IPTV, in lieu of traditional broadcast television and that such a change will put even more strain on broadband networks unless they are built to be upgradeable every three to five years. Panelists also cited the rise of telecommuting and businesses' increasing use of bandwidth-eating video conferencing technology as justification for municipalities building, or beefing up, wireless networks. Some uses mentioned were more exotic. Cisco Systems, for example, is offering relatively inexpensive options for telepresence technology, which uses a highly sensitive interface to allow humans to remotely control devices as if they were present at the remote location. But for such a system to work, "you still need the continuous bandwidth to go with it," DiPietro said. For cash-strapped municipalities, however, the main issue is price. "I am from a town with 25,000 people. How can we do this for free without using any tax dollars?" asked one municipal leader. The question provoked a visible smiles and audible sighs among the panelists -- and chuckles from the audience. That's because the question embodied one of the issues that the industry is up against: convincing municipalities to invest. "It comes down to: Do you consider it a service or a utility? I consider it a utility," said Ash Dyer, a researcher at MIT involved in program in Cambridge, Mass., to bring wireless to 95 percent of the city. Dyer suggested that both companies and municipalities should look at past government models in this instance. He cited the U.S. highway infrastructure built under the Eisenhower administration as one model the federal government should consider adopting. "They built stretches of highway in the middle of nowhere, between major areas and cities and then told them 'OK, you have to build your stretch if you want to be connected,'" Dyer said. "As hard as this is going to be, you need to bite the bullet and pay or your town is going to get left behind," DiPietro said. He pointed out that many business plans are set up so that the municipalities do make money from their investment after three years. Michael Dillon, director of digital communications for IBM, offered a more diplomatic answer. "Don't try to build it all at once. Poll your citizens and businesses, and see if it's something they are open to investing in," he said. Panelists said they saw a lack of leadership at the federal level as one of the challenges they face in getting towns and cities interested. Dillon and DiPietro said the Federal Communications Commission should step up its involvement, while Dyer suggested that a federal department of telecommunications should be established. "We don't have a federal broadband policy," Dillon said. "It's a lot easier for federally based countries, such as Malaysia, to decree or establish policy." Copyright 2007 CNET, Inc. For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html (or) http://telecom-digest/org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:55:36 -0500 From: Retuers News Wire Subject: Nacchio Attorneys File for New Trial Attorneys for former Qwest Communications International Inc. CEO Joe Nacchio filed motions Monday for an acquittal, a new trial and a change of venue in his insider trading case. His attorneys said the jury that convicted him on 19 of 42 counts in April was exposed to public attacks on Nacchio. A judge has denied a request for acquittal twice before. Another court filing Monday indicated that Nacchio has agreed to put $52 million in escrow for possible forfeiture. Nacchio will be sentenced July 27 and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each guilty count. He also might be asked to pay back the $52 million he was said to have grossed as a result of the insider trading. Qwest Communications International Inc. http://www.qwest.com Copyright 2007 Reuters, Inc. ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 11:35:28 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 05, 2007 ******************************** Debitel Pays US$756 mil. for TDC's German Unit http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24738?11228 TDC has agreed to sell its wholly-owned German mobile services provider, Talkline, to its local rival, Debitel, for 560 million euro in cash on a debt-free basis. The transaction is subject to approval from the EU competition authorities. TDC expects to make an after-tax gain of 3.3 billion Danish kroner (US$598 million), which will be ... Swedish Telecom Equipment Maker Ericsson to Buy Germany's LHS http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24730?11228 STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- LM Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless networks, said Tuesday it has offered to buy Germany's LHS AG in a deal that values the billing and customer care software company at around E310 million (US$418 million). Ericsson will pay E22.50 (US$30.33) per share under an agreement by which it ... Silver Lake, TPG Capital to Buy Telecom Avaya for $8.2B in Cash http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24727?11228 BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey -- TPG Capital is embarking on its second big telecom venture in two weeks, joining with another private equity firm, Silver Lake, in an $8.2 billion (E6.08 billion) bid for Avaya Inc. Avaya said Monday night that it has agreed to the firm's offer of $17.50 in cash per share, two weeks after ... France Telecom Eyes An Indian Market Entry http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24725?11228 France Telecom (FT), in what would be its first foray into the hot Indian telecom market, is reportedly negotiating to buy the enterprise and managed services division of India's GTL. GTL put the unit, which represents about 20-25 percent of the company in revenue terms, up for sale in order to focus on its core network services ... Survey: Ala Carte Value Vexes Consumers http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24721?11228 Only 53 percent of consumers surveyed by Forrester Research Inc. said they would be interested in getting their cable programming via ala carte, a business and TV pricing model the cable industry strongly opposes despite heavy duty pushing by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin. Although it might ... Aepona & Appium: SDP Minnows Merge http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24719?11228 Two of the service delivery platform (SDP) market's specialist vendors, U.K. firm AePona Ltd. and Sweden's Appium AB , are merging in an effort to increase their chances of picking up more carrier business in an increasingly competitive market. Malm-based Appium, the smaller of the two companies, will become a ... Wanted: Virtual Desktop Services http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24717?11228 What if the service provider that offers you online backup could provide ready-to-use desktop configurations, enabling you to set up and manage desktops and laptops without having to touch the users' machines? If you think it sounds attractive, you're not alone. We are seeing a lot of interest around desktop ... North American Home Network Support Service Market to Double in 2007 http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24714?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The increasing popularity and increasing complexity of home networks will spur a doubling of fee-based home network support subscriptions in North America in 2007, reports In-Stat. Home networks are still primarily set up by tech-savvy consumers for themselves, their family, and their friends; however, consumer ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 12:17:06 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Avaya Snapped up by Private-Equity Firms USTelecom dailyLead June 5, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hcjIfDtusXsMuGCibuddGIeD TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Avaya snapped up by private-equity firms BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Si TV says it will launch first 24/7 Latino HD channel * Google, SK Telecom enter into advertising agreement * Ericsson plans LHS buy * Stake in Hanarotelecom for sale USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Wiley Rein Conference only at NXTcomm TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Cincinnati Bell converts voice mail into text * Redback rolls out new multiservice edge router * Nortel secures GSM contract * Ringtone sales eclipsed by mobile games IP DOWNLOAD * Verizon Business enables VoIP for Windows Live calls REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * India adopts do-not-call list Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hcjIfDtusXsMuGCibuddGIeD ------------------------------ Subject: June Share Day Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:04:58 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) I would like to ask you all, once again, to PLEASE consider the importance of newsgroups such as this one and the importance in making regular donations to help keep this medium available for all. Your donations are always appreciated and gratefully recieved. Please use the PayPal box on our main page http://telecom-digest.org PLEASE! Thanks. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #158 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 6 16:01:31 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 146FC227D; Wed, 6 Jun 2007 16:01:31 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #159 Message-Id: <20070606200131.146FC227D@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 16:01:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 6 Jun 2007 16:00:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 159 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Deadbeat Parents to be Named on Web Site (Reuters News Wire) Union Protest Planned for Bell Canada Shareholders (Nigel Allen) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) DSL Subscribers up 29% to 200 Million (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets (Scott Dorsey) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (John Mayson) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (rws_usa@yahoo) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Scott Dorsey) A Desparate Situation Here (TELECOM Digest Editor) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 12:15:54 PDT From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Deadbeat Parents in UK to be Named on Web Site Absent parents who fail to make child support payments could find themselves on a name and shame Web site as part of the UK government's plans to shake up the Child Support Agency (CSA). Letters will go out to about 100 single parents, mostly mothers, asking if they want to give the go-ahead for the name of the child's father to go online. The measure is just one of many the government has announced as it prepares to replace the CSA next year with the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC) after 13 years of computer problems and missed payments totaling up to 3.5 billion pounds. Other measures planned under the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill include the removal of passports and the imposition of curfews on those who refuse to pay maintenance. The commission will also be able to deduct cash direct from maintenance dodgers' bank accounts and charge absent parents for the cost of tracking them down. Parents will be encouraged under the new system to come to private agreements on financial support for children when they separate, rather than being required to comply with officially set maintenance arrangements, as the CSA does. But critics described the name and shame approach as "gimmicky." They also questioned the possible effect on children whose parent has been publicly named and shamed. The CSA already has extensive powers, they add, including access to accounts and the right to sell the home of non-paying parents. Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said the powers will beef up maintenance collection and act as a deterrent against non-payment. "There are a small number of parents who seem to think that paying for their kids is something they can simply choose not to do -- it isn't -- and these new powers will mean that non-payment brings real and lasting penalties. The new rules, he added, will be simpler and more transparent, making it harder to hide income. 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 *** 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, For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 22:13:29 -0400 From: Nigel Allen Subject: Union Protest Planned for Bell Canada Shareholders The following press release was issued by the Canadian Telecommunications Employees' Association, the union which represents clerical staff (but not technicians or operators) at Bell Canada. I do not work for or belong to the CTEA, but I thought that the press release might be of interest. Text of the press release can be found at http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/05/c9089.html Protest at Bell Canada Shareholders' meeting MONTREAL, June 5 /CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Telecommunications Employees' Association (CTEA) will attend BCE Annual Meeting of Shareholders to protest against the slashing of benefits for future pensioners and the outsourcing of jobs. "Bell's strategy is clear: cutting costs at the expense of its employees, protested Line Brisson, Chairman of the CTEA Bargaining Committee. But the Company won't get back on track by slashing the working conditions of employees." In 2005, clerical employees accepted wage freezes to help the Company face the competition. In exchange, Bell had signed a memorandum of agreement on job security. "Bell Canada is taking all possible means to bypass the memorandum of agreement and increase outsourcing: reduced work hours, cutting temporary jobs, closing sites... Our members feel they have been cheated", added Mrs. Brisson. In 2006, the speech on the abusive use of outsourcing delivered by Danny Taurozzi, CTEA Vice-President, before Michael Sabia, President of BCE, had been applauded by several shareholders. The BCE Annual Meeting will be held on June 6, 2007 in Montreal. "Once again, we will be there to speak on behalf of our members and denounce the unfair decisions of senior management. The shareholders must be told what's going on", concluded Mrs. Brisson. About the CTEA: The CTEA is an independent union certified in the 1940s by the Canadian Labour Relations Board to represent employees of Bell Canada. Over the years, the CTEA has been certified as the bargaining representative for several groups of employees working for employers such as Comtech, Bell Aliant, ACMS (Amdocs), Télébec S.E.C., Yellow Pages Group, and Bell ICT Outsourcing Solutions inc. For further information: In Quebec: Line Brisson, CTEA Vice-President, (514) 861-9963 ext. 233, Fax: (514) 861-5985, lbrisson@acet-ctea.com; In Ontario: Brenda Knight, CTEA President, (613) 521-3289, Fax: (613) 521-3267, bknight@acet-ctea.com; http://www.acet-ctea.com ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communications Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 11:52:48 -0400 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 06, 2007 ******************************** VimpelCom Makes It Two Out of Three as Second Court Backs Its URS Purchase http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24761?11228 The Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia has upheld the legality of the 2005 purchase of Ukrainian RadioSystems (URS) by VimpelCom. The move had been driven by Altimo, now a 42.2% voting shareholder in VimpelCom, and opposed by Telenor, currently a 29.9% shareholder in VimpelCom. The Supreme Court ruling supports several previous rulings ... Orange Signs Preliminary Agreement for Acquisition Of Ya.com http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24759?11228 French mobile group Orange, part of France Telecom, has signed a preliminary agreement with German incumbent Deutsche Telekom for the acquisition of the latter's Spanish unit, Ya.com, according to the Spanish daily, Expansión. Under the terms of the agreement, Deutsche Telekom will be obliged not to offer broadband services in ... Jyngle Rings for Social Networkers http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24755?11228 Online social networking is a great idea, but only if it's easy and convenient for people to do. Because they're both portable and ubiquitous, mobile phones are perhaps the best online social networking tools. Brevient, a software development company headquartered in Milwaukee, wants to take advantage of mobile phones' social ... E-Mail Senders Can Pay to Bypass Filters http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24753?11228 NEW YORK -- Four more Internet service providers will start charging banks, e-commerce sites and other large e-mail senders for guaranteed delivery. In deals expected to be announced Thursday, Goodmail Systems Inc. is expanding its CertifiedEmail program to Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc.'s ... HTC Launches Touch http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24748?11228 Mobile Phone manufacturer HTC has launched an iPhone competitor, the HTC Touch. A Microsoft Mobile-based handset, the Touch uses HTC's TouchFLO navigation system -- consumers simply sweep their finger up the display to launch an animated, 3-dimensional interface. User can reorient the interface by swiping a finger right or left ... Bazalgette's Mobile Dis-Content http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24745?11228 MONTE CARLO, France -- Mobile Entertainment Market 2007 -- Big content providers say mobile operators must open up their networks and simplify data tariffs to make the mobile entertainment market grow. "Two years ago we thought the mobile industry was the perfect place to put content," says Peter Bazalgette, chief ... Packaged Approach to E-Discovery http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24740?11228 With CIOs facing ever-increasing legal and compliance pressures, vendors are cranking up their efforts to solve firms e-discovery woes. Today SAN specialist Xiotech unveiled its first email archiving and e-discovery system, Corporate Evidence Management System (CEMS), which captures and classifies electronic files. Recent ... Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 12:33:29 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: DSL Subscribers up 29% to 200 Million USTelecom dailyLead June 6, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hdcofDtusXsQnqCibuddQpxS TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * DSL subscribers up 29% to 200 million BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * AT&T adds on to GoPhone prepaid offering * Verizon Business enters supply-chain-automation sector * Alcatel-Lucent wins Chunghwa Telecom order for optical-network solutions * Aepona, Appium plan merger * Former Cisco executive to head Joost * Telefonica to invest billions in Latin America USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Experience What's Hot at NXTcomm! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Siemens tests 1Gbit/s over plastic fiber * IBM announces new mobile chipset * Report lists major mobile trends of 2007 * Examination of Apple TV components reveals slim profit margins IP DOWNLOAD * Optus rolls out VoIP services to SMB market REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Virginia county considers proposal to increase broadband access EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hdcofDtusXsQnqCibuddQpxS ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Web Site Error Rocks Global Oil Markets Date: 6 Jun 2007 11:19:46 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) John Mayson wrote: > On Thu, 31 May 2007, Reuters News Wire wrote: >> World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station >> in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an >> erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site. > Someone explain something to me. > Why would the price of a raw material go up due to a refinery fire? > It'd be like the price of wheat rising on news of a fire at a Wonder > Bread factory. I could see the price of gasoline rising, but not oil. Because it's an open market, and people will buy oil with the expectation that gasoline prices will rise and therefore they can get more for the raw material. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but markets are based on human behaviour, and human behaviour often doesn't make a lot of sense. I _can_ see some exceptions here, though. For example, if a refinery that specializes in catalytic cracking of heavy oil into light oil is down, I could imagine the prices on light oil could rise. Telecom content? Not so much, since you can't hoard telecom services. --scott ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 19:42:31 -0500 From: John Mayson Reply-To: John Mayson Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Organization: http://www.mayson.us On Mon, 4 Jun 2007, Jax wrote: > ****I'M NOT SURE WHAT YOUR DISCLOSURES WERE WHEN YOU SIGNED UP!!!!! > But they were supposed to tell you not to cancel your "normal, analog- > land line" (because it is more reliable, honestly). Keep a few things > in mind ... consider this: My wife made the call, but why would they tell us to keep our existing line if we're signing up for their service? > You're in Austin, so I'll assume you may have a home security system. > If your CABLE goes out -- FOR WHATEVER REASON!!!! EVEN A DRUNK ON 6th > STREET HITTING A POLE!!!! Your phone has no dial tone ... until that > pole is repaired ... so this means that the police are on their way, > thinking there is a problem, due to your alarm being offline. *ADT has > a program with our division to upgrade for a "low price" but it's > still unnecessary considering all technology up until now has worked > with the "current phone system", and ADT is the only company offering > this, that I know of.....additionally, if someone tried to put a > splitter (a normal frickin' splitter!!!) on your coax cable line that > goes to your modem, you could lose dial tone ... also, you can't move > the modem to a new room, this is also the same with Road Runner > though ... Today we don't have cable television, just Road Runner. The last time I know of it being down was Thanksgiving weekend 2005. AFAIK our POTS has NEVER been down, but a pole getting hit could take out my phone just as easily as my CATV. > The batter back up is a joke, because ... I know this isn't a > reasonable question but: How many times do you think your power goes > out and your cable still works? It's a difficult thing to check, since > your TV won't work without power ... but ... think about it ... I see what you're saying, but getting out of bed in the morning is dangerous. "What if my digital phone doesn't work and I've managed to cut my arm off with a circular saw?" I could also worry about a meteorite hitting my house. > I tried to buy into the whole Time-Warner mindset ... thinking that > this was the company of the future, but it's a little ahead of it's > time, due to the fact that they don't test their systems, equipment or > databases nearly enough to make them effective in a live CONSUMER > environment. To prove this point even further, the past MULTIPLE Pay > Per View events have had problems ... the IT department was aware of > these problems and never did anything to FIX them (I know because I > was in direct contact with many individuals who worked in IT)... they > simply "wished for the best" ... until the worst happened ... then the > phone reps, and customers paid the price ... I can't say if they test their systems or not. I can say they're knowlegable, friendly, and responsive. > Sadly, the motto of Time Warner Cable is not to be on the CUTTING > EDGE, but to be on the BLEEDING EDGE, defined by the President of our > division to be: Always ahead of technology ... so much so, that our > technology is out BEFORE IT'S PERFECTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This > makes the employees take a huge hit when all this crap doesn't work, > and frustrates consumers who expect a dial tone that's been there for > countless decades ... or a HD picture that doesn't suck more than > analog TV. They've offered digital phone in this area for several years. I know people who have it and love it. I think they have gotten their bugs worked out. > I think my point is that TWC is a horrible company and should not be > supported ... Call DirecTV or Dish, whoever is in your area and tell > them you're a "Winback customer", this means that you're THINKING > about coming from another provider and will prompt them to give you > the VERY BEST DEALS you can get ... quite honestly. Back in 2002 when I ordered Road Runner they said I could have their wireless for free. For months we were never charged for it, but all of sudden it showed up on the bill at $14.95 a pop! I called them and they said it was not free and I shouldn't have been told that. I insisted I was. They said they would review my call. A couple of days later I got a call from them saying they reviewed the call and I had in fact been told that. They offered me free wireless for the next 12 months!! After that I returned their equipment and bought my own. I think that was pretty good of them. >> When I lived in Florida we had a hurricane that took out our >> electricity and cable TV (the power came back on days before CATV, that's >> how I knew CATV went out) but good ole BellSouth kept our phones going. >> My decision is strictly financial. Right now we have at&t telephone, >> rabbit ears, and Road Runner. For LESS money we can have digital phone, >> digital cable TV, and Road Runner. Even after the introductory pricing >> it's still a small savings. I have called/emailed at&t practically >> begging them to get DSL out this way. They have service literally three >> streets over. I understand the technical barriers of DSL, but given we're >> a somewhat affluent neighborhood, it seems like it'd be worth their while >> to install the necessary equipment to get this section online. But 5 >> years have gone by ... >> Since we all have cell phones, our home phone has become somewhat >> superfluous. > Then cancel digital phone, call, and ask for the RETENTION department, > they're the ones who give you the world for only pennies a day ... you > can get Road Runner for $29.95 for a year in some cases, without > getting a trio "package", if internet is all you're concerned > with ... I canceled my Digital Phone for the same reason you cite > though ... I have a cell phone. I do that. But it's a PITA. I don't want to have to call them every 3, 6, 12 months to get the best deal. I'm tired of it. > Again, my father has worked for SBC for over 20-30 years and just got > DSL 2 years ago in his neighborhood ... up until then, he had Road > Runner for internet, Dish for TV and SBC for phone. I want to send a message to AT&T. I know one of my neighbors has been pinging them about getting DSL in our half of the neighborhood. It's simply drug on too long. Maybe as they lose customers they'll get their butts in gear and offer the rest of us service. This was one of their promises to the Feds with respect to the SBC-AT&T and BellSouth-AT&T merger. They would offer DSL throughout their entire service area. I don't know what the timeline on that was, but I've called them since they became AT&T in Texas and they have no plans to offer DSL where I live. >> No it's not. I can think of a lot of projects I'd love to tackle, but >> these days it can't be done (or the cost is too prohibitive). >> John Mayson >> Austin, Texas, USA > Indeed, I must agree with that. > ~Jax > PS, don't know if I mentioned before, but I'm in the San Antonio > division, so we're not that far away as far as technology > goes ... actually, I think both divisions work out of Austin. > PPS, sorry for the lengthy response. heh ... Next time tell me how you REALLY feel. :-P I could be on c.d.t. in a couple of months telling you that you were right. I don't know. I figure it's worth a shot trying the service. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: rws_usa@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:41:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I found your discussion here by doing a search looking for a possible explanation for the decrease in spam I've received over the last several days -- about 90%. I was receiving approx. 100-150 per day, now about 10-15. Cool! ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: 6 Jun 2007 11:23:11 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Curtis R Anderson wrote: > I remember seeing in 1985 on TV some kind of thriller where the phone > company technicians were tracing calls through a panel switch. I > remember seeing the selector rod rise up as the technicians were > scrambling to find the bad guy. This one was in color, if I remember > correctly. > I would spend time some years after that trying to find a VHS copy of > that film to have, just to see that panel in action. Without knowing > the name of the film, it was hard enough to try to find. And this was > many years before I even heard of the Telecom Digest. > Does anyone know the name of the film I'm thinking of? Three Days of the Condor? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Subject: A Desparate Situation Here Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:27:46 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) I am totally out of money. Period. I have no money today at all, and for someone who hangs on desparately from one day to the next, things are really bad at this time. I am about to have my cable internet cut off for lack of payment. If anyone can spare any change, please send it now. Thanks very much. Use PayPal box on http://telecom-digest.org 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #159 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 8 02:48:39 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 417A722B1; Fri, 8 Jun 2007 02:48:39 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #160 Message-Id: <20070608064839.417A722B1@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 02:48:39 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 8 Jun 2007 02:49:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 160 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Congress Approves Second, Stricter Anti-Spyware Law (Reuters News Wire) Vietnamese Fishermen Salvage Internet Cable (Reuters News Wire) Telephone Service Out in Barrie, Ontario (Jim Willis) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Vodafone Shareholder Group Calls for Verizon (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail (T) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:06:39 -0500 Subject: Congress Approves Second, Stricter Anti-Spyware Law From: Reuters News Wire The House of Representatives passed on Wednesday legislation that would impose new requirements on software companies and advertisers to protect computer users from spyware. House lawmakers approved an anti-spyware bill that would require software distributors to clearly notify and obtain consent from consumers before programs can be loaded onto a computer. The bill passed on a vote of 368 to 48. The legislation is opposed by the software industry, which argues that new regulatory requirements could hurt innovation and technology investment. The industry favors an alternative bill, passed by the House last month, that would impose specific penalties for the fraudulent use of spyware but would not adopt new regulations. Lawmakers in the Senate have yet to take up the issue. Spyware has emerged as a major headache for computer users. It can end up on users' computers through a virus or through downloaded games or other free programs off the Internet. Spyware can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. Scam artists can also use spyware to capture passwords, account numbers and other sensitive personal data. 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: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:04:11 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Vietnamese Fishermen Salvage Internet Cable Fishermen who were allowed to take unused war-era undersea copper cables have gone too far, "salvaging" fibre-optic lines providing some of Vietnam's Internet and other international communications. A Ministry of Posts and Telematics report seen on Thursday urged authorities in central and southern regions to prevent the theft of cable, whose loss underdeveloped Vietnam can ill afford. "The general assessment is that most fishermen, and in some cases even the local authorities, had a very simple understanding of the consequences of the theft of under-sea fibre optic cable," the report on a May 31 to June 5 investigation said. State-run newspapers said an 11-km (7-mile) section of stolen TVH fibre-optic cable would be replaced at a cost of $5.8 million. It was part of the line that transmits data from Vietnam to Thailand and Hong Kong. In all, about 43 km (27 miles) of fibre-optic cable is missing, including about 32 km (20 miles) stolen from a cable operated by a Singaporean company. "Now just one undersea cable connects Vietnam with the outside world," Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said. The theft began after the government in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau last year allowed fishermen and soldiers to salvage undersea copper cable laid before 1975 to sell as scrap. The Vietnam war in which the United States backed a South Vietnam government, ended in April 1975 when communist North Vietnam troops captured Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. The permission to salvage the cable has been withdrawn, the ministry has asked the Coast Guard to increase patrols and inspections and officials have started a public relations campaign to educate fishermen about the importance of the cables. 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 ------------------------------ Reply-To: Jim Willis From: Jim Willis Subject: Telephone Service Out in Barrie, Ontario Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:45:20 -0400 Barrie Examiner - http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com Phone service knocked out Local News - Thursday, June 07, 2007 @ 07:00 Thousands of residents in south-end Barrie and parts of northern Innisfil were left without phone service yesterday, after Bell Canada experienced a system failure. In Barrie, the Painswick and Allandale areas were affected. Affected exchanges include 722, 725, 733, and 431. Customers were advised to use cellphones in the event of an emergency. Service is expected to be restored sometime today. ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 11:32:47 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 07, 2007 ******************************** Verizon Business Looks to Asia for Growth http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24781?11228 In an interview with Reuters, Verizon Business's Chief Marketing Officer Nancy Gofus has noted that the division is seeing double-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region, compared with global growth of 2-3%. The company also expects to see "...an acceleration in growth over the next couple of years 'and plans to double' ... Technology Convergence Spurs Media Applications, Practices http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24779?11228 During the last two years, much of the attention on convergence traditionally has focused on its technological aspects: applications, services, devices and networks. However, new research says, the media -- through the accessibility and affordability of enabling technology -- has changed through all recognizable appearances. The ... EU Governments Agree on Lower Roaming Fees http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24776?11228 LUXEMBOURG -- EU governments agreed Thursday on cutting the cost of using mobile phones abroad, the last hurdle for a cap on roaming fees to be introduced later this summer. The law should be adopted by the end of this month, and telecom companies will have one month after that to offer customers a new pricing structure ... Nielsen Launches Wireless Service http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24773?11228 Audience measurement firm Nielsen has announced a mobile media consumption tracking service called Nielsen Wireless. The service, which will be available in the United States in July, hopes to assist wireless carriers, advertisers and entertainment companies in discovering what kinds of media are popular over cell phones. According ... OpenWave Rejects Advances http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24771?11228 Openwave Systems Inc., which late Monday rejected a cash-for-stock offer from Harbinger Capital that would have given the hedge fund a 62 percent stake in the firm, said it has failed to find a buyer after a two-month search led by Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. There had been talk that Sybase Inc. could be waiting in the ... CableLabs Sets PacketCable Deadline http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24769?11228 Cable technology suppliers have until July 13 to respond to a request for information (RFI) issued by CableLabs this week for PacketCable 2.0, an emerging specification and architecture that will enable cable operators to deploy and support a wide range of voice, video, and data services across wired and wireless access technologies. ... HP Vows More Virtualization http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24765?11228 HP has overhauled its Virtual Server Environment (VSE) software as part of an ongoing attempt to lure Sun users onto its server platforms. VSE, which is used to control virtual machines running on Integrity servers, is now being pushed to the forefront of the vendor's virtualization efforts, according to Ute Albert, ... Mobile Handsets Positioned to Radically Change the Navigation Device Market http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24763?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Mobile phone operators now have the ability to market a downloadable navigation application that is just as good as, if not better, than personal navigation devices (PNDs), reports In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com . As a result, handset-based mapping and navigation applications could cause a major change in the ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:20:38 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Vodafone Shareholder Group Calls For Verizon USTelecom dailyLead June 7, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hduofDtusXtucTCibuddpICg TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Vodafone shareholder group calls for Verizon Wireless spinoff BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * France Telecom sells, buys assets * Alcatel-Lucent boosts contract with Vivo * AT&T talks about plans for former BellSouth customers * Alltel announces EV-DO roaming coverage USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * McCormick Urges FCC to Shut Down Unscrupulous Traffic-Pumping Schemes * USTelecom Calls For Interim Universal Service Cap on High-Cost Support TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Broadcom unveils Vista-friendly Bluetooth software * Companies sign up to avoid spam filters * Cisco launches Linksys One managed-services products for SMBs * Nielsen launches wireless-behavior measurement service IP DOWNLOAD * Analysis: IPTV sales to more than double in 2007 REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * EU governments vote to cut roaming fees * Cisco, Qualcomm on opposite sides of Patent Reform Act Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hduofDtusXtucTCibuddpICg ------------------------------ From: T Subject: Re: Top Spammer Arrested; Watch for Decrease in Spam Mail Organization: The Ace Tomato and Cement Company Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 16:42:26 -0400 In article , rws_usa@yahoo.com says: > I found your discussion here by doing a search looking for a possible > explanation for the decrease in spam I've received over the last > several days -- about 90%. I was receiving approx. 100-150 per day, now > about 10-15. Cool! It appears that Cox is doing some upstream filtering for spam since the volume of spam to those accounts I have with Cox has dropped to virtually nothing. In article , tom.horsley@att.net says: > On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:01:30 -0400 > mc wrote: >> Well said! The spam-filtering and antivirus industries have often >> struck me as enemies disguised as friends. They rely on spam and >> viruses to continue, so they can continue selling us their >> technological solutions to human problems. > And as near as I can tell, the only difference between anti-virus > software and an actual virus is that you pay money to deliberately > infect your system with anti-virus software which will render it > sluggish and useless just like the viruses it claims to protect you > from. (Or with the recent Norton debacle in China, will completely > break your computer). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but the way you can almost always > guarantee a virus-free computer is by putting up with that > sluggishness while the virus checker thing literally examines the > entire page you are atempting to download. Damned if you do, and > damned if you don't, it would seem. PAT] I run AVG for anti-virus, POPFile for spam filtering, and use a hardware firewall backed up by Windows Firewall. Hasn't really slowed me down any. ------------------------------ 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #160 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 8 18:51:38 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7C9EC22F0; Fri, 8 Jun 2007 18:49:29 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #161 Message-Id: <20070608224929.7C9EC22F0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 18:49:29 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 8 Jun 2007 18:50:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 161 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers (John Dunbar & Deborah Yao, AP) Cable Tries to Shed Bad-Service Reputation (Yinka Adegoke, Reuters) ITC Bans Imports on Some Handsets With Qualcomm (USTelecom dailyLead) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Phone Books Are Getting Thinner As Cellphones Take Over (John Mayson) Verizon FIOS in Providence (T) Discover's Debt Collectors' Threats Drive Woman To Suicide (John Mayson) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:33:49 -0500 From: John Dunbar, Deborah Yao, AP Subject: Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers By JOHN DUNBAR and DEBORAH YAO, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON - It has been 11 years since Congress voted to break the cable television industry's stranglehold on set-top boxes -- the devices that consumers need to receive digital programming and change channels. So why are you still paying $5 or more a month for that thing on top of your TV? When Congress rewrote the nation's communications laws in 1996, it envisioned a thriving retail market where subscribers could actually buy their own boxes rather than make monthly payments to the cable company in perpetuity. Things haven't quite worked out that way. The retail market for the boxes has failed to materialize, and the cable industry has filed numerous appeals and continued to press a furious lobbying and public relations campaign to make sure it never does, foes say. Come July 1, the gloves come off. After two years of deadline extensions, that's when the Federal Communications Commission will require cable companies to make hardware changes in all new set-top boxes that it hopes will lead to a competitive market. At the center of this melee is FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has opposed cable's requests for another delay. He sees set-top boxes going the way of the black rotary-dial telephone that consumers once rented from the phone company. When the government opened that market, it "led to more innovation and lower prices and better quality phones," he said. "I think the same thing can be true in this (cable box) market as well." The cable industry disagrees. David Cohen, executive vice president of cable giant Comcast Corp. in Philadelphia and its top political liaison, said consumers won't benefit from the change. "I'm not sure it's a piece of technology a consumer needs to own or wants to own," he said. Once a newer set-top box comes out, "Circuit City won't take their old box and give them a refund to get a new model. They have to buy a new box to get the newest and fanciest upgraded technology." The FCC rules will only affect customers with digital cable, a population that has grown steadily. For the first time last year, there were more digital cable subscribers than analog, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the cable trade group. Of about 65 million cable households nationwide, 33 million have digital cable. To jump-start competition, the cable industry will be required to separate the security function inside their digital set-top boxes -- the hardware that ensures customers can only view channels they are paying for -- from the navigation function, which is basically the channel changer. _____________________ The Telecommunications Act of 1996 included a grab bag of provisions that were meant to spark competition and limit regulation in nearly every area of the industry. The set-top box provision was no exception. The law ordered the FCC to "adopt regulations to assure the commercial availability to consumers" of "converter boxes, interactive communications equipment, and other equipment" used to access multichannel video programming such as cable. On June 11, 1998, the agency adopted a two-phase plan to do just that. Set-top boxes distributed by cable companies today contain both security and navigation functions. In the first phase of the plan, the FCC ordered the industry to make the security function separately available by July 1, 2000. That led to the development of the "cable card." The credit card-sized devices house the de-scrambling function and plug into competing boxes, such as the new TiVo Series3, and digital cable-ready televisions, which have a card slot. So far, there's been little competition for competing set-top boxes. Only about 260,000 cable cards have been deployed, according to the NCTA. And they don't always work very well. The second phase begins July 1, when cable providers are banned from providing new boxes that integrate both the security and navigation functions. Existing subscribers can continue to rent their current boxes. The new boxes will have to use the same cable card technology as the competition. The FCC is hoping that forcing cable companies to do that will motivate them to make sure the cards work like they're supposed to. The agency hopes it will eliminate some of the problems that have faced customers like Ken Hornstein, a 36-year-old computer programmer from Vienna, Va. Hornstein rents two cable cards so he can record one show on his TiVo while watching another. But he says one card malfunctioned after installation, requiring a second technician to visit him at home to replace it. The new card stopped working after a month or two, and had to be replaced again. Hornstein said technicians didn't seem to know much about cable cards. "It wouldn't decrypt anything, wouldn't tune any channels," he said. The technicians "don't expect to see cable cards. If they were used to seeing cable cards we wouldn't have that problem." Once cable companies have to use the same security technology as their competitors, the hope is that they'll suffer fewer problems because it will be in the cable companies' interest to keep them free of glitches. ______________________ The cable industry says the new rule will cost it $600 million more a year for new boxes, an expense that will be passed along to customers. One competitor says that figure is vastly overblown. Cable operators also say customers would rather rent their boxes rather than shell out hundreds of dollars to buy them, according to Dallas Clement, senior vice president of product management at Cox Communications Inc. "Is there really a market for these? TiVo is $800 and $13 a month for a two-tuner high-definition digital video recorder," he said. "Us, they pay nothing up front and it's a $10 monthly lease." TiVo, which is now offering a $200 rebate for the Series3, argues that its interface and features are superior to those on digital video recorders offered by cable companies. The dispute between cable and the FCC has been sharper since Martin became FCC chairman in 2005. But one thing they both agree on is that there is an alternative that makes more sense. A technology dubbed "downloadable security" would let cable companies send the security function directly to a computer chip in specially enabled TV or other devices, eliminating the need for cable cards or a box. "I think that kind of a technology is probably feasible and is definitely preferable from a consumer perspective," the FCC's Martin said. "And I think that would be a better result for consumers than having to worry about trying to get a cable card." The problem, he said, has been getting a commitment from the cable industry. "I think that downloadable security would have been preferable if we could have actually gotten a commitment by when this would have been rolled out -- a commitment with penalties if the cable industry failed to meet that deadline," Martin said. Kyle McSlarrow, chief executive of the NCTA, said the FCC requirement has delayed work on the software solution. "Candidly, a lot of that work has been put on hold. There's so much focus now on complying with the integration ban by July 1," he said. Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, doesn't buy that argument. "They've had ten years to solve this problem," he said. "Consumers want a retail marketplace. Retailers want to sell it. Manufacturers want to make it. The cable industry is doing everything they can to preserve their monopoly profits on set-top boxes." Even with the change, the cable industry will still have a distinct advantage over competitors. Unlike the cable company's set-top box, televisions with cable card slots sold at retail and other devices still won't be able to do interactive functions like deliver on-demand and pay-per-view programming. An agreement has yet to be reached between cable and consumer electronics makers on technical standards for interactive technology. The digital cable-ready TVs now in circulation can receive but not transmit data, creating a one-way street that limits their appeal to consumers. Some cable companies have struck agreements individually with manufacturers like Samsung Electronics America. Samsung is testing a two-way digital TV in Milwaukee with Time Warner Cable Inc. but a wider rollout of similar models won't be available until next year, said Stephen Goldstein, director of business development at Samsung Electronics America. Martin said the FCC is debating a petition filed by the consumer electronics companies, including Sony, asking for the next step to ensure that two-way technology will come to pass. "We'll try to move forward on it in a timely basis," he said. "We're trying to get this first deadline in place first." AP Business Writer Deborah Yao reported from Philadelphia. On the web: National Cable and Telecommunications Association: http://www.ncta.com Consumer Electronics Association: http://www.ce.org 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: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:30:55 -0500 From: Yinka Adegoke, Reuters Subject: Cable Tries to Shed Bad-Service Reputation By Yinka Adegoke Even though U.S. cable companies have had success in winning customers with all-in-one packages of video, Internet and phone services, they still struggle with a reputation for poor customer service. Top cable operators such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are expanding their customer service operations to make common complaints -- like waiting all day for the cable guy -- a thing of the past. But analysts say it won't be easy. Cable's service shortcomings are one of the reasons satellite television providers are adding more new customers than cable, even with cable's success in offering competitively priced combined TV, Internet and phone packages. "Satellite leads because they place so much emphasis on customer care," said Tuna Amobi, an analyst at Standard & Poor's. Cable operators have done a much better job in recent years, but they still have a ways to go, he added. Comcast, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, said it plans to hire nearly 6,000 new customer service staff and field technicians this year, after hiring around 6,500 in 2006. The expansion is a drive to keep up with rapid growth. Comcast sold more than 5 million new services to customers last year and expects to sell 6.5 million in 2007. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, said it is also expanding its customer service, in line with a similar rate of growth in products being sold to customers. Annual surveys by J.D. Power and Associates show satellite TV service providers DirecTV Group Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. have a significant lead over cable providers in overall customer satisfaction. Improving customer service has become increasingly important for cable operators as phone rivals Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. have become more aggressive in trying to win over TV customers. AT&T's new chief executive, Randall Stephenson, said he hopes to improve service over time. "Right now the installation time line is very similar to the cable experience," he told Reuters in a recent interview. "All of our technicians are brand new hires, so they're going up the learning curve." Publicly, cable companies say customer service has moved higher on their agenda. For example, Comcast and Time Warner Cable say they have cut things like all-day appointment windows to an average of between two and four hours. But privately, cable operators say customer service is a difficult thing to get right because half the challenge is with perception. They say that while 99 percent of customers get serviced without any problems, it is the ones who have a bad experience who call the media or write to their congressmen. One of the most viewed video clips on YouTube last summer was of a Comcast technician caught sleeping on a customer's couch as he waited more than an hour for his office to verify the installation. Cable operators are emphasizing new services to help improve their image. Comcast has introduced a service called "Dynamic Dispatch," which uses mobile devices and GPS systems to enable up-to-the-minute communications between customer centers and technicians. "Do we want to strive to get better? Absolutely. Are we doing a lot to get better? Absolutely," said Comcast Senior Vice President of Customer Care Suzanne Keenan. As for Time Warner Cable, it offers a Call-To-Meet service in most of its regions: A customer receives a call when a technician is en route, reducing the time customers waste waiting at home. "I would say that over time we have continued to put increasing emphasis on customer care," said Tom Kinney, senior vice president corporate customer care at Time Warner Cable. (Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando) 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: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 12:35:17 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: June 8, 2007 - ITC bans imports on some handsets with Qualcomm USTelecom dailyLead June 8, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/heiYfDtusXtxisCibuddRYLg TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * ITC bans imports on some handsets with Qualcomm chips BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon Business: No immediate plans for more acquisitions * Vodafone repudiates shareholder group's restructuring call * Nokia Siemens building DWDM network for Tele2 * Ericsson to acquire Drutt USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Deloitte CTO Roundtable at NXTcomm TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * NextWave announces WiMAX chipsets * KT, LG-Nortel collaborate on mobile-WiMAX testing lab * Consumers have a growing variety of available Internet services * Akamai Web site offers insight on Internet traffic IP DOWNLOAD * VoIP market burns bright this year REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * AT&T, Verizon ask regulators to reject Google airwave proposal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/heiYfDtusXtxisCibuddRYLg ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 12:03:30 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 08, 2007 ******************************** Forthcoming Qualcomm Equipment Banned from Import to U.S. in Broadcom Spat http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24813?11228 Following last month's US$20-million damages settlement, which could be trebled due to wilful infringement of nine claims in four patents owned by Broadcom, Qualcomm has lost out again in the latest round of patent litigation with rival chip-maker Broadcom. While agreement has been reached in a number of similar patent claims, the ... Regulator Set to Okay FMC Roll-Out in Italy http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24810?11228 Italy's telecoms regulator, AGCOM, is set to lift its ban on fixed-mobile convergence products (FMC) according to a report on the Italian financial daily, Il Sole 24 Ore. AGCOM had barred Telecom Italia and Vodafone from offering their respective FMC products in the market in 2006. The regulator blocked Telecom Italia's attempt ... Up Front: Tethered to the Home http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/110/24803?11228 At the recent National Cable & Telecommunication Association (NCTA) event in Las Vegas, I moderated 'Cable Without Cable: Strategies for the Wild Wireless World', a panel featuring three cable operators -- Rogers, Cox Communications and Time Warner. Having moderated plenty of panels in the wireless space, this was my ... Power Advance Heralds Future of Gadgets That Can be Recharged Wirelessly http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24798?11228 CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announced they had made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly, potentially previewing a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in. The breakthrough, disclosed Thursday in Science ... EU Approves Roaming Caps http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24796?11228 The European Union's 27 governments finalized a law today capping roaming charges for customers using mobile phones abroad. The law caps roaming fees for the first year at 66 cents a minute for making calls and 32 cents for receiving calls abroad. Price caps are scheduled to decrease to 62 cents and 30 cents in the second year and 58 ... Limelight Raises IPO Price http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24791?11228 Limelight Networks LLC filed an updated S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that raises the price of its IPO from the $10 to $12 range to the $12 to $14 range. The exact price will be determined this evening. The number of shares offered will remain the same at 14,400,000. Limelight will begin trading tomorrow ... Vodafone: Time to Scold the Mayo? http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24789?11228 A shareholder group led by investment firm Efficient Capital Structures has sent a letter to Vodafone Group plc  asking the U.K.-based wireless company to sell its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless . The proposed spin-off would return approximately $79 billion to Vodafone shareholders. Vodafone must consider motions like this ... Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ From: T Subject: Verizon FIOS in Providence Organization: The Ace Tomato and Cement Company Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 18:03:11 -0400 Check out this photo set, it's the last few pictures in it. I took the pictures this morning at the corner of DePasquale St and Federal St in Providence, RI. So it's gradually moving its way towards me. Not that I'll be subscribing because I hate Verizon with a passion. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kd1s/sets/72157594534810671/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 16:07:45 -0500 From: John Mayson Subject: Phone Books Are Getting Thinner As Cellphones Take Over http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/brave-new-world/phone-books-are-getting-thinner-as-cellphones-take-over-267233.php "One upon a time if you knew someone's name, you could go to a thing called a "phone book" and look up their phone number and where they lived. As cellphones becomes people's primary telephone, more and more households are canceling their landlines and removing themselves from the phone book." John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 16:08:30 -0500 From: John Mayson Subject: Discover's Debt Collectors' Threats Drive Woman To Suicide http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/debt-collection-abuse/discovers-debt-collectors-threats-drive-woman-to-suicide-267237.php John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: 8 Jun 2007 02:21:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On Jun 4, 5:14 am, Jax wrote: > Again, this is from a former employee ... in San Antonio, at least, > most of the people I came in contact with HATED working where they > were because of the horrible business practice, but couldn't walk away > due to the free cable bill ... sad really ... > I'm seriously considering DSL, my father has worked for SBC, now AT&T > for about 30 years now and has always tried to get me to go that > route ... I think it may be about time ... We all must remember that service provided by a national companies VARIES a great deal from location to location. Most national companies -- cable or telephone -- are conglomerates of once separate companies. Verizon, for example, consists of various former Bell companies, GTE (the "independent") companies, and other pieces. Of all of those, some of them historically were quite good, some not so good. The same applies to cable companies. My local cable company started out as a single independent outfit. It was taken over and resold by numerous players. Frankly, it's not as responsive as when it was independent, but due to the legacy the service is generally satisfactory. It is extremely expensive, though. > The batter back up is a joke, because ... I know this isn't a > reasonable question but: How many times do you think your power goes > out and your cable still works? It's a difficult thing to check, since > your TV won't work without power ... but ... think about it ... Yes, if my power is out, my TV won't work. But in my area I've found that once the power is restored, it takes longer for the cable service to be restored. We have fairly frequent 1-15 minute power outages in the summer. They are a nuisance since most electronic clocks have to be reset. Even ones with battery backup lose a minute or two and need to be reset if exact time is a requirement (like on the VCR). I have never lost phone service, no matter how bad the storm or power. (As mentioned, people with cordless phones -- many these days -- are out of luck). > I tried to buy into the whole Time-Warner mindset ... thinking that > this was the company of the future, but it's a little ahead of it's > time, due to the fact that they don't test their systems, equipment or > databases nearly enough to make them effective in a live CONSUMER > environment. It's not just them. All companies under stockholder pressure to roll out new products and services to bring in associated revenue as quickly as possible. The old regulated monopoly services could do thorough testing. Indeed, the old Bell System was criticized for being too slow with innovations, but they tested new products and services extremely thoroughly before national rollout. That is a big reason I personally am such a Luddite when it comes to new technology. Way too often the salesman (hungry for a commission) and the techies (hungry for glory) promote something new long before it has been thoroughly tested and side issues resolved. (Don't forget a device may "work" but still cause unexpected problems.) Side note -- as to power, the telephone central offices have huge batteries good for some time in case of a blackout, but more importantly, contain big diesel generators (tested regularly) to charge the batteries if the blackout is sustained. Do cable company offices have such generators? Obviously line poles and cell phone antennas do not, but how long (if any) is their battery backup? IMHO, any communications related device should have minimum battery backup for _heavy_ use for at least five hours, preferably eight hours. When you consider the number of external junctions and cell phone antenna sites necessary today, 8-hour heavy duty backup everywhere becomes quite expensive. But it is necessary. ------------------------------ 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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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 V26 #161 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 9 18:59:25 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C25DF22B8; Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:59:24 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #162 Message-Id: <20070609225924.C25DF22B8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:59:24 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:58:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 162 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Jewelry Merchant on EBay Fined $400,000 by New York AG (Paritosh Bansal) Printing Books Online: an Author You Can't Refuse (Robert MacMillan) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Lisa Hancock) Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question (Rick Merrill) Re: Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers (T) Re: Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers (Tom Horsely) Movie Review: Impulse (TELECOM Digest Editor) Cleaning up Some Odds and Ends (TELECOM Digest Editor) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 14:27:29 -0500 From: Paritosh Bansal, Reuters Subject: Jewelry Merchant on EBay Fined $400,000 by New York AG By Paritosh Bansal A jewelry company on eBay Inc. that allegedly bid on its own auctions to illegally drive up prices by as much as 20 percent agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution and penalties, the New York state attorney general's office said on Saturday. Ezra Dweck and employees of his company, EMH Group, placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said. Dweck and EMH Group have also been banned from the online auction industry for four years under the terms of the settlement agreed to by the parties, Cuomo's office said. A lawyer for Dweck and EMH said they had resolved the matter "only to avoid an interminable, costly battle with the AG's office." "EMH and Mr. Dweck did not intentionally encourage any fraudulent bidding," the lawyer said. "A buyback program, which was vetted by two attorneys, was created to give winning bidders an incentive to sell back to EMH certain items." EBay brought the case to the attention of the attorney general's office and helped in the investigation over several months. The world's largest online auction company has been trying to demonstrate to buyers and sellers that it is making aggressive moves to halt fraud on its sites. The announcement of the settlement comes ahead of next week's annual eBay Live conference, when thousands of the company's top sellers gather for a three-day convention in Boston. Executives are expected to highlight various ways the company is cracking down on illegitimate sales practices. An eBay spokeswoman said the timing of the release of the information was decided by Cuomo's office. "We do not tolerate criminal activity and proactively assist law enforcement to prosecute any individual who may try to defraud our users," spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said. Dweck, who sold jewelry on his eBay store called Jewelry by Ezra, often offered shoppers "no reserve" auctions, which do not have a minimum price, the attorney general's office said. But Dweck ensured his employees knew of which auctions to bid at along with a predetermined price, it said. "This scam highlights the growing vulnerability of online auction shoppers," Cuomo said. "Consumers should not have to surf with sharks." 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: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 14:29:59 -0500 From: Robert MacMillan, Reuters Subject: Printing Books Online: an Author You Can't Refuse By Robert MacMillan Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller are among the world's most respected authors, but for a while they had a hard time finding a publisher. Rather than seek a mainstream outlet for racy novels such as "The Black Book" and "Tropic of Cancer," they used the Obelisk Press, a French publishing house started by Jack Kahane to print his own novel. That was the 1930s. Now, a young Henry Miller could use new Internet companies like Blurb.com, i-Universe, Lulu.com or Xlibris to print his book -- and even sell it through their online stores. Gwen Fuller used Blurb (www.blurb.com) to publish her book, "Do Mallet the Suitcase," a collection of spam e-mail arranged as haiku. Among them: "Dude, get all U need/And dragonhead by reckon/She will love you more," and "Just what all men need/C'Mon Baby, Light My Fire/Chat and meet women." Avoiding traditional publishing was a plus for Fuller, 48, a life coach in Menlo Park, California. "There was a process that I was sort of unwilling to get engaged in when there was something that could so immediately deliver a quality book," she said. Blurb requires customers to download its software, which then lets them lay out text and photos. Then they send the specifications to the company, which prints the books in either hardcover or soft. Rates start at $18.95 for one small softcover. Bulk-order discounts start at 10 copies, company founder Eileen Gittins said. "If you order 10 copies, you get a 10 percent discount, 100 copies you get a 15 percent discount," she said. "Over 200, we encourage you to give us a shout." Blurb also allows authors to sell their works on its in-house bookstore, printing copies as new orders come in, and to charge a markup so they can make a profit. The company sends out a check every time an author earns $25 or more. "PEOPLE WHO LOVE TO WRITE" Many people use Blurb for personal projects as well. Michelle Flaherty and her husband Peter received a book made by their daughters with photos of Haunted Acre Woods, the large-scale Halloween display they mount each year at their home in East Falmouth, Massachusetts. "It was the first Christmas gift in I don't know how many years that actually made me cry," she said. "It was so original, so different." While a budding novelist could use Blurb, the company specializes in photo layouts with glossy paper and the look of a "coffee-table" book. Some writers looking to print more literary works are visiting Lulu (www.lulu.com). Lulu, founded by Bob Young, co-founder of software company Red Hat Inc., allows customers to publish school yearbooks, artwork, calendars and many other things -- but especially books. Lulu recoups expenses and takes a 20 percent cut of the profit on a book sale. Mark Wilkerson's biography of Who guitarist and writer Pete Townshend has led him to the brink of a deal with a conventional publisher in Europe. Wilkerson, 37, is an aircraft maintenance planner for UPS, and lives in Prospect, Kentucky -- about as far away from the mainstream publishing world as it gets. Publishers that he pitched rejected him or asked him why he was qualified to write his book, the 618-page "Amazing Journey: The Life of Pete Townshend." "Lulu has been fabulous for me, because what else would I have done?" he said. "I was completely ignorant of the many facets of the publishing industry." Wilkerson sent his book to reviewers, and received positive notices in The Rocky Mountain News, the Chicago Sun-Times and influential music magazine MOJO. The book came to Townshend's attention, and the legendary musician tentatively committed to writing a foreword to the next edition, Wilkerson said. Blurb and Lulu are not the only self-publishing options on the Internet. Xlibris http://www.xlibris.com is a self-publishing company that works in a partnership with Random House's investment unit, and iUniverse http://www.iuniverse.com offers similar services. Both offer more services, with packages from about $300 all the way up to nearly $13,000. Blurb and Lulu are better for enthusiasts, said Scott Flora, executive director of the Small Publishers Association of North America, "If there are people who love to write and they want to see their book in print, this is a good option," he said. 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/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question Date: 8 Jun 2007 02:21:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On Jun 4, 5:14 am, Jax wrote: > Again, this is from a former employee ... in San Antonio, at least, > most of the people I came in contact with HATED working where they > were because of the horrible business practice, but couldn't walk away > due to the free cable bill ... sad really ... > I'm seriously considering DSL, my father has worked for SBC, now AT&T > for about 30 years now and has always tried to get me to go that > route ... I think it may be about time ... We all must remember that service provided by a national companies VARIES a great deal from location to location. Most national companies -- cable or telephone -- are conglomerates of once separate companies. Verizon, for example, consists of various former Bell companies, GTE (the "independent") companies, and other pieces. Of all of those, some of them historically were quite good, some not so good. The same applies to cable companies. My local cable company started out as a single independent outfit. It was taken over and resold by numerous players. Frankly, it's not as responsive as when it was independent, but due to the legacy the service is generally satisfactory. It is extremely expensive, though. > The batter back up is a joke, because ... I know this isn't a > reasonable question but: How many times do you think your power goes > out and your cable still works? It's a difficult thing to check, since > your TV won't work without power ... but ... think about it ... Yes, if my power is out, my TV won't work. But in my area I've found that once the power is restored, it takes longer for the cable service to be restored. We have fairly frequent 1-15 minute power outages in the summer. They are a nuisance since most electronic clocks have to be reset. Even ones with battery backup lose a minute or two and need to be reset if exact time is a requirement (like on the VCR). I have never lost phone service, no matter how bad the storm or power. (As mentioned, people with cordless phones--many these days-- are out of luck). > I tried to buy into the whole Time-Warner mindset ... thinking that > this was the company of the future, but it's a little ahead of it's > time, due to the fact that they don't test their systems, equipment or > databases nearly enough to make them effective in a live CONSUMER > environment. It's not just them. All companies under stockholder pressure to roll out new products and services to bring in associated revenue as quickly as possible. The old regulated monopoly services could do thorough testing. Indeed, the old Bell System was criticized for being too slow with innovations, but they tested new products and services extremely thoroughly before national rollout. That is a big reason I personally am such a Luddite when it comes to new technology. Way too often the salesman (hungry for a commission) and the techies (hungry for glory) promote something new long before it has been thoroughly tested and side issues resolved. (Don't forget a device may "work" but still cause unexpected problems.) Side note -- as to power, the telephone central offices have huge batteries good for some time in case of a blackout, but more importantly, contain big diesel generators (tested regularly) to charge the batteries if the blackout is sustained. Do cable company offices have such generators? Obviously line poles and cell phone antennas do not, but how long (if any) is their battery backup? IMHO, any communications related device should have minimum battery backup for _heavy_ use for at least five hours, preferably eight hours. When you consider the number of external junctions and cell phone antenna sites necessary today, 8-hour heavy duty backup everywhere becomes quite expensive. But it is necessary. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:52:19 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Time Warner Digital Phone Question hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > On Jun 4, 5:14 am, Jax wrote: > > Yes, if my power is out, my TV won't work. But in my area I've found > that once the power is restored, it takes longer for the cable service > to be restored. We have fairly frequent 1-15 minute power outages in > the summer. They are a nuisance since most electronic clocks have to > be reset. Even ones with battery backup lose a minute or two and need > to be reset if exact time is a requirement (like on the VCR). Some VCR reset themselves by reading time on PBS vertical retrace. > I have never lost phone service, no matter how bad the storm or power. > (As mentioned, people with cordless phones -- many these days -- are > out of luck). I have my own UPS -- nowadays cable is a single point of failure for most of us. But if a tree takes out the lines, it's going to take 'em all out! > Side note -- as to power, the telephone central offices have huge > batteries good for some time in case of a blackout, but more > importantly, contain big diesel generators (tested regularly) to > charge the batteries if the blackout is sustained. Do cable company > offices have such generators? Our cable company gave us a tour of the head end in Maynard, MA where they pick up the satellite feeds and they have HUGE battery banks and, yes, a giant diesel generator in the front yard! > Obviously line poles and cell phone antennas do not, but how long > (if any) is their battery backup? IMHO, any communications related > device should have minimum battery backup for _heavy_ use for at > least five hours, preferably eight hours. When you consider the > number of external junctions and cell phone antenna sites necessary > today, 8-hour heavy duty backup everywhere becomes quite expensive. > But it is necessary. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Something I find confusing is my bedroom digital clock which 'sets itself' when power is off. I got the thing at Walmart, plugged it in to test it there at the store, and the digits immediatly zipped around and set themselves on the correct time and date. I do not think it uses a WWV reciever in the clock, and anyway, it does not seem to set the 'seconds', just the hour and minutes, and the day/date. I unplugged it to pay for it and bring it home; then tried it again out of fascination once I got it here. It cost fifteen dollars. Does anyone have any idea how it happens? PAT] ------------------------------ From: T Subject: Re: Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers Organization: The Ace Tomato and Cement Company Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 21:16:32 -0400 In article , ap@telecom-digest.org says... > By JOHN DUNBAR and DEBORAH YAO, > Associated Press Writers > WASHINGTON - It has been 11 years since Congress voted to break the > cable television industry's stranglehold on set-top boxes -- the > devices that consumers need to receive digital programming and change > channels. > So why are you still paying $5 or more a month for that thing on top of > your TV? It's because they don't want people owning the boxes. There are a couple things that motivate them. The first is that if you multiply that little $5 fee by the number of customers they serve, it's a nice littel chunk of change. The second is that if you OWN the box you can reverse engineer it if you so wish. ------------------------------ From: Tom Horsley Subject: Re: Relief in Store for Cable TV Subscribers Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:26:00 GMT On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:33:49 -0500 John Dunbar, Deborah Yao, AP wrote: > "I'm not sure it's a piece of technology a consumer needs to own or > wants to own," As opposed to renting a low-end bottom-of-the-barrel cheap to make piece of junk from the cable company? :-). ------------------------------ Subject: Movie Review: Impulse Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 16:37:51 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Thursday night I came home from eating dinner, and my keeper, Raymond had a new DVD to watch, called 'Impulse'. It was a story about this college age computer programmer who liked writing and spreading viruses. (Not for his own computer, of course, but rather for everyone else's computers. A moody, melancholy guy, he decided to commit suicide. In doing so, he released a lot of evil spirits from his mind and body. These evil spirits learned how to communicate with others of their own kind _and real, human people_ using the computer, you know, using Instant Messenger and Email, IRC, stuff like that. This guy was a computer science major at college, specializing in 'telecom'. He had vast amounts of knowledge in subjects like WiFi, cell phones, land line phones, and the computers behind them. Natually, all this guy's knowledge about these subjects were transmitted on to the evil spirits, and soon they knew how to spread themselves around the world after reading the 'telecom paper' this guy had written. We see signs of the evil spirits learing how to use these computers, with messages saying 'please help me' appearing spuriously on the various terminal screens. Then it appears that no matter what anyone does, the hard drives cannot be cleaned off, and computers boot up with a dreadful movie entitled 'Watch me commit suicide' and the man killing himself. Soon, every computer everywhere was plugged up with these evil spirit viruses, but in particular, all cell phones, landline phones, instant message programs, and land line phones were clogged up with them. How badly plugged up? To illustrate this, a multi-line phone is displayed with the ringing of phone bells in the background and all the lines flashing and going unanswered; people nearby were seated at computer terminals getting nowhere, and a recorded message voice is repeating over and over, "Your call has been received by 911. All operators are busy assisting other callers. Please hold until a 911 operator is available." The obligatory characters included the police and their investigation, of course, the dull college professor who kept denying that evil spirits could exist, two other sort of half-witted college students in the same computer science class, and other assorted characters. One of them found a script, which it was stated, could be run and eliminate the viruses. But it had to be run 'from the server' which as luck would have it, was down in the basement of the 'Computer Science Department' building at the university. 'Crash all the terminals, shut down the servers, load this script then restart it all' is what they had to do. Well, our hero and heroine (two of the college students) decide to try this and they rush to the basement. But alas, they are too late, as the worm-like evil spirit viruses have escaped and are now in the process of infesting the entire internet. They do not say exactly where all this is located, but New York City is implied as the location of 'the university'. As the viruses infest all computers everywhere, we see the results in the form of clogged streets and stalled subways, lights flashing or not working at all. A television news station is telling everyone about this dillema when it, itself suddenly shuts down. Our hero and heroine consult again with the police and are told to flee for their lives, because it appears everyone is following the example of the computer science student and committing suicide. They decide to take that advice and get out of the city as soon as they can, driving off to some rural countryside area. We can tell it is a rural area because we see cows and horses, and the heroine is telling us that 'the things we thought were to help us are actually killing us; driving us to the brink of insanity.' Both hero and heroine swore they would never again use a telephone, a cell phone, Wi-Fi, instant messaging or any 'computer', because of the evil spirit viruses which had taken over the entire thing at this point. Raymond said to me the whole movie ("Impulse") stunk very badly. I would generally agree, but one *good* thing about the movie was it was done in black and white with interesting contrasts in what we saw. Black and white, with flourescent lights flashing off and on at the right intervals, dashes of blue and grey in the scenes and quite good sound and music effects. Raymond noted the movie ended 'a lot like 28 Days' (if you have seen that movie), where the surviviors never actually win, but they instead just flee the big city and move to a safe, rural area. Not a bad deal for a $4.00/week rental from Blockbuster. PAT ------------------------------ Subject: Cleaning up Some Odds and Ends Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:05:28 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) I apologize for earlier this week when I interuppted the conversations in progress for one of my periodic money requests. The money received, while not enough to allow me to go live high on the hog in some exotic land, __was enough_ to meet this month's living expenses, and provide for my 'children' (three cats and one dog). Something very strange is happening here. I know I should not count on Google AdSense to earn a supplementary living, but I have been doing just that. When I first started using AdSense, in September, 2004, I thought at that time it was some sort of (most likely) unpayable gimmick. Particularly when I saw so many 'make money fast' reports from Google itself. So I checked with a few independent witnesses who (like myself) had signed on with AdSense almost from day one of the program. I spoke with a few guys, who like myself, have years and years of files on line for research. The figures they quoted me were that I could count on Google for at least a 'few' dollars each month. And so it was for the first year and a half; on the one hand, nothing to get excited about, except that I always did mark the days on my calendar each month until I knew the Google wire transfer had been made into my account. It, plus my social security disability check always managed to 'tide me over' one month to the next, along with the scrapings I collect from State of Kansas' own welfare services, etc. State of Kansas/City of Independence does provide me with a few things: a housekeeper for four hours per week, (of which I have to pay twenty percent of her competitive wages), one meal per day (no charge, delivered here to my door, not the best food, but hardly the worst). Social Security got me a motorized wheel chair; prior to the delivery of the chair (and still available) are discount taxicab rides around town. Taxicab charges flat rate around town anywhere to anyone, five dollars, but City of Independence gives me a coupon book allowing me to ride for two dollars plus a coupon. So, you might say I make do, although I have been out of my house and riding around more now that I have the motorized wheel chair, and riding less in the taxicab. I also, once each year, get two interesting benefits: food sales tax exemption (a flat payback of $72 for the prior year) for whatever I paid in food sales tax. The second benefit is 'property tax refund' which is some percentage of whatever the mortgage company paid on my behalf in property taxes. I pay my monthly mortgage, mortgage company pays taxes and insurance, eventually city rebates some percent of it back to me. Actually I am paying _mother's_ mortgage, she is in the old people's home now for a few years, but _she_ cannot claim homestead tax exemption as I can; her monthly upkeep at the old people's home is itself in part subsidized by government. So, with all that in mind, let's say I get by ... barely, but I do. I use every single discount available to 'senior citizens' or 'disabled citizens' I can find that I would otherwise be using ... and yet, and yet, I still wind up at the end of the month (Social Security Disability payments run from the 4th 'payday' of one month to the 4th 'payday' of the next month) right back where I started, zero or a few dollars either way in the bank, preferably in my favor, because if it is the bank's favor the bank 'treats' me to an overdraft fee when the next monthly payment from the feds is made. I think this month it will run in my favor (thank you, readers!) since your donations got me 'over the top' by a few dollars. That's another thing: the monthly federal payout on Disability is _not_ the third day of each month. Feds cut that system out many years ago. If you *were* getting paid on the third of each month, then you still are; but for those of us who started either disability or retirement later, now the checks are paid on Wednesdays; the first through the fourth Wednesdays of each month are the paydays, based on Social Security numbers, staggered throughout the month. I am on the fourth Wednesday of each month. At 2:00 AM on the fourth Wednesday of each month, Social Security's computer automatically makes a deposit into my bank's computer of the amount of money I receive. Bank automatically pays bills, etc. I do not actually _see any money_ all month. All I see are computer pixels; starting at about 2:00 AM on the magic day (fourth Wednesday) my credit balance fills up with money, then all day long the same day and the next, I see it bleed away to the various creditors. The bank does give me a debit card and I can go to any ATM (preferably theirs, to save fees) and withdraw it as I go along. Those of you who sent me money this month; that goes into the PayPal bank. From time to time, I can authorize PayPal to automatically transfer some or all of it (usually all of it) to the regular bank. So I do not, as some have suggested, live 'high on the hog' with 'all' my money. But, back to AdSense to conclude this wrapup: Ad Sense was running along pretty well for a year or so, then, one month it began getting very meager. Once per month, (like Social, the month following, and about three weeks into the month) Ad Sense makes payout. It _had been_ running along okay. But AdSense only pays on those months in which the payout is more than one hundred dollars. A year ago (last summer) AdSense claimed I did not reach the hundred dollar mark, and they held it back. Well, when you live as close to the wire as I do, that tipped me over entirely. Ad Sense did not come through, bank account ran _very low_ and Bank charged me a few of their $35 per incident fees. Frankly, I never did recover from that until now. And when you add in the credit card overlimit fees it gets a bit much. Ad Sense seems to have recovered from whatever was ailing it and is now back to more or less normal payouts. I have learned to live very close to the wire, and have learned how to use things like bank float, credit card float and creditor good-will to get through life. But ... anytime some part of the machine fails, I am so close to the edge that I topple over, and have a very hard time recovering, which is what finally happened during May/June. I thank all of you who participated in getting me back on my feet once again. I sincerely do thank you. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. 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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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V26 #162 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 11 22:21:12 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 910B121DA; Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:21:12 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #163 Message-Id: <20070612022112.910B121DA@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:21:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:21:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 163 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ITC Announces Remedy In Broadcom/Qualcomm Investigation (Monty Solomon) Patent Ruling Strikes a Blow at Qualcomm (Monty Solomon) eBay-nomics (Monty Solomon) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Qwest Chief Announces His Retirement (USTelecom dailyLead) When it Rains, it Pours (TELECOM Digest Editor) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 22:30:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ITC Announces Remedy In Broadcom/Qualcomm Investigation http://www.usitc.gov/ext_relations/news_release/2007/er0607ee1.htm June 7, 2007 News Release 07-062 Inv. No. 337-TA-543 Contact: Peg O'Laughlin, 202-205-1819 ITC ANNOUNCES REMEDY IN BROADCOM/QUALCOMM INVESTIGATION The U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC" or "Commission") today announced the remedial orders it will issue in connection with its section 337 investigation concerning Baseband Processor Chips and Chipsets, Transmitter and Receiver (Radio) Chips, Power Control Chips, and Products Containing Same, Including Cellular Telephone Handsets (337-TA-543). The chips and chipsets at issue are used in handheld wireless communications devices, including cellular telephone handsets, that are capable of operating on so-called third-generation ("3G") cellular telephone networks, i.e., EV-DO ("Evolution-Data Optimized") and WCDMA ("Wideband Code Division Multiple Access") networks such as those operated by Verizon, Sprint, and A T&T. The Commission previously determined that certain Qualcomm chips and chipsets were imported in violation of U.S. law because they infringe a U.S. patent held by Broadcom; the patent relates to mobile device capabilities and power management. Under section 337, which is designed to protect and enforce U.S. intellectual property rights, the Commission must determine the appropriate remedy to address this violation. Vice Chairman Shara L. Aranoff, Commissioner Deanna Tanner Okun, Commissioner Charlotte R. Lane, and Commissioner Irving A. Williamson voted in favor of the remedial orders. They provide their supporting analysis in two separate opinions. Chairman Daniel R. Pearson and Commissioner Dean A. Pinkert voted for a more limited form of relief. The Commission's written opinions will be made public after consultation with the parties to ensure the removal of confidential business information. The Commission is issuing a limited exclusion order that bars the importation of Qualcomm's infringing chips and chipsets and circuit board modules or carriers containing them. In addition, the exclusion order bars the importation of certain handheld wireless communications devices, such as cellular telephone handsets and personal digital assistants ("PDAs"), that contain Qualcomm's infringing chips and chipsets. The exclusion order does not apply to handheld wireless communications devices that are of the same models as handheld wireless communications devices that were being imported for sale to the general public on or before the date of the order, June 7, 2007. However, the order does bar the importation of new models of handheld wireless communications devices that contain Qualcomm's infringing chips and chipsets. Thus, the order "grandfathers" models of handheld wireless communications devices being imported into the United States for sale to the general public on or before June 7, 2007. The Commission is also issuing a cease and desist order that prevents Qualcomm from engaging in certain activities within the United States related to the infringing chips. The Commission reached its decision after careful consideration of the appropriateness of an order excluding from importation the "downstream products" that is, handheld wireless communications devices incorporating the infringing chips. The Commission found that an order excluding all downstream products would impose great burdens on third parties, given the limited availability of alternative downstream products not containing the infringing chips. However, as the infringing chips are not imported in significant quantities outside of downstream products, the Commission also found that an exclusion order covering only the chips and chipsets, and not downstream products, would afford little or no relief to the patent holder, Broadcom. The Commission determined that barring importation of downstream products, with an exemption for certain previously imported models, will substantially reduce the burdens imposed on third parties while affording meaningful relief to the patent holder. The Commission found that, while exclusion of all downstream products could adversely affect the public interest, particularly the public health and welfare, competitive conditions in the U.S. economy, and U.S. consumers, the exemption for previously imported models sufficiently ameliorates this impact such that the orders should be issued. The dissenting commissioners, Chairman Pearson and Commissioner Pinkert, determined that the appropriate remedy in this investigation is an exclusion order that would bar the importation of the infringing chips, and a cease and desist order that would bar the testing of the infringing chips, including chips that are incorporated into cellular telephone handsets. Chairman Pearson and Commissioner Pinkert determined that exclusion of all downstream products containing the infringing chips would adversely affect the public interest. Further, they declined to endorse the majority's order that "grandfathers" currently imported models of handheld wireless communications devices. Chairman Pearson determined that an order exempting previously imported and held wireless communications devices from exclusion would still adversely affect the public interest. Commissioner Pinkert determined, with regard to such an approach, that the Commission's record was insufficient to permit him to determine whether it was appropriate. Chairman Pearson and Commissioner Pinkert believe that their recommended order would provide appropriate and effective relief because it would place the direct burden of compliance on the infringing party rather than on third parties. It also would be easier to administer. ITC remedial orders in section 337 investigations are effective when issued and become final 60 days after issuance unless disapproved for policy reasons by the U.S. Trade Representative. Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, authorizes the Commission to investigate alleged infringement of U.S. patents and trademarks by imported articles. If the Commission finds infringement, then it must order that the infringing articles be excluded from importation, unless, after considering the effect of the exclusion order on statutory public interest factors, it finds that the articles should not be excluded. Background on this investigation: On June 21, 2005, the Commission instituted an investigation under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. =15 1337, based on a complaint filed by Broadcom Corporation of Irvine, California ("Broadcom"), alleging a violation of section 337 in the importation, sale for importation, and sale within the United States after importation of certain baseband processor chips and chipsets, transmitter and receiver (radio) chips, power control chips, and products containing same, including cellular telephone handsets, by reason of infringement of certain claims of five U.S. patents (70 Fed. Reg. 35707 (June 21, 2005)). The complainant named Qualcomm Incorporated of San Diego, California ("Qualcomm") as the only respondent. On October 19, 2006, the presiding administrative law judge ("ALJ"), Judge Charles E. Bullock, issued an Initial Determination ("ID") finding a violation of section 337 with respect to U.S. Patent No. 6,714,983. The ALJ also issued a Recommended Determination ("RD") on Remedy and Bond, in which he recommended a limited exclusion order barring import of Qualcomm's baseband processor chips. On December 8, 2006, the Commission issued a notice of its decision to review and upon review to modify in part the ALJ's final ID. The modification made by the Commission did not change the finding of violation. The Commission also requested the parties to the investigation, interested government agencies, and any other interested= persons to file written submissions on the issues of remedy, the public= interest, and bonding. On January 25, 2007, respondent Qualcomm moved, inter alia, for oral argument and a hearing on the issues of remedy and the public interest. In view of the impact that an exclusion order covering downstream products might have on the public interest, the Commission held a public hearing on the issues of remedy and the public interest on March 21-22, 2007. The Commission announced its remedial orders on June 7, 2007. For further information, see the Commission's Federal Register notice dated June 7, 2007, which is available on the ITC web site. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 01:02:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Patent Ruling Strikes a Blow at Qualcomm By MATT RICHTEL The New York Times June 8, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 - Millions of new mobile phones containing certain Qualcomm semiconductors could be barred from import into the United States under a ruling issued Thursday by a federal government agency in a patent dispute. Qualcomm said the ruling by the United States International Trade Commission, if it withstands an appeal, could prevent the importation into the United States of tens of millions of new mobile handsets designed for the Verizon, Sprint and AT&T Wireless networks. The agency ruled that Qualcomm, a semiconductor company based in San Diego, had infringed on a key patent belonging to Broadcom, a competing chip company based in Irvine, Calif., that is used in the design of chips made for advanced 3G, or third-generation, smart cellphones. Qualcomm said that it planned to appeal immediately to the federal court to block the ruling. The company also said that it planned to appeal to President Bush, whose trade representative, Susan C. Schwab, has 60 days within which to veto the ruling. The company said it sought "to avoid irreparable harm to U.S. consumers" and injury to the economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/business/08phone.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:24:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: eBay-nomics Modern economists have assumed that people in auctions behave rationally. Then came eBay. By Christopher Shea | June 10, 2007 In Rome, they called it calor licitantis, or "bidder's heat." If you got swept up in the passion of an auction and paid way too much for something, you could plead a form of temporary insanity, and the judges might step in and let you off the hook (and get you your money back). Good luck finding that kind of help the next time you overbid on that used iPod on eBay. You bid for it, you pressed the button, you bought it. The Romans knew something that modern economists lost sight of at some point: Auctions lead people to do weird things. For a long time, economists have explored and even reveled in the supposed purity of auctions, viewing them as uncannily efficient means of moving goods into the hands of people who value them the most. In fact, studying auctions has long been a fertile subfield within economics. The late economist William Vickrey won a Nobel in economic science, in part for his work in auctions. A 1961 paper of Vickrey's detailed the elegance of so-called sealed-bid, second-price auctions, in which the winner pays the price submitted by the second-place bidder. (Among other advantages, such auctions reduce the likelihood that a bidder will overpay for an item.) This spring, Harvard's Susan Athey, who helped British Columbia design timber auctions crucial to its economy, won the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the most accomplished economist under 40. Now, however, economists and other social scientists are as likely to be interested in the quirks and inefficiencies of auctions -- and the irrationality of bidders -- as in their elegance. And since eBay, the hugely successful online auction site, offers a mountain of data about sellers and bidders every day, its glazed-eyed devotees are the guinea pigs for this new wave of research. The new work -- call it "eBay studies" -- highlights the degree to which human psychological quirks, and not just supply and demand, drive auctions. Studies of eBay might ultimately help economists ensure that high-stakes auctions, like those through which the US government distributes the electromagnetic spectrum, are as efficient and fair as possible. But understanding eBay, with its $6 billion in revenues last year, is itself no small matter. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/06/10/ebay_nomics/ ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:19:50 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 11, 2007 ******************************** Market Update BT Emerges on Top in U.K. VoIP Race http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/110/24833?11228 The United Kingdom's incumbent fixed-line telco, BT, has steadied its grip as the top VoIP provider in the country, despite the presence of new start-ups in the U.K. market. The company's 'BT Broadband Talk' already towers above its rivals, effectively snuffing out any hopes of a major VoIP drive in the country. In its ... Synterra Announces US$80-Mil. Outlay on Fibre-Optic Networks http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24831?11228 Alternative CIS operator Synterra has announced that it is investing US$80 million in the construction of fibre-optic networks this year, reports Prime-Tass. The networks-to be built by TechnoServ A/S-will stretch 6,500 km across 50 regions, and are due for completion in September 2007. Significance: After receiving a long-distance ... Interested Parties Take Positions in U.S. Spectrum Scramble http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24830?11228 Following the end of the period for public comment on how rules for the upcoming auction of spectrum should be set up, various interested parties have made comments. A new lobby group, calling itself The Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation, has been set up by several influential players in the wireless business-including Amol ... GotZapp Gets Going http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24829?11228 Social networking technology is on the move -- from desktop and notebook PCs to mobile phone handsets. Helping to spearhead the transition is GotZapp, a mobile social networking software and service combo from Cincinnati-based software developer Trivantis. GotZapp allows users to create and send multimedia content to mobile phones in a ... Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24828?11228 This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Why do companies bind customers with contracts, bleed them with fees, and baffle them with fine print? Because bewildered customers, who often make bad ... MVNO Malaise Strikes Again And Again http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24827?11228 Struggling French mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Ten Mobile has gone on the block, according to reports this morning, and fellow French MVNO Debitel has finally found a potential buyer after months of looking. Meanwhile across the pond it turns out that troubled American MVNO Ampd, which filed for bankruptcy protection... AT&T's New Navigation Service http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24824?11228 AT&T has announced that its wireless customers now have direct access to traffic information and rerouting services through TeleNav Traffic, offered initially on the BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry 8700c and the new BlackBerry Curve. TeleNav Traffic alerts users through voice and on-screen prompts to traffic ... Ericsson Snaps Up SDP Firm http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24822?11228 Only days after announcing the acquisition of billing company LHS Group , Ericsson AB has opened its wallet again to acquire service delivery platform (SDP) specialist Drutt Corp. for an undisclosed sum. Ericsson's move is yet another sign that the increasingly important but fragmented SDP market is entering a ... Qualcomm's 3G Chips Chopped http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24819?11228 A ban on some phones using Qualcomm Inc. chips won't exactly shake the industry, analysts say. A statement from research firm ISuppli Corp. today says the ban "will have only a limited impact on the global wireless communications industry in the short term." It estimates the ruling will affect 4.2 million phones, ... 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, 11 Jun 2007 12:50:59 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Qwest Chief Announces His Retirement USTelecom dailyLead June 11, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/heywfDtusXtAxOCibuddqAEP TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Qwest chief announces his retirement BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Embarq sees consolidation coming, eyes acquisitions * Stephenson: iPhone critical to AT&T strategy * China Mobile, Ericsson sign $1 billion contract * SEC could fine Nortel for alleged fraudulent accounting USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * USTelecom Urges Overturning Cablevision DVR Decision HOT TOPICS * Avaya snapped up by private-equity firms * Apple announces iPhone release date * Vodafone shareholder group calls for Verizon Wireless spinoff * DSL subscribers up 29% to 200 million * AT&T talks about plans for former BellSouth customers TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Oversi receives funding from Cisco * Nokia Siemens locks up IMS deal with Com Hem * New payment system uses biometric voice analysis * LiquidOffice 5.0 adds features for mobile business IP DOWNLOAD * Apple TV, Unbox go head-to-head for living-room dominance REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC upholds 2005 ruling on licensed WiMAX * Taiwan: 13 firms vying for regional WiMAX licenses EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/heywfDtusXtAxOCibuddqAEP ------------------------------ Subject: When it Rains, it Pours Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:37:14 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Yes, for oldtimers, that statement was the sales motto of the old Morton Salt Company. At the start of the twentieth century, Mr. Joy Morton was a business associate with others in the Morkrum Company, the makers of the teletype machine. For others, that 'rain-pours' statement pertains to the weather. Like here in Independence, for example, if you do not like the weather, wait around for five minutes. We got _no_ spring weather season this year, just a bitter, icy winter that changed in a day or two to a hot, dry summer, and then, after several days of arid hot, dry weather, over this past weekend we had a real downpour. So much rain Sunday night in fact, combined with strong winds and tornado warnings we had more weather reports on the cable Sunday night than we had CSI-SUV police programs, which is quite unusual for the USA Network. And today, Monday, the television was busy reporting police warnings on the tickertape messages on the screen, talking about flooded and washed out highways and roads; we got plenty of rain Sunday night! But there is a third, 'rain-pours' example: my financial state of health runs like a teeter-totter. You may recall reading here last week my report on my own financial shortcomings in life: i.e. from when I was a little guy, I took the word of the government that social security would always protect me when I got old and feeble, (in other words, I did not save anything at all for my own future), and for the past two years I have tended to rely as much as possible on Google Ad Sense (a misplaced faith to be sure!) and Social Security Disability. That was the message, in essence. Then, many of you readers bailed me out, once again, with donations. The donations were generous; they not only filled my refrigerator for the rest of this Disability month (which begins and ends on the Fourth Wednesday of each Calendar month) but they smoothed things over and gave me a very good, comfortable feeling about this month. Then, on early Sunday morning (about 8 AM to be precise) _my_ roof fell in. No, I do not mean my literal roof, this is a hundred year old house which holds together so-so. By 'roof falling in' I am referring to my ancient (of undetirmined age) hot water heater. I woke up hearing water running in the hallway betweeen my bathroom and the computer room area. I went to look, and found water on the floor in the area, and a suspicious 'gurgling' sound coming out of the little closet where that feature (hot water) is made. The 'cut off' valve on the top of the tank, where the cold water supply goes into it was broken. Nothing could stop the water which was running down the side of the tank furiously! I called Mr. Rinck, the plumber and got his answering machine; not unusual considering it was now 8:15 on Sunday morning. He called me back in about 30 minutes, which is also not unusual, considering this is a small town with friendly people and he had done work here in the past in this house. In the meantime, my keeper Raymond had taken a 'street key' (long slender pole with a finger-like thing on the bottom) and gone out in our front yard and cut the water off at the city pipes. (You take off this metal cover in the yard, reach down in there several feet with the long rod, clamp around the cut off valve in there and twist it shut.) Mr. Rinck was preparing to come over and shut off the water himself; he approved of Raymond's quick thinking in the matter. "I'll be out later today to look at it", he said. Needless to say, I almost had a nervous breakdown the rest of Sunday morning. But after what seemed like hours (actually 45 minutes) here he is at the door and goes in to give a good look at the hot water tank. "As good as gone", was his phrase, and he added "let me try to cap it off here". "Nope, the cut off valve is shot, probably stripped years ago, let's leave it off at the street for now, tomorrow morning I will be over at 8:30 to do the job". Somehow, at that moment, I had a very good, warm feeling: _my hero was here to take care of it all_; I would have to live all day on this hot Sunday with no water, no ice cubes from the refrigerator, no toilet I could flush as needed (the reserve flush had already been used before he showed up), no evening shower; just endure and make do until sometime Monday. Monday at 9:00 AM he was here; new 40-gallon hot water heater on his truck, all his wrenches, pipes and other tools. "I want to show you something," he said, as held out a sales ticket from Woods Lumber, our local hardware/fixit store. "Three hundred sixty-eight dollars, sixty-eight cents" read the tag. "And of course, there is the matter of my fee, fifty dollars per hour", he said, "Things like this we no longer stock in our shop, we used to, but not when they got this expensive. Of course, we will work along with you ...". I almost had another coronary attack then and there. But by 11 AM, two and a half hours after he first started, the old hot water tank had been hauled away and the new one installed, with my water running once again. "Give it about 30-45 minutes to heat up, you will be all set." I went out on my back porch to try and calm my nerves; Mr. Rinck cheerfully waved goodbye and drove away in his truck. The final damage estimate, IMO, since I have not received his bill yet, $525.00 for new tank, new plumbing pipes as required, and his labor. As I said before, when it rains, it pours. I guess I should be (AND I AM) very grateful I do not live in Greensburg, KS where a month ago 95 percent of the entire town (population, about 2500 people) was destroyed by a tornado. At least my cozy little house is warm in the winter and semi-cool in the summer; at least I have friends here in town and my friends on the net. At least I have my social security disability money each month and my motorized wheel chair to ride in and my four best friends of all, the three female cats and Willie the minature pincher dog. I guess I am really sort of lucky after all. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #163 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 12 20:52:37 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 04D9B223F; Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:52:36 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #164 Message-Id: <20070613005237.04D9B223F@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:52:36 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:52:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 164 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Limits Data Retention in Compromise With EU (Eric Auchard, Reuters) Swedish Court Upholds File-Sharing Conviction (Niklas Pollard, Reuters) Telemarketer Ends Call, But Still Connected to Dialer? (KM) PBX / Keysystem Help Wanted (Michael.Mirany@gmail.com) Telecom, Consumer Groups Align With Cablevision (USTelecom dailyLead) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:17:29 -0500 From: Eric Auchard, Reuters Subject: Google Limits Data Retention in Compromise With EU By Eric Auchard Google Inc. is scaling back how long it keeps personally identifiable data accumulated from its Web users, seeking to mollify a European Union watchdog that has questioned its privacy policies. The world's top provider of Web search services said late on Monday that it is ready to curtail the time it stores user data to a year-and-a-half, the low end of an 18 to 24 month period it had originally proposed to regulators in March. But Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel said in a letter addressed to the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in Brussels that any regulatory requirement to keep data for less than 18 months would undermine Google's services. "After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy: to anonymize our search server logs after 18 months, rather than the previously established period of 18 to 24 months," he said in the letter dated June 10. The server logs refer to software that stores Web search histories. "We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period," Fleischer added. Google is seeking to ease the concerns of regulators in Europe and the United States, as well as a small, but vocal, chorus of privacy activists, who see the scope of Google's Web services as posing unprecedented threats to consumer privacy. Each time a Google user searches the Web, the company gathers information about that customer's tastes, interests and beliefs that could potentially be used by third parties such as advertisers. Google shares general user statistics but is adamant it never shares personal data outside the company. The European Union body, made up of national protection supervisors of the bloc's 27 member states, said in May that Google seemed to be failing to respect EU privacy rules and asked for clarification before its next meeting in mid-June. Google has sought to take the lead in defining a global standard for rules governing online retention of consumer data. Other household Internet names -- including Amazon.com Inc, AOL, Apple Inc., eBay Inc. Microsoft Corp. and MySpace -- have yet to disclose any limits on how long they retain consumer data, according to a recent report by Privacy International. THINKING UP A NEW COOKIE RECIPE In the May letter, the Working Party also expressed concern about the length of time Google retains Web surfing tracking data known as "cookies" and other details on users' searches. Google said it was studying how it can meet the concerns of European regulators over cookies, a widely-used consumer tracking technology that Web sites rely on to customize what users see and advertisers use to target ads. "We are exploring ways to redesign cookies and to reduce their expiration," Fleischer states. "We plan to make an announcement about privacy improvements for our cookies in the coming months. In his six-page letter, Fleischer details the trade-offs involved in limiting how long Google stores its users' data before "anonymizing" it, industry lingo that refers to the cleansing of computer databases of personal information. The Google privacy official notes that the national data retention policies of individual European nations vary from six months to 24 months, depending on the country. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice has called for a 24-month data retention period, he notes. And post-Enron corporate reforms call for U.S. businesses to retain data for substantial periods. Google's aim is to seek out a single agreed-upon level of privacy protection to users worldwide. Fleischer underscored that it is "extraordinarily difficult" to operate a global Internet business according to different national standards. Google has more than 60 percent of the world's Web search business, market research groups estimate. A preliminary report released over the weekend by Privacy International of London accused Google of being the most hostile to data protections of any major Internet company, a charge that the company is seeking aggressively to rebut. (Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels) 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: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:20:37 -0500 From: Niklas Pollard, Reuters Subject: Swedish Court Upholds File-Sharing Conviction By Niklas Pollard A Swedish court of appeals on Tuesday upheld the country's first conviction for sharing music files over the Internet without paying in what the recording industry hailed as a victory. The Appellate Court backed a verdict by a lower court in October last year that saw 45-year-old Jimmy Sjostrom fined 20,000 Swedish crowns ($2,843) for infringing intellectual property rights by sharing four music files. The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) hailed the conviction as a boost for intellectual property protection and said it could act as a deterrent. "The verdict only concerns four songs and it costs the one sentenced about 20,000 crowns in fines -- that is 5,000 crowns per song," IFPI said in a statement. "Illegal file-sharing is thus expensive when there are legal and cheap alternatives available over the Internet today." The legal action is part of a carrot-and-stick approach by the industry, which is pushing cases against illegal file-sharers while promoting legal music services such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes. Sweden made downloading movie and music files from the Internet illegal only in 2005 after having been singled out for criticism by Hollywood. But the Pirate Party, a political group that wants Sweden to re-legalize file-sharing, also claimed the verdict as a success -- saying it meant Swedish police would have a hard time finding file-sharers since they could only access Internet records for a crime that carries a jail sentence. "The verdict confirms that the penalty for file-sharing in Sweden today is a fine," it said in a statement. "For trifling crimes such as file-sharing, they are instead obligated to uphold their customer's right to anonymity." 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/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: KM Subject: Telemarketer Ends Call, But Still Connected to Dialer? Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:00:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I was recently called by a telemarketer who was seemingly on a predictive dialer system, given the fact that I had to say "hello" twice before being connected to someone. I put the telemarketer on speakerphone, and once he was well involved in the sales pitch, I walked away to do something else and left him to make his pitch to an empty room. Eventually, I could hear him calling out my name and then ending the call after realizing that he was talking to no one. However, upon returning to the phone, it seemed as if the call had not really been disconnected. There was just dead air between intermittent clicking sounds. What was I connected to at that point (the predictive dialer?) and what was behind the clicking sounds? And will this show up on the telemarketer's phone bill or in their productivity stats as an unusually long call? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just IMO, but if I understand predictive dialers, they are 'in charge' of the call; you are just a party to the call, the same as the telemarketer, but YOU are the 'most important' party; as long as YOU stay on the line, the predictive dialer will not disconnect. The 'clicks' you hear are the components of the predictive dialer attempting to 'test the line' for busy, meaning is it in use or not. It does not hear dial tone, therefore the line must be busy and it goes to some other port and tries that one instead. Depending on how many telemarketers work at that shop, chances are the predictive dialer has two or three more ports available to it (than employees on duty), so that it can keep on trying to stay even with (if not slightly ahead of) the number of telemarketers on duty. If you dialed in directly to a telemarketer's outgoing line you'd always hear that dead silence and occassional 'clicking' as it tried to find an outgoing line to use for a telemark- eter's outgoing call. I suppose that if you dialed in on (or were called by) enough telemarketers at the same shop, and you tried this with enough of them, very soon they'd all be sitting around with no calls to make. Your abandoning of the call off hook did nof affect the individual telemarketer's record all that much. He just eventually disconnected and the computer/predictive dialer simply connected him to a new call (although using a different outgoing line, of course, since you still had the one line off hook and busied out. I suppose it would show up as an exceptionally long call for the overall phone system however. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael.Mirany@gmail.com Subject: PBX / Keysystem Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:11:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We are looking for assistance (fee based) to start a company which repairs and services PBX / Keysystems. We would like to work with somone who knows this business well. Regards, Michael [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe you will find someone here who can help you! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:34:17 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Telecom, Consumer Groups Align With Cablevision in Network-DVR Fight USTelecom dailyLead June 12, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hflMfDtusXtGaACibuddZHKJ TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Telecom, consumer groups align with Cablevision in network-DVR fight BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Onex signs on to help acquire Bell Canada * Deutsche Telekom CEO: T-Mobile USA key to long-term strategy * SureWest turns to Mirapoint * FTTH subscribers on the rise in Japan * Analysis: Samsung closing in on Motorola's No. 2 spot USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Get the answers at NXTcomm! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Nokia's Wibree to become Bluetooth standard * Juniper to debut new core router * Media companies to test YouTube's video-ID software * Digital-signature technology ensures authenticity IP DOWNLOAD * IPTV testing needed to address challenges REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * States could legislate driving while texting Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hflMfDtusXtGaACibuddZHKJ ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:54:55 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 12, 2007 ******************************** CWTA Argues Against Subsidies in Spectrum Auction http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24856?11228 The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has petitioned the Canadian government to limit the levels of subsidy and other benefits available to companies engaging in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum auction, due to take place in 2008. The call for action (or rather inaction) was particularly scathing ... Bluetooth Links Up With Rival Technology http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24851?11228 NEW YORK -- The consortium behind the Bluetooth wireless standard announced Tuesday that Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones, is contributing a technology that promises to bring the wireless connections to devices that are too small for regular Bluetooth chips. The technology, called Wibree, opens up the ... Deutsche Telekom CEO: Sale of T-Mobile USA Would Be "Shortsighted" Move http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24848?11228 FRANKFURT, Germany -- Deutsche Telekom AG's chief executive, Rene Obermann, said Tuesday that its U.S. cellular unit is a key part of the company's long-term strategy, dismissing suggestions it should be sold off. Obermann said that, despite a few calls by shareholders for T-Mobile USA to be sold, any decision to do so ... German Union ver.di to Restart Talks With Deutsche Telekom http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24846?11228 FRANKFURT, Germany -- Services union ver.di said Tuesday it would resume negotiations with Deutsche Telekom AG, a new effort to try and end five weeks of walkouts at Europe's biggest telecommunica- tions company. Union spokesman Lothar Schroeder said the union would meet with Deutsche Telekom on Wednesday to work on reaching ... Ericsson signs $1 billion deal with China Mobile http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24843?11228 Ericsson has signed an agreement with China Mobile, valued at $1 billion, to expand the carriers GSM network. China's President Hu Jinato was at the contract signing in Stockholm, marking the first time a Chinese president has visited Sweden since the two countries began a diplomatic relationship in 1950. In a company statement, ... Wireless Experts Push FCC For Open-Access E-Block Plan http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24841?11228 A new group of veteran wireless entrepreneurs -- the Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation -- sent a letter last week to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to provide its 'real-world' perspective for why 'open access' requirements are critical for the proposed 700 MHz E Block (TelecomWeb news ... Nokia's US Enterprise Headache http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24838?11228 Nokia Corp. may be the world's top handset maker, but there is one area where the Finnish giant has failed to make headway -- the U.S. enterprise market. Nokia has seen enterprise net sales in the first quarter of this year leap in almost every region except the U.S. The firm also reported North American device ... Signs of Life at Newport http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24836?11228 VOIP equipment maker Newport Networks plc may have spent a long time on the ropes recently, but it looks like the session border controller (SBC) vendor isn't out for the count, after announcing new customers and a partnership in recent weeks. Newport today announced a deal with U.K. VOIP wholesale outfit nPlusOne, but its ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #164 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 13 16:39:39 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 38897218A; Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:39:39 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #165 Message-Id: <20070613203939.38897218A@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:39:39 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:40:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 165 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ad Software Maker OpenAds Decides to Take on Google (Eric Auchard, Reuters) Microsoft Posts Critical Security Fixes (Jessica Mintz, AP) eBay in Patent Fight Over 'Buy it Now' Feature (Sonja Barisic, AP) Twenty Percent Increase in NY Verizon Rates (Danny Burstein) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Telemarketer Destroyer (Mike Sandman) Nokia Siemens Takes Aim at North American Market (USTelecom dailyLead) 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Scam Artist! (Patrick Townson) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:03:55 -0500 From: Eric Auchard, Reuters Subject: Ad Software Maker OpenAds Decides to Take on Google By Eric Auchard Openads, a supplier of free software used by Web sites to manage online ad campaigns, has received $5 million in initial funding, bolstering it to prepare for increasing competition globally with Google Inc. The financing round is being led by Index Ventures, and joined by early-stage U.S. firm First Round Capital, Europe-focused Mangrove Capital Partners, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an arm of the U.S. technology publisher. London-based Openads was founded as a grassroots, open-source software development project in 1999. It has signed up 25,000 Web site publishers in more than 100 countries and 20 languages. "In a way, this has been one of the best kept secrets on the Web," said Saul Klein, a partner with Index Ventures, who was previously marketing chief at Web-telephone company Skype. "What we liked about Openads is that they're disrupting the market and (it) has secured significant, global adoption." Openads powers more Web site publishers than all competing products combined, it said, albeit small players. It is popular with users of other open-source content management systems, including Drupal and WordPress blogging software. The community-based project turned 10-employee start-up company relies on an open series of discussion boards http://forum.openads.org/ to service its customers, solicit feature requests, and trade advertising techniques. "What publishers love about Openads is that it is intuitive, easy to use, solid and they can peek under the hood and see how it works," Klein said. "But more than anything they love the fact that it is free." Instead of charging up-front, Openads supplies hand-holding services to publishers, as well as more advanced services to bigger publishers. A big strength is its global distribution. Only 30 percent of customers come from the United States. The rest come from markets such as Poland, Brazil and Russia. Openads makes money in part from referral fees that advertising networks pay it for connecting them to publishers who use its software. Customers include blog ad network Federated Media, Sun Microsystems Inc. and online music site Last.fm. Simplistically, Openads' ad-server technology competes with DoubleClick Inc. in the market for ad-serving services. But Marissa Gluck of media research firm Radar Research in Los Angeles said they operate at opposite ends of the market. DoubleClick, which is seeking regulatory approval of its plan to be acquired by Google for $3.1 billion, focuses on high-end advertisers, while Openads serves up ads for customers who install and run their own ads, relying on multiple advertising networks to sign up advertisers. Instead, Gluck sees Openads coming into competition with Google's mainstay advertising service, AdSense, its pay-per-click text ad delivery system that is transforming itself into both a text and graphical ad service. "Their main competition is really AdSense," Gluck said. The difference between the two is that Google AdSense provides an online hosted service offering both ad-serving and ad network functions, while Openads does only ad-serving and then connects its customers to independent ad networks. That poses challenges for Openads as Google AdSense is the most popular advertising network among Openads customers, according to the company's site. Other Openads networks, which function like online ad agencies, include Commission Junction, Tradedoubler of Sweden and ValueClick Inc.. "I think of it as an evolution more than a competition," Openads founder Scott Switzer said in a phone interview. "When publishers are small, they will download Google (advertising) tags and put them on their page. The next step up is Openads." As part of the venture capital investment, Bernard Dalle and Saul Klein of Index Ventures and Gerard Lopez from Mangrove Capital will take seats on Openads board. 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: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:06:32 -0500 From: Jessica Mintz, AP Subject: Microsoft Posts Critical Security Fixes By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Business Writer Microsoft Corp. released four critical patches Tuesday to plug security holes in several versions of its Windows operating system, Internet Explorer Web browser and other programs. The patches that carried Microsoft's highest security warning all are to prevent malicious hackers from remotely taking control of computers without permission. Three of the patches aim to protect Windows users who unwittingly expose their computers to attack by visiting Web pages infected with malicious code, or look at similarly tainted e-mails with Outlook Express or Windows Mail. A fourth patch prevents hackers from gaining remote access to PCs by installing a specially crafted program. Two of these critical updates fix holes in the company's newest operating system, Windows Vista, which Microsoft has touted as the most secure ever. Vista went on sale to consumers at the end of January; in April, Microsoft broke its once-monthly update schedule with an emergency fix after Microsoft and security experts found that hackers were exploiting a hole in the way Vista and other versions of Windows handle animated cursor files. Besides the critical fixes, Microsoft released a patch for its Visio program for making diagrams and a vulnerability in Windows that could allow unauthorized users to break into computers to steal passwords and other user information. Microsoft also released seven non-security, high-priority updates Tuesday, including a monthly update to a tool that removes harmful software from PCs. On the Net: http://www.microsoft.com/security 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: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:12:56 -0500 From: Sonja Barisic, AP Subject: eBay in Patent Fight Over 'Buy it Now' Feature By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer A small Virginia company in a patent fight with eBay Inc. asked a federal judge Tuesday to stop the online auction powerhouse from using its "Buy It Now" feature allowing shoppers to buy items at a fixed price. A federal jury found in 2003 that eBay had infringed Great Falls-based MercExchange LLC's patent. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to patent-reform advocates when it ruled that MercExchange was not automatically entitled to a court order blocking the offending service. Now, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman must decide whether MercExchange is entitled to a permanent injunction. The judge did not say when he would rule. Friedman also did not immediately rule on eBay's request to stay the proceedings until the federal patent office has completed a re-examination of the patent -- a process that MercExchange's lawyers said could take 10 years. Lawyers for San Jose-based eBay told the judge that the company has designed a workaround so that it no longer infringes on the patent and thus an injunction is unnecessary. Attorney Jeff Randall also said MercExchange has not suffered irreparable harm and that the company is better off now than it was before the trial, citing an investment by a hedge fund. MercExchange's attorneys, however, argued that the potential for future infringement is at stake and that MercExchange will not be able to sell exclusive licenses for use of its patent without an injunction. "Without an injunction in the face of an infringing monopolist that now has 95 percent of the market, MercExchange cannot make productive use of its patent in any way," lawyer Seth Waxman said. Randall said an injunction would give MercExchange "illegitimate leverage," hurting eBay's reputation in the marketplace by making people think eBay is still infringing the patent. "That's what they want," Randall said of MercExchange. Randall also said MercExchange is not interested in building its business. "They sit back and try to collect from businesses for their patents, and that is it," he said. In arguing for a stay, Randall said waiting for the outcome of the patent re-examination would save a lot of litigation in the meantime. "I get the impression that, in a nice legal way, the court is being threatened," the judge said. MercExchange attorney Greg Stillman said it was wrong to wait for patent authorities to sort everything out and that eBay could have avoided a lot of litigation by asking for the re-examination much earlier. The patent battle focuses on eBay's button for buying products at a fixed price, bypassing the bidding process, and MercExchange's claim that the technology infringes on its intellectual property. The federal jury that sided with MercExchange awarded the company $35 million. The amount later was reduced to $25 million. Stillman said outside court that MercExchange intends to ask the judge to increase the damages to take into account infringement since the 2003 trial. The Supreme Court's ruling does not affect the judgment against eBay. In the closely watched case, the high court ruled that judges have flexibility in deciding whether to issue court orders barring continued use of a technology after juries find a patent violation. The decision threw out a ruling by a federal appeals court that said injunctions should be automatic unless exceptional circumstances apply. The case became a rallying point for critics who argue the U.S. patent system is riddled with abuse from small businesses that sue established companies to enforce patents for ideas that have never been developed into products. On the Net: http://www.ebay.com http://www.mercexchange.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/internet-news.html http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: danny burstein Subject: Twenty Percent Increase in NY Verizon Rates Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:47:39 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC from a "Legal Notice" in today's newspaper (reformatted) [a] "Notice of proposed tariff filing for certain rate changes .. they will go into effect on June 16, 2007 "Dial tone monthly access line rate - residence service - current rate: $ 9.85 - new rate: $11.85 [a] NY Daily News Tues 11-June-2007 p. 70 _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It appears to be a twenty percent increase doesn't it? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:00:31 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 13, 2007 ******************************** U.S. Business Key to T-Mobile Growth http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24881?11228 Following shareholder requests and rumours that T-Mobile may sell off its U.S. operations, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann has re-iterated that the company has no plans to sell off the unit, stating that "the U.S. business is a core business of the mobile communications business and therefore of Deutsche Telekom." In ... Secret Agent Man http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24877?11228 THERE ARE VARS and there are VARs. CDW is one of the country's largest. And with 2006 revenue of $6.8 billion, it is one of the country's largest companies -- No. 343 on the Fortune 500 list. If you are in business, you've no doubt heard of it and you might even be a customer. If you are in the technology business, you almost ... Bright LED Promises Enhanced Handset Displays http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24872?11228 Tired of squinting at handset displays that wash out in bright sunlight? Help may be in sight. Two University of California at Los Angeles researchers have developed an LED that promises bright and beautiful color at a cost lower than conventional display technologies. By using a new type of plastic infused liquid, engineering ... Broadcom to Purchase Global Locate http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24870?11228 Broadcom has agreed to acquire Global Locate, a provider of GPS products and software, for nearly $146 million in cash. If agreed-upon performance goals are met, Broadcom will pay an additional $80 million in cash to the former holders of Global Locate stock. Founded in 1999, Global Locate has innovative GPS solutions that will add ... Nortel Embraces Big Blue's VoIP Too http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24867?11228 Nortel and IBM, both perhaps burning the candle at both ends, this morning announced a deal to offer 'unified communications' combining IBM's hardware and software with Nortel's VoIP and multimedia solutions. The deal sounds almost like a carbon copy of the landmark deal Nortel signed with Microsoft last year, set up ... Virgin Revamps DNS Strategy http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24865?11228 Virgin Media says a small investment in new domain name server (DNS) technology it's deploying should make its broadband services appear faster to customers and make its network more secure. The U.K. cable operator, known as NTL before it adopted its new name earlier this year, is "investing a few hundred thousand ... Battles Brew Over Mobile TV http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/110/24863?11228 Mobile TV is becoming an emotional issue in Europe, with carriers disputing each other's customer claims in Italy, and major operators challenging European Commission proposals for the adoption of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) as the standard technical platform for mobile TV service delivery. Italians Squabble ... Substantial Market Niche Emerging for Wi-Fi/Cellular Phones http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24861?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A recent survey of US early adopters by high-tech market researcher, In-Stat, found that almost half of those respondents planning to replace their cell phones want Wi-Fi capability. To meet the growing demand, there is an avalanche of dual-mode phones in the pipeline. By the end of this year, the Wi-Fi Alliance ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:00:28 -0500 From: Mike Sandman Subject: Telemarketer Destroyer Hi Pat, We have a new gizmo, called the Telemarketer Destroyer. The thing itself is very funny when used, but at the end of our page we have a recording from a radio show of a comedian named Tom Mabe yanking the chain of a telemarketer (I guess he does that for a living?!?). He drives a red VW bug that's modified to look like a phone. It's one of the funniest bits I've ever heard, at the expense of a young telemarketer trying to sell him satellite TV. The link is towards the end of: http://www.sandman.com/destroyer.html I don't know if you get many telemarketers calling you, but it sure feels good to use it! It connects to the handset of a regular phone with the dial in the base -- if you have one near your PC (you can feed whatever audio you want from your PC to the phone). The only thing I'm happy about is that the telemarketers seem to avoid cell phones -- but when I do get the occasional call on my cell phone I can feel my blood pressure going up as soon as they start their pitch. BTW, I got rid of the Nextel, and went to Verizon. I don't remember if I gave you the Verizon number, but I had that turned off and ported the old number over to Verizon. Nextel was horrible, and Verizon isn't much better. Donna showed me a postcard Nextel had the guts to send us a few weeks ago saying something like "We know the service is terrible in your area, but we're planning on fixing it." Unbelievable! Mike Sandman 630-980-7710 mike@sandman.com - http://www.sandman.com Check out our catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mike Sandman is a long time friend of the Digest -- ten or twelve years -- and I very strongly suggest that everyone spend some time purusing his online catalog. For example, they have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools and Training Videos to help you use them. New "Basic Installation 2" is a 3 tape set, 6 hours that shows you how to build a frame. You might also check out their Telephony History Page which contains ads, catalogs and information from telephony related magazines from the first part of the last century: http://www.sandman.com/telhist.html Mike and his wife Donna are among the few businesses on the internet which really care about and are concerned for their customers and interact with them regularly. And their baby parakeets still have the run of their office/warehouse and make for interesting viewing on their web cam. Just start at the beginning of their site http://www.sandman.com and look around. If you get out of there without finding one telephone oddity or another which you decide to purchase, I'll be surprised. _By all means_ at least check out the new Telemarketer Destroyer. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:02:02 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Nokia Siemens Takes Aim at North American Market USTelecom dailyLead June 13, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hiakfDtusXtJlhCibuddiwsN TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Nokia Siemens takes aim at North American market BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint snaps up wireless affiliate Northern PCS * Deutsche Telekom: No plans to expand in developing countries * Verizon Business builds out optical long haul network * AT&T to use re-branded retail stores to sell broadband * Engin launching Australian broadband service without fixed-line rental fees USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Register Now for VIP NXTcomm Access! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * AT&T working with Hollywood to target pirated content * Nokia makes multimedia investment * Study: Customers unaware of mobile-number portability * Broadcom buys Global Locate * Telesurgery trial connects surgeon with robot 4,000 miles away IP DOWNLOAD * IPTV traffic to drive need for network upgrades * Truphone adds presence to VoIP offering REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Senators question FCC commissioner on USF EDITOR'S NOTE * New feature: dailyLead at work, home and on the road Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hiakfDtusXtJlhCibuddiwsN ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:00:00 CDT We get 'Dr. Phil' on Channel 7 on CableOne here in Independence each weekday at 3:00 PM. It just now came on today, and the good doctor is complaining that his name and reputation has been ripped off by some Nigerian-407 style con artists. Someone got a toll free 800 number listed as 'Doctor Phil' and when anyone calls 800 directory assistance for (the real) Dr. Phil, the directory robot operator gives them the number for the bogus 'Doctor Phil'. The person on the other end claims to be the producer of the show, and asks for money to set up an interview with him. Naturally, the money (at least a few hundred dollars, typically a thousand or more) has to be wired to the con-artist on the spot. He has an FBI investigator and others looking into it. Thus far, it has been traced to somewhere in Houston, TX, where the calls terminate on various phone lines. Two victims thus far have wired money to the scammer in Houston, each of them from desparate elderly people who were convinced to send large amounts of money to the bogus 'Dr. Phil'. On television they are trying to lure the con-artist out into the open. The scammer claims the money should be wired to 'Esther Hernandez' who is (the bogus) Dr. Phil's secretary. More details on this in the next issue of the Digest. Now I want to go in and watch the rest of it on television myself. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #165 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 14 15:49:37 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 31944224D; Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:49:36 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #166 Message-Id: <20070614194937.31944224D@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:49:36 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:50:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 166 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Searches Web's Dark Side (BBC News Wire) Malicious Code On Rise: Web Sites Responsible (BBC News Wire) Teenage Internet Addict Kills Mother, Assaults Father (Reuters News Wire) Lawsuits Mounting Over Massive Customer Data Breach at TJX (Monty Solomon) That iPhone Has a Keyboard, but It's Not Mechanical (Monty Solomon) Re: Twenty Percent Increase in NY Verizon Rates (T) Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist (Sam Spade) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Re: When it Rains, it Pours (John Mayson) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:20:46 -0500 From: BBC News Wire Subject: Google Searches Web's Dark Side One in ten web pages -- about ten percent -- scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC. Researchers from the firm surveyed billions of sites, subjecting 4.5 million pages to "in-depth analysis". About 450,000, or ten percent of those examined, were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge. A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report. To address the problem, the researchers say the company has "started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious". Phantom sites Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information. They usually consist of malicious programs that automatically install when a potential victim visits a booby-trapped website. "To entice users to install malware, adversaries employ social engineering," wrote Google researcher Niels Provos and his colleagues in a paper titled The Ghost In The Browser. Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web Avoiding attacks "The user is presented with links that promise access to 'interesting' pages with explicit pornographic content, copyrighted software or media. A common example are sites that display thumbnails to adult videos." The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install themselves. Some downloads, such as those that alter bookmarks, install unwanted toolbars or change the start page of a browser, are an annoyance. But increasingly, criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information. Other pieces of malicious code hijack a computer turning it into a "bot", a remotely controlled PC. Drive-by downloads represent a shift away from traditional methods of infecting a computer, such as spam and email attachments. Attack plan As well as characterising the scale of the problem on the net, the Google study analysed the main methods by which criminals inject malicious code on to innocent web pages. It found that the code was often contained in those parts of the website not designed or controlled by the website owner, such as banner adverts and widgets. Widgets are small programs that may, for example, display a calendar on a webpage or a web traffic counter. These are often downloaded from third-party sites. The rise of web 2.0 and user-generated content gave criminals other channels, or vectors, of attack, it found. For example, postings in blogs and forums that contain links to images or other content could unwittingly infect a user. The study also found that gangs were able to hijack web servers, effectively taking over and infecting all of the web pages hosted on the computer. In a test, the researchers' computer was infected with 50 different pieces of malware by visiting a web page hosted on a hijacked server. The firm is now in the process of mapping the malware threat. Google, part of the StopBadware coalition, already warns users if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, displaying a message that reads "this site may harm your computer" next to the search results. "Marking pages with a label allows users to avoid exposure to such sites and results in fewer users being infected," the researchers wrote. However, the task will not be easy, they say. "Finding all the web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the web as a whole," they wrote. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6645895.stm Copyright 2007 BBC 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/BBC.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:23:42 -0500 From: BBC News Wire Subject: Malicious Code On Rise: Web Sites Responsible Malicious code rise driven by web The number of new pieces of malicious software has doubled in the last year with the web being used increasingly to distribute the code, a report says. In the first quarter of 2007, security firm Sophos identified 23,864 threats, up from 9,450 on this time last year. In the same period the firm said it was identifying 5,000 web pages per day infected with so-called malware. The report was released during InfoSec, Europe's largest conference on online security issues, in London. "With computer users becoming increasingly aware of how to protect against email-aware viruses and malware, hackers have turned to the web as their preferred vector of attack," said the report. Legitimate sites Sophos reported that 70% of infected websites were legitimate sites hijacked by hackers because they had not been sufficiently protected. Visitors to websites -- even legitimate sites -- can protect themselves by ensuring they have up-to-date virus and anti-spyware software installed. "What's most worrying is that so many websites are falling victim because the owners are failing to properly maintain them," said Carole Theriault, Sophos. Search engine Google will warn users if they are visiting a website which is known to have malware hidden on it. While malware is a growing problem for users of Windows operating systems, there is little evidence of the problem affecting users of Apple Macs running OS X or PCs installed with Linux. Sophos cited the example of the Miami Dolphins official website which was hijacked in the week of the SuperBowl and was infected with malicious script. The code exploited Microsoft security vulnerabilities to install malware located on a Chinese server on to visitors' computers. "What's most worrying is that so many websites are falling victim because the owners are failing to properly maintain them and keep up to date with their patches," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "The average internet user assumes sites like the Miami Dolphins homepage are safe to access, but by targeting a whole range of internet pages, hackers are successfully infecting a larger number of unwary surfers. Any ill-maintained website can fall victim." According to the report, China hosts more than 40% of all websites containing malware. The United States hosts almost 30% of all sites, while the UK has 3% of the sites. 'Bad reputation' "China has traditionally had a bad reputation when it comes to cybercrime, consistently coming in the top two spam relaying countries month after month, so its position in this chart should come as no real surprise," said Ms. Theriault. Now, 'Two for the price of one' In a separate report, security firm MessageLabs warned that it was beginning to see e-mails which were _both spam and contained a virus._ "While the cyber-criminals have long used e-mail viruses to create botnets to send spam, this is the first time MessageLabs has seen viruses hidden within stock scam spam," the firm reported. Spammers sent out millions of fake stock e-mails in an attempt to influence the price of stock so it rises and can then be sold at a profit by the fraudsters. It is a practice known as "pump and dump". "Why use two emails when just one will do? These latest techniques are part of a new boldness being shown by certain criminal gangs we are tracking," said Mark Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6591183.stm Copyright 2007 BBC. 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/BBC.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed, why make two efforts at mass mailing spam/scam when it can all be done in one mailing. I've received a few of those; spam/scam/viri wrapped up all in one jumbo package. Whoever thought of this time and money-saving technique of doing it all at once deserves our special commendation (or would you say damnation). A special, reserved spot in Hell, eh? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:20:01 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Teenage Internet Addict Kills Mother, Assaults Father Over Money A teenage boy in southern China, "heavily addicted" to the Internet, killed his mother and severely injured his father with a kitchen knife after he was refused money to go to a cybercafe, state media said on Thursday. Wang, from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, stabbed his mother to death at home during a heated argument, the Beijing Youth Daily said. "After his father got home, Wang hacked at him causing serious injury. Seeing what he had done, Wang went to his room and sat on his bed," the paper said. Wang's father ran bleeding to his brother's house, who then alerted the police, it said. Wang had resolved to kill his parents a month earlier, and had once prepared to kill his father with an iron bar. He had also recently bought sleeping pills, the paper said. He said he had seen this earlier in a video game he liked to play at the cybercafe. Wang, who was "less than 16" but had left school a year before, would spend his spare time in Internet cafes when not working for his father who made a living selling barbecue food in their neighborhood. He had dreamed of being an outstanding politician or economist and believed his parents were stifling his development, the paper said. "They were mean to me when they would not give me the money I wanted to play internet video games at the cybercafe", he explained. China has seen an alarming rise in the number of Internet addicts in recent years, who it says may be responsible for up to 80 percent of juvenile crime. In recent months, China has banned the opening of new cybercafes in 2007 and issued orders limiting the time Internet users can spend playing online games. 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: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:48:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lawsuits Mounting Over Massive Customer Data Breach at TJX http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/business/x1289425994 By Mark Jewell/Associated Press Boston - The TJX Cos. Inc. faces federal lawsuits in five additional states over a data theft that exposed at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud, according to a regulatory filing Thursday by the owner of stores including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. A quarterly filing said TJX was named in nine new lawsuits filed since the Framingham-based company's March 28 update on a theft believed to be the largest in the U.S. based on the number of customer records compromised. Thursday's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission says complaints seeking class-action designation on behalf of customers were filed in April and May in the federal courts of five additional states: Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. Three new lawsuits were filed over the past two months in Massachusetts, where cases had previously been brought earlier in the year. The March 28 filing had listed more than a dozen lawsuits in Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and six Canadian provinces. The Massachusetts cases against TJX have been consolidated. In addition to listing TJX as a defendant, some of the lawsuits also name Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, which processed some payment card transactions for TJX. TJX said in Thursday's filing that it "intends to defend all of these actions vigorously," and Fifth Third has said it believes there are "substantial defenses" against the claims it faces. Most of the complaints have been filed by TJX customers whose personal data was stolen. But some have been brought by financial institutions saddled with costs to replace cards and cover fraudulent charges tied to the theft. In April, bank associations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine sued TJX, the owner of nearly 2,500 discount stores. TJX disclosed the breach on Jan. 17, and said March 28 that one or more intruders unearthed data from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards from transactions as long ago as early 2003. Independent organizations that track data thefts say the TJX case is believed to be the largest in the U.S. based on the number of customer records compromised. TJX says about three-quarters of the 45.7 million cards had either expired by the time of the theft, or the stolen information didn't include security code data from the cards' magnetic stripes. However, TJX also has said the intruders could have tapped the unencrypted flow of information to card issuers as customers checked out with their credit cards. The only arrests so far have come in Florida, where 10 people who aren't believed to be the TJX hackers are accused of using stolen TJX customer data to buy Wal-Mart gift cards. Last month, TJX said its first-quarter profit dipped 1 percent, in part due to a $12 million after-tax charge from costs related to the theft. Nevertheless, TJX reported a 6 percent increase in revenue as customer traffic remained strong despite negative publicity about the theft. On Thursday, TJX said sales at stores open at least a year rose 5 percent. Shares of TJX fell 77 cents, or about 2.7 percent, to close at $27.74, after the May sales report and before TJX's SEC filing. Besides its T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, TJX operates HomeGoods, A.J. Wright and Bob's Stores in the United States, Winners and HomeSense stores in Canada, and T.K. Maxx stores in Europe. Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. Copyright 2006-2007 GateHouse Media, Inc. Some Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:17:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: That iPhone Has a Keyboard, but It's Not Mechanical By JOHN MARKOFF The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 - If there is a billion-dollar gamble underlying Apple's iPhone, it lies in what this smart cellphone does not have: a mechanical keyboard. As the clearest expression yet of the Apple chief executive's spartan design aesthetic, the iPhone sports only one mechanical button, to return a user to the home screen. It echoes Steven P. Jobs's decree two decades ago that a computer mouse should have a single button. (Most computer mice these days have two.) His argument was that one button ensured that it would be impossible to push the wrong button. The keyboard is built into other phones, those designed for businesspeople as well as those for teenagers. But the lack of a keyboard could be seen as a clever industrial design solution. It has permitted the iPhone to have a 3.5-inch screen. A big screen makes the phone attractive for alternative uses like watching movies and that could open up new revenue streams for Apple and its partner, AT&T. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/technology/13phone.ready.html?ex=1339387200&en=cb1776bd5e878ba2&ei=5090 ------------------------------ From: T Subject: Re: Twenty Percent Increase in NY Verizon Rates Organization: The Ace Tomato and Cement Company Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:41:29 -0400 In article , dannyb@panix.com says: > from a "Legal Notice" in today's newspaper (reformatted) [a] > "Notice of proposed tariff filing for certain rate changes > .. they will go into effect on June 16, 2007 > "Dial tone monthly access line rate > - residence service > - current rate: $ 9.85 > - new rate: $11.85 > [a] NY Daily News Tues 11-June-2007 p. 70 > _____________________________________________________ > Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key > dannyb@panix.com > [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It appears to be a twenty percent > increase doesn't it? PAT] Ah, the dying gasps of Verizon. It's the same here in RI, they've lost 43% of their local loop business and their answer is to hike rates. Granted, I think the biggest hike is 13% but still, now they'll be MORE expensive than their competitors. The Providence Journal recently did a comparison between Verizon and Cox. The cost per month between the two only varies by a couple dollars. This is what happens when a duopoly is in control. Fortunately I found a way around it all. A 20mbps net service from Cox is $51 a month. My Vonage service is $33 a month. I'm loving it. I also have a decent TV antenna (Made of copper AWG 24 wire of course!) and a joost membership. So I'm not missing anything. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can't get by _quite_ that inexpen- sively here in Independence, KS. TV antennas are basically useless unless mounted quite high with expensive rotors attached. Being 80-125 miles away from the nearest television stations (Tulsa, to the south; Wichita and Topeka to the northwest/north and Pittsburg/Joplin, MO to the east) and much further away to Kansas City, we can choose to turn the antenna north by northwest for a choice of two stations and forget about Tulsa, or south/southeast for a compromise between Tulsa and Pittsburg, KS/Joplin, MO, but forget about Wichita/Topeka. Cable TV is almost an essential even if 'basic cable' is sort of skimpy by itself; at least the cable grabs all three 'markets', Tulsa, Wichita and Pittsburg/Joplin; in addition one or two of the KCMO stations. And we get Fox! Cable channel 3 although it is the 'Tulsa Market Fox' rather than than the 'Pittsburg/Joplin market Fox Network.' But -- CableOne does offer internet as well, and they are starting phone service in a month or so. Rates quoted on both are inexpensive. I suspect I will discontinue Vonage once CableOne gets its phone service started. One thing in its favor for me is that CableOne has a local office here in Independence and a local, in-town crew working in the office and in the field. Whenever -- quite rarely -- I call them on any sort of repair matter, they are here in an hour or less. They say once telephone service starts they will be in a position to port our existing 620-331 phone numbers as desired, using a 'phone modem' which is sort of like my 'cable modem' but for phone and cable internet in one unit. I doubt I will move my 620-331 phone number, in which case they will give me a 620-330 number to replace Vonage, most likely. When I call on the phone or stop by their office on Penn Street downtown, I get whatever I want in five minutes or less. Like yourself, I am not missing anything, except the crowds of people in line waiting to get service. That's why I love Independence: every thing I deal with, cable internet/TV, telephone service, gas, electric, even Social Security, has a _local_ office here in town with _local_ employees handling it. We now even have WiFi for our internet all over the downtown area; it would be nice if it was all over town, but having it in three or four downtown areas is a quite good start. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:48:20 -0700 Organization: Cox Anyone who would pay money to speak with the real "Dr." Phil is probably no worse off with the con artist. ;-) TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > We get 'Dr. Phil' on Channel 7 on CableOne here in Independence each > weekday at 3:00 PM. It just now came on today, and the good doctor > is complaining that his name and reputation has been ripped off by > some Nigerian-407 style con artists. Someone got a toll free 800 > number listed as 'Doctor Phil' and when anyone calls 800 directory > assistance for (the real) Dr. Phil, the directory robot operator > gives them the number for the bogus 'Doctor Phil'. The person on the > other end claims to be the producer of the show, and asks for money > to set up an interview with him. Naturally, the money (at least a few > hundred dollars, typically a thousand or more) has to be wired to the > con-artist on the spot. He has an FBI investigator and others looking > into it. Thus far, it has been traced to somewhere in Houston, TX, > where the calls terminate on various phone lines. Two victims thus > far have wired money to the scammer in Houston, each of them from > desparate elderly people who were convinced to send large amounts of > money to the bogus 'Dr. Phil'. On television they are trying to lure > the con-artist out into the open. The scammer claims the money should > be wired to 'Esther Hernandez' who is (the bogus) Dr. Phil's secretary. > More details on this in the next issue of the Digest. Now I want to > go in and watch the rest of it on television myself. > PAT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am amused by your comparison. :) You are probably correct. On the Wednesday show, Dr. Phil was outraged by this ripoff; he spent the entire hour dealing with it, and it will be continued on today's show. The imposter is apparently not all that sophisticated; the wo(man) claiming to be his producer/secretary is sort of crude, but smart enough many of his would-be guests were decieved by the trick. It has all been traced thus far to Houston, TX, at least that's where Western Union wires money to the imposter. I do not know which I like better on the afternoon television lineup around here: Dr. Phil, Judge Judy or Jerry Springer. Maybe I will stick with the classical music programming on KOSU, along with the NPR newscasts. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:24:03 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 14, 2007 ******************************** Investing in the Future http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24909?11228 Virtually everyone now agrees that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not a management fad but rather a key part of doing business in today's marketplace. The CSR agenda presents genuine risks to many areas of corporate performance and to a company's overall reputation. Communications providers need to stay ahead of the ... Uncertainty as TeliaSonera's CEO Quits http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24908?11228 Nordic telecoms giant TeliaSonera has announced that its chief executive officer (CEO), Anders Igel, will quit the company, following declining profit margins and the failure of the company's leadership to resolve ownership disputes in Turkey and Russia. Igel, who has been chief executive for five years, engineered the merger of ... EU Rules Out Scrutiny of Telecom Italia, Telefonica Deal http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24906?11228 The European Union (EU) will not rule on a bid by a consortium led by the Spanish telecoms giant, Telefonica, to take a controlling stake in Telecom Italia as the deal does not fit the criteria for EU anti-trust involvement, according to reports from Dow Jones. The report notes that EU competition regulations state that the ... Microsoft to License Instant Messaging, Digital Media Code to Linspire http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24901?11228 SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. has announced it will license instant messaging and digital media technology to a small desktop Linux distributor, Linspire Inc., adding to a growing number of deals meant to help the Windows operating system work more smoothly with open-source software. San Diego-based Linspire's relationship with ... Clearwire: Making the Internet Mobile http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24898?11228 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Speaking at the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) in the nation's capital yesterday, Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff described his company as "doing for the Internet what cellular did for voice." Wolff went on to say that Clearwire's strategy is to give consumers what they want, that being ... Zhone Electrifies FTTH http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24895?11228 Zhone earlier this week took the wraps off of what looks to be the world's first Optical Line Terminal/Optical Network Terminal (OLT/ONT) Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Gateway that doesn't need to be powered by the home electric circuit. Theoretically that eliminates the big power outage bugaboo surrounding fiber -- but of course ... AlcaLu Plays the Patents http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24888?11228 Alcatel-Lucent is pumped about the top-line potential of its patent portfolio, with CEO Pat Russo spending a great deal of her time focused on how to extract the maximum payback from the company's combined intellectual property, according to industry sources. That the vendor regards its patent portfolio as a strength is ... FastSoft Wades Into the WAN http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/24886?11228 Caltech spinoff FastSoft is the latest entrant to the WAN optimization arena, with a TCP technology it claims can significantly speed file delivery over the Internet. The startup, which launched its first products earlier this year, also clinched a $4 million funding round this week, led by Miramar Ventures. ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:31:08 -0500 From: John Mayson Reply-To: John Mayson Subject: Re: When it Rains, it Pours Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com PAT, I know you're feeling about like Job now. What else can the Big Man dish out to you? Just guestimating your age, I could be your oldest son. But even in that short of a time span I have seen my share of ups and downs. I have had days where I literally did not want to get out of bed because something else bad would happen. If it's any consolation, things won't stay bad forever. I sometimes think that it's good when bad things happen all at once. It gets them out of the way and doesn't spoil it when a good thing happens. I think you're not alone in your Social Security predicament. People who either remember the New Deal or perhaps their parents did, think the government can work wonders for the people. I grew up during a much more cynical era, that the government is full of incompetent morons who have never heard the term "budgeting money". I'm at least 30 years away from retirement. I am assuming Social Security will provide me nothing. Unfortunately many, many, many people assumed the government would keep its word and that Social Security would see them through. The next decade in this country is going to be very interesting. Millions of baby boomers are going to join the "government payroll" all at once. I don't see how we're going to do it. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My age is 65 as of September 24. So how old are you? Had I not become disabled I would still be working for another few months and eligible to retire at 65 years and a few months. Because I became disabled (by the goverment's harsh defintion of same) and because _not all of_ the rules pertaining to Social Security had been changed at the time at the age of 58, I squeezed into the disabled person's 'special rules' at SSD. The rule _had been_ if you became permanently disabled at 58 or older, the government treated you as 'disabled' until age 65 and then 'on paper only' made you fully retired at age 65. Now I understand the rules have changed for that as well, and had my brain aneursym occurred a few months after it did (I became effectively disabled as of 11-24-99) I would have gotten a few months' additional squeezed out me as well. 'Permanent' disability is defined by the government as seven years. 'Disabilty' is thus defined when SSD's own payroll doctor makes it such. SSD had a psychiatrist come here to my house in late winter, 2000 to examine my brain and associated functions. In his estimation, my 'disability' was 'permanent'. Therefore, I would be scheduled for another visit to have my brain examined in seven years, or 2007. But the 'special rules' kicked in because of my age. So, in two months, or September, 2007 I will be 'cured' on paper and become 'retired'. I do not yet understand _why_ I came out of the coma I had been in for more than two months. Social's doctor could not understand it either, saying "most people with any aneurysm -- let alone a brain aneurysm -- usually die on the spot, or certainly they expire in their comatose state." My own doctor and therapists at Storemont Vale Medical Center in Topeka said the same thing. They all thought I was really sort of a curiosity. To the medically unsophisticated, an 'aneurysm' is similar to, but not identical to a 'stroke'. In the former, a blood vessle swells up like a balloon before breaking. They all attributed my partial paralysis to 'permanent brain damage' in some part of my brain. Although in some ways I _have_ improved physically (not as confused as at first, but speech still remains slurred) I still limp around and use my motorized chair to get around and cannot walk more than a half block or so without being extremely winded and tired. Everyone agreed that the majority of the brain damage I endured was as a result of the delay in getting me into the hospital for surgery, etc. (125 mile ride in back of the ambulance from Western Kansas over to Topeka down I-70 in evening traffic, after a cursory examination at Geary County Hospital first.) I suppose I am glad I lived another day to write more Editor's Notes, but I cannot imagine why I was given that courtesy. Must have been some reason for it. 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://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ***************************************************************** Wild Jack Casino has long been recognized as one of the best online casinos on the internet. While specializing in blackjack, Wild Jack offers more than 300 exciting online real-money casino games, including online slots, roulette, keno, craps, and more. Now, this top _Blackjack Online Kasino_ http://de.wildjack.com/ is available in Germany too. Take advantage of our generous sign-up bonuses, our great promotions, our big payouts, and our courteous and professional customer support team. Join Wildjack.de today! ***************************************************************** One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #166 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 15 03:20:34 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5791A227E; Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:20:34 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #167 Message-Id: <20070615072034.5791A227E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:20:34 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:22:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 167 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Texas Sex Police Arrest Seven MySpace Members (Reuters News Wire) NATO Says Urgent Need to Tackle Cyber Attack (Reuters News Wire) Reloading a Cell Phone's Microprogram? (Lisa Hancock) Alcatel-Lucent Platform Gives Service Providers More (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Cleaning up Some Odds and Ends (Lisa Hancock) Re: When it Rains, it Pours (mc) Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist (Linc Madison) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:41:57 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Texas Sex Police Arrest Seven MySpace Members Texas police arrested seven convicted sex offenders after MySpace handed over identity details about the former members of the Internet social network, the Texas attorney general's office said on Thursday. The seven, whose profiles on MySpace had already been removed under an internal program to weed out sex offenders prowling the News Corp.-owned site, were arrested for breaking parole or probation rules. The arrests, which occurred over a two-week period, come after authorities in several states asked MySpace to hand over information on convicted sex offenders. The seven offenders had been convicted of sexually assaulting girls as young as 4 years old. Most victims were between 13 and 21 years old. Six of the men were arrested because they had MySpace profiles even though their parole conditions banned them from using the Internet. One was arrested because he had failed to register as a sex offender with local authorities. MySpace began working with authorities in May after tense negotiations over the legality of divulging its users' information. "Texans will not tolerate criminals who prey on our children," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. "These convicted sex predators established online identities on a Web site that is popular with teenagers and children." Most states require convicted sex offenders to register their contact information with local authorities after being released from prison. Lawmakers are now pushing for the registration of valid e-mail addresses as part of the requirement. MySpace commissioned background verification firm Sentinel Safe Tech Holdings Corp. to create a national database of sex offenders last year, after reports that some of its teenage users were abducted by sex predators. "We partnered with Sentinel Tech to build this technology to remove registered sex offenders from our site and to ensure that law enforcement could arrest those who were violating their probation or parole," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement. Before the national database was created, information on convicted sex offenders was available only locally. 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: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:45:17 -0500 From: Reuters News Wire Subject: NATO Says Urgent Need to Tackle Cyber Attack NATO defense ministers agreed on Thursday that fast action was needed to tackle the threat of "cyber attacks" on key Internet sites after Estonia suffered a wave of assaults on its computer networks last month. "There was sentiment round the table that urgent work is needed to enhance the ability to protect information systems of critical importance," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a news conference at a two-day meeting in Brussels. "They (the attacks on Estonia) were sustained, coordinated and focused. They had clear national security and economic implications," he said. "That will be the subject of work here." Estonia suffered an onslaught of cyber attacks on private and government Internet sites, peaking in May after a decision to move a Soviet-era statue from a square in Tallinn prompted outrage from Russian nationals in Estonia and a diplomatic row with Moscow. The attacks appeared to have stemmed initially from Russia although the Kremlin denied it was behind the assaults. Network specialists said the attacks consisted of a barrage of clicks on a given Web site, leading to overload. Some sites faced up to 1,000 clicks a second, compared with a normal level of 1,000 to 1,500 clicks a day. Estonia said they affected thousands of sites and were akin to a terrorist attack in their potential to cripple key infrastructure. It urged NATO to recognize such incidents as an emerging threat. "We got more support than we expected, particularly with this acknowledgement of an urgent need to react," Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo told Reuters during a break in the meeting. NATO officials said the 26-member alliance, which sent a technology expert to Estonia at the height of the onslaught, would study how it could step up existing work within NATO and national capitals on tackling the cyber threat. 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/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Reloading a Cell Phone's Microprogram? Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:40:10 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com When I got my new cell phone I had to dial in a special code for the phone to download some microcode. I was told to do so periodically so as to get fresh updates. I assume these downloads are protected from viruses and sabotage by dialed direct to the carrier. But is there any risk? Is there anything checking I as a lay consumer can do? I've heard that there are malicious downloads out there. I use the phone for voice only, but given the insidious nature of computer malware*, perhaps some party could shoot some crap at me without me knowing it. Frankly, I know nothing of cell phone technology. (I didn't even know it had updatable microprgramming). Suppose down the road I want to try to download music or some other advanced optional feature. How can I protect myself? Thanks! *I recall even back in BBS days a virus would mute the modem speaker, then dial a very expensive overseas country and do stuff, all without the computer user aware of it since the modem speaker was muted and most lay uers had no idea of background operations. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:33:14 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Alcatel-Lucent Platform Gives Service Providers More Options USTelecom dailyLead June 14, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hirAfDtusXtMyoCibuddPchp TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Alcatel-Lucent platform gives service providers more options BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon adds FiOS franchises * Filings reveal Alltel talked to other buyers * Ericsson strategy gives it an edge in China, India USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Experience What's Hot at NXTcomm! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Group mulls ultrawideband over coax standard * AT&T taps Networx subcontractor * Bharti Airtel starts FMC pilot tests * Microtek to distribute Wavecom products in Japan IP DOWNLOAD * Raketu uses VoIP as foundation for new social-net portal REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Court halts NTT from selling stake in Sri Lanka Telecom Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hirAfDtusXtMyoCibuddPchp ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Cleaning up Some Odds and Ends Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:55:11 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On Jun 9, 6:05 pm, ptown...@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) wrote: > I apologize for earlier this week when I interuppted the conversations > in progress for one of my periodic money requests. Can money be sent to your PO box? > I also, once each year, get two interesting benefits: food sales tax > exemption (a flat payback of $72 for the prior year) for whatever I > paid in food sales tax. In Penna and NJ, regular food (not junk food [ie candy and soda] or restaurant food) is exempt for sales tax. Also most clothing. I don't know why this isn't that way in all places. > That's another thing: the monthly federal payout on Disability is Your lucky you can get Social Security Disability. Some years ago they steeply raised the qualification. Most people were turned down and had to appeal, which meant they had to get an expensive lawyer. One day I was at the post office when a frail man asked me for help to interpret a letter. It was from the Disability determination unit. It was printed in all caps and completely (at least to me) confusing. How could a frail or uneducated people make sense of it? I was angry. Fortunately, at least the letter was signed by a real person with a real direct telephone (not a answer battery) number. I circled the name and number and suggested the man call her to discuss what needs to be done. Back in the Depression, the New Deal created an alphabet soup of government programs to help people in trouble. These programs indeed literally saved thousands of lives (and the country from revolution). But they created a bureacratic nightmare that exists to this day. During WW II the government paid a stipend to the dependents of soldiers. A massive bureacracy was created with an enormous IBM information processing data center (IBM's biggest set up). One thing that bothered me was that if a soldier was killed, the checks stopped immediately, indeed, they would go through the mail trays (envelopes ready to go out) and search out checks already printed and stuffed, to pull payment. (This was detailed in their Annual Report). I guess they had to do it that way to be fair, rather than let one family slide for 3 months and another family not slide at all depending on how fast the death notice came through. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To answer your first question; yes, asolutely on the address: PO Box 50, Independence, KS 67301. If you use that address, obviously a check is safer than cash. In Kansas, 'food stamps' (actually an ATM card called 'Vision' with a credit card number in the Discover Card range, i.e. '6034xxxxxxxxxxxxx' is used. Those cards are exempt from sales tax and CAN be used for 'junk food', but NOT for 'ready to eat' food, for example microwave sandwhiches in convenience stores, nor tobacco nor liquor, nor animal (or any non-human edible) food. I do _not_ receive any variation on 'food stamps', either state or federal. The latter of these are none the less administerd by state welfare programs, as agents for the federal government. Although the federal (versus state) requirements are a bit looser, my 'income' (almost entirely SSD, as paltry as it is) is still too high. As a separate thing, state of Kansas chooses to rebate a flat-rate $72.00 annually to senior citizens or certified disabled persons against the food sales tax they paid all year long at the cash register. If I had a Vision Card and swiped it at the cash register, food sales tax is automatically calculated from the total amount due (when the grocery purchase is deducted from the allotment given.) If I tried to claim the $72.00 also, or 'double-dipped' I am sure before too many years they would catch up with me. As a senior, either I get the $72 once a year _OR_ I pay no food sales tax at all with the Vision card; but not both. One good thing about living in a small town like Independence is that everyone knows everyone else and many times are friends. It also helps that we have a full service Social Security office here in our town. The office has _three_ employees plus the male manager.(Two clerks and a 'service representative'). The manager is also a member of the 'Friends of the Independence Public Library' committee, the same as myself, and perhaps has other pursuasions similar to my own. I know every person (all three of them!) working in that office. We do not socialize, but we know each other and are friendly aquaintences. Maybe I pass one of them in a local restaurant and nod, etc. When I go in their office, there are never any other clients there, or maybe one or two. Talking to a woman working there one day I asked her, "Have you ever been to Chicago, or worked for Social Security there?" She said, "no, but I have heard the SSA office there is a large place." I explained to her that customers go in, take a number and wait 30-45 minutes for the number to be called, _then_ go stand in a line behind other customers approaching one of several booths with service reps. She clucked her tongue, rolled her eyes and said it sounded pretty awful. Yeah, I guess so. There are definite advantages to rural s.e. Kansas culture, not the least of which is lots of personal aquaintences in 'good' places. Everyone, literally, knows everyone else in this town. Now days also, Social does not mail out _nearly_ as many checks as they used to. They much prefer direct deposit which gives them up to a matter of a few hours the day before payment to put a stop on the payment if they wish. And payments are scattered all through the month. If your payment previously was on the third of each month, then it stayed that way. But 'newer' clients (like myself) fall into payment 'groups' based on our social security numbers. Some on the first of each month, some on the third, and for most of us, the four payment groups are the first four Wednesdays of each month. I am in the fourth (Wednesday) pay group. If First Wednesday is also the first or third day of the month, then checks are issued to first pay group on the second day of the new month, otherwise if Wednesday X pay group is a holiday, the checks are delivered on Tuesday. In other words they space them all out over a month. I always get my direct deposits between the 22nd of the month and the 28th for the _prior_ month. And they do not hesitate to pull it back if, in their opinion, you have lost your entitlement. They do not pay if you go to a nursing home under a state welfare program; they do not pay if you have been convicted of a crime and are currently incarcerated. They are getting quite tough. I never have a single problem with Social ... the deposits are always in the bank on the day they say they will be. I did have a hassle with food sales tax/homestead tax rebate once, in 2002. I had put in the form at the county clerk's office early in January, which means the refunds come in about two weeks via mail, but in that year, 2002, instead I got back a copy of a warrant from the accounts recievable offset office of the state treasurer. It seems the City of Junction City, KS (where I was at when I had the aneurysm) had filed a tax refund offset for the overdue ambulance bill between Junction City and Topeka for a few hundred dollars. I got Junction City to release the warrant, and shortly thereafter the state treasurer sent my food/homstead tax rebates to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: When it Rains, it Pours Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:14:23 -0400 Pat, remember that with brain injuries, 5 years can make a big difference even if 1 year seems not to. We all wish you a long life and continuing recovery. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember getting email from someone in 2000 commenting on my (then, just recent) aneurysm experience. He complained that never having taken a drink in his life, several years earlier he had been driving a car that had been struck by a drunk driver. It left him in pretty dreadful shape, and even at that time, then ten years following the accident, he was still walking around with a limp. He said to me, "go figure', and that things 'happen' in life. I do not know if I have 'recovered' any in the past five or six years, or if it is only a case where I have learned to compensate for my new shortcomings. I do know in a few cases, my heath has gotten worse. I had gotten to the point I was able to walk around with a limp; now I cannot go a block on my own without my motorized chair and oxygen supply. Please remember that since getting back home after the aneurysm I have since had another heart attack (stent now installed) and had peumonia. I also have COPD to deal with. But thanks for your good wishes on my eventual recovery. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:03:32 -0700 From: Linc Madison Organization: Linc Mad dot com In article , PAT wrote: > I do not know which I like better on the afternoon television lineup > around here: Dr. Phil, Judge Judy or Jerry Springer. Maybe I will > stick with the classical music programming on KOSU, along with the NPR > newscasts. Oh, but there are so many other choices: Star Trek on channel 42, the afternoon political lineup on channel 43, King of the Hill and That 70's Show on channel 55, or even Golden Girls on channel 29. For talk shows, you've got Ellen Degeneres on channel 13, followed by Oprah on channels 6 and 9. Failing that, there's always Al Jazeera English via the Internet feed. You can watch the low-bandwidth feed for free at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1EBB4C7F-7F2E-4257-A04C-56678862 E31A.htm (or click on "Watch Now" on the main page) Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom at Linc Mad d0t c0m URL: < http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits Read my political blog, "The Third Path" US, California, and Washington State laws apply to LINCMAD.COM e-mail. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We get all those shows you mentioned on our own cable at our own time, etc. King of the Hillbillies is on Fox Channel 3 following the Simpsons (America's favorite disfunctional family) at 6:00 PM nightly. Oprah is on here in the morning on two or three cable channels, mercifully not all at the same time. Among the cartoons such as King of the Hillbillies (as I call Hank Hill and his friends) and the Simpsons, my favorite is probably 'South Park' featuring those bratty children. Oh, and I must also mention 'CSI-Special Victims Unit' with those two lying, no-good police officers, Elliot Stabler and his partner Olivia Benson. They are always getting into some trouble or another it seems, as we might expect with the sterling good-as-gold reputation of the New York PD. In one of tonight's adventures, Olivia and Elliot are telling one of their prisoners, "If you want us to help you, then help us." The prisoner replies, "You mean like you helped Abner Louima by sodomizing him with that plunger handle?" Elliot flinches when he hears that comment. _Of course_ the prisoner refuses to talk further to either of the two clowns without having his attorney present. Those two are such a barrel of laughs, and quite inspirational, several times daily on USA Network. I guess you may have heard that at the end of season eight, all four of them get canned along with their captain, by the NY police internal investigations board, which Elliot and Olivia and Officer Munch and Ice-T refer to as the 'rat squad', "because they are always making trouble for us good police officers".. Say, Linc, do you know how to tell the difference on USA Network between a regular programming day and a CSI-SVU 'marathon' like they had last weekend? Well, if it is a 'marathon' then it is at least a couple dozen CSI-SVU shows back to back, hours on end; they alternate with a couple of would-be pedophile episodes, then a rape or two, and some other kinky crap such as a gay guy who they accuse of being a cannibal, but all straight SVU. If it is a regular programming day, then they only run three or four CSI-SVU shows in a row, take a break for CSI-Criminal Intent; (another goofball detective and his hilarious sidekick), and then go back to three or four more SVU programs. And don't forget the good folks at MSNBC: Their thing now at night seems to be alternating between their boy with the hidden cameras and the Perverted Justice group of vigilantes and the documentary they frequently play on life in the Los Angeles County Jail. I would give up my cable entirely if it were not that I want internet connections and NPR out of Tulsa (KOSU) comes in a lot better with the cable connected to the radio also. 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. 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2007 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ 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 V26 #167 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 15 16:04:40 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id B323221B2; Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:04:40 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #168 Message-Id: <20070615200440.B323221B2@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:04:40 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:07:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 168 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Data on Ohio State Workers Stolen (Stephen Majors, AP) GE Money Teams up With eBay to Start eBay Master Card (Deepti Chaudhary) Single-Slot Payphones (History) (Lisa Hancock) CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily) Surveys Show AT&T Faces Massive Demand for iPhone (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist (John Hines) From Our Archives: A Quaint Relic on Computer Spying (Archives Reprint) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:11:03 -0500 From: Stephen Majors, AP Subject: Data on Ohio State Workers Stolen By STEPHEN MAJORS, Associated Press Writer A data storage device with the Social Security numbers and other personal information on all 64,000 Ohio state employees was stolen from a state intern's car last weekend, Gov. Ted Strickland said Friday. "I don't mean to alarm people unnecessarily," Strickland said. "There's no reason to believe a breach of information has occurred." He said it takes special equipment to access the information on the device, so he doesn't believe the workers' privacy is in jeopardy. Strickland said an Office of Budget and Management intern assigned to an interagency computer project mistakenly left the disk, a backup, in a vehicle parked outside an apartment Sunday. The intern, who informed his supervisor of the theft Monday, is being investigated, the governor said. Strickland said he was not allowed to specifically describe the computer device, or other details surrounding the theft, under direction from law enforcement investigating the theft. It was just the latest case of personal information on thousands of employees disappearing or being inappropriately accessed. Several universities, corporations and even the Veterans Affairs Department have reported lost or stolen data. In the Ohio case, Strickland said the state would provide employees access to free identity protection services for the next year, a cost he estimated at about $660,000. He also issued an executive order to change state procedures for handling such data. Under protocol in place since 2002, a first backup storage device is kept at a temporary work site for a state office along with the computer system that holds all the employee information, and a second backup device is given to employees on a rotating basis to take home for safekeeping, officials said. Strickland said it was inappropriate for an intern to be designated that responsibility, and he ordered an end to the practice of employees taking the devices home. State Budget Director Pari Sabety said the device now would be stored in another location in a locked, fireproof box. 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: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:14:42 -0500 From: Deepti Chaudhary, Reuters n Subject: GE Money Teams up With eBay to Stsrt eBay Master Card GE Money, the consumer lending unit of General Electric Co., said it will offer eBay Mastercard in partnership with eBay in late June. EBay will provide promotional and branding support for card and GE Money Bank will be responsible for issuing the card, and providing customer service, billing and credit management, the company said in a statement. (Reporting by Deepti Chaudhary in Bangalore) Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Single-Slot Payphones (History) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:10:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The original 3-slot payphone, where coins dropping rang bells to indicate amounts, is now seen only in old movies. It was a very long- lasting design. In the 1960s the Bell System developed a replacement model that would be more efficient, suitable for automation, and more vandal resistant. It contained a single slot for coins and was in a boxy shape. Originally introduced in high demand locations, it eventually became the standard. Externally at least, the single slot phone offered by the baby Bell successors, looks the same. Many still say "BELL SYSTEM Western Electric" on some part. They have real mechanical ringers, not electronic. However, I presume the innards, even of basic models, are more advanced than that of the 1960s model. For the basic models in baby Bell service, would anyone know if there are significant changes from the 1960s version? Or, are they just using old units that they have a large inventory of? Thanks. ------------------------------ Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update From: communicationsdirect Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:42:43 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update For June 15, 2007 ******************************** State Regulation of VoIP Services: Get Ready, It's Coming http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24926?11228 Soon, in a hearing room at the Missouri Public Service Commission, state regulators will try to make the case that Comcast's 'Digital Voice' VoIP service should be regulated as a competitive telephone service. If they succeed, the Missouri Commission may not only take a significant step toward establishing VoIP - or ... Becoming Pivotal Part of Communications http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24923?11228 The Sprint joint venture with cable companies has started to roll out across the country with bundled quad-play services. Names of new corporations these days often don't provide a clue about what the company's business may be or how the company views itself. Not so with Pivot, the weeks-old name of the Sprint joint venture ... Croatian Government to Sell Up to 23 Percent of Croatian Telecom http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/24921?11228 ZAGREB, Croatia -- The Croatian government decided Friday to sell 20-23 percent of shares in the Croatian telecommunications company -- controlled by Deutsche Telecom -- on the stock market. The sale is tentatively set for September, the deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec said. The shares of HT-Hrvatske ... Report: Mobile Operators Slow Spending http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/24919?11228 According to a report from research and analysis firm Pyramid Research, capital expenditures by mobile network operators will slow in 2007. Even though network operators increased spending at double-digit rates in 2005 and 2006, new technologies and changing business models are affecting the mobile landscape and consequently the ... Cable to Face Second 'Family' Act http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24914?11228 Two legislators have proposed a bill that would require MSOs to offer family-friendly programming and looks to push Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin's desire to push an ala carte programming model on the cable industry. The bill, introduced by Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Jeff Fortenberry ... Sprint: WiMax Options Open http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/24911?11228 Sprint Nextel Corp. is promising a WiMax 'market update' at the NXTcomm show in Chicago on June 21. This follows a report that the company may be considering more partnerships centered around the wireless broadband technology or even a spinoff of its WiMax unit. Sprint tends to announce new towns and cities where ... Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to: CommunicationsDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:55:41 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Surveys Show AT&T Faces Massive Demand For iPhone USTelecom dailyLead June 15, 2007 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hjgIfDtusXtSjdCibudduofI TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Surveys show AT&T faces massive demand for iPhone BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Analysts high on three regional phone carriers * AT&T adds $10 broadband plan * Hutchison Whampoa increases stake in Hutchison Telecom * Verizon forges retransmission deal with Nexstar USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * CNBC'S Bartiromo to moderate Washington Policy Makers panel at NXTcomm TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Clearwire extends reach with satellite-provider deals * Nortel helps deliver Rev A to Mexico * Canada's ISPs look for ways to make money off infrastructure investments * Free 411 service wants license fees from competitors * AMI, MagnaChip push forward in ultra-low-power space IP DOWNLOAD * ATIS releases IPTV standard for end-to-end IPTV * Granada, Orange sign deal for video-on-demand in France REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Spectrum-public-safety plan debated at Senate hearing Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hjgIfDtusXtSjdCibudduofI ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:55:54 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org > In article , PAT wrote: > Oh, and I must also mention 'CSI-Special Victims Unit' with those two > lying, no-good police officers, Elliot Stabler and his partner Olivia > Benson. I think you mean Law & Order: Special victims, as it has those actors. CSI:whatever is on CBS, where L&O:spinoffs is on NBC, at least for original runs. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct on the title, and I stand corrected. Sorry. I still maintain that Unlawful & Disorderly (all flavors of it) is on USA Network sooooo much. On a typical day, Unlawful & Disorderly and the 'stories' presented by the cops takes up too much time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ptownson@telecom-digest.org Subject: A Quaint Relic From Our Archives on Computer Spying Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:00:00 CDT For a special treat this weekend, I have a book review on the 'Rise of the Computer State' which was published more than 23 years ago in this Digest, in 1984, when people were talking about the book by the same name which had been published thirty or forty years before _that_. I assume David Burnham who wrote the book we are reviewing today, has himself grown wiser over the years. In fact, if he is still around, he might favor us with a 2007 'revision'. I think Rob Kling might have grown more wise also. As usual, ignore all these email addresses; I doubt any of them are used any longer. PAT =============================================== 11-Jan-84 22:49:51-PST,24630;000000000000 Return-path: Mail-from: DECNET site ECLA rcvd at 11-Jan-84 2248-PST Date: 11 Jan 1984 1353-PST From: Rob-Kling Subject: Review- Rise of the Computer State To: telecom@USC-ECLC Received: from UCI-20b by UCI-750a; 11 Jan 84 14:08:56 PST (Wed) Via: UCI; 11 Jan 84 21:21-PDT Via: Usc-Cse; 11 Jan 84 22:41:56 Rise of the Computer State by David Burnham Published by Random House, New York - 1983. Review by Rob Kling Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine (KLING.UCI@RAND-relay) This book examines the ways that Federal agencies and elected officials have employed computer-based information systems (CBIS) to increase their power unfairly. Burnham's main theses are: 1) that CBIS have often been effective media for extending the surveillance potential of the host organization; 2) overall, citizens have lost substantial power in their routine dealings with computer-using organizations; 3) attempts to regulate the use of CBIS containing personal records have been frail and largely ineffective relative to the scale of operations that should be regulated; 4) some organizations which employ sophisticated CBIS for intelligence, such as the National Security Agency, are unaccountable to the larger public. These theses have a sinister tinge. As we enter 1984, the United States is far from a police state. However, Burnham fears that the slow, steady, consistent adoption of new surveillance systems and the expansion of existing ones is eroding democratic political processes in the United States. If he is correct, these are arguably the most important consequences of computerization in the United States. This is a trade book aimed at the same audience that reads "Megatrends", "The Third Wave", or "Fifth Generation". Unlike these highly popular books which are permeated with happy talk about the social possibilities of widespread computerization, "The Rise of the Computer State" examines the seamy underside of organizations that employ CBIS to collect, manipulate, and communicate sensitive data about all of us. Burnham, a New York Times reporter, has written this book for a popular audience. Its strengths lie in Burnham's sensitivity to the civil liberties issues in practices that might simply appear "expeditious" and in his eye for graphic detail in explaining how organizations employ CBIS to make their operations efficient and "effective." Burnham examines two themes that link computerization with a certain kind of organizational power: surveillance of "targeted" people or groups and opinion polling. In a separate chapter he examines the National Security Agency which he labels "the ultimate computer bureaucracy." SURVEILLANCE Some organizations act under legislative mandates that many people would label "pro-social". For example, the Bureau of Child Support of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office uses CBIS to seize California State tax refunds from certain runaway fathers who are delinquent in their child support payments. A second group act within the boundaries of legal, but unduly permissive information practices. For example, a company called U.D. Registry provides landlords with histories of disputes with previous landlords, maintains records which are usually unknown to tenants and does little to insure that they are treated fairly. A third group of organizations engage in action that are either illegal or nearly so. For example, U.S. Army's surveillance of liberal and leftist activists in the late 1960's, extended well beyond the scope of "national security." Burnham portrays these activities with sharp detail that give color to routine practices and their participants. Burnham is a staunch civil libertarian and sees all social surveillance as problematic. It is easiest to criticize organizations like the U.S. Army when they intrude upon political minorities and thereby threaten First amendment rights. It is also easy to criticize some of the "holes" in CBIS such as those operated by U.D. Registry, which are unknown to people on whom records are kept, and who are not legally obligated to enable people to see their records, correct errors, or annotate their files case of disputes. Burnham's criticisms reach much further than identifying the problems with CBIS employed by the second and third groups of organizations. He questions the first group as well. Burnham's questions about organizations and systems for tracking runaway fathers who leave their children on welfare illustrates of his concerns about social strategies which depend upon extensive surveillance for enforcement: 1) will the original target group be slowly enlarged until it is much larger than originally intended in the enabling legislation? 2) can the information system be extended by local officials for surveillance upon "others who fall into disfavor?" Burnham reports how the scope of these systems has expanded from locating parents who were avoiding child support payments and whose children were receiving funds from Federal welfare programs to include any parent whose (ex)spouse seeks the other parent of their children. Burnham notes that there are few constitutional limits on the scope of such an surveillance system. Why not, for example, expand its scope so that creditors can track down their debtors? Or why not expand it expand it so that people can locate lost relatives and old friends? While these "information needs" are less heart wrenching than the situations of women who turn to public assistance when their ex-husbands refuse to pay court-mandated child support, they are also "pro-social." Burnham argues that little prevents surveillance systems such as this one from being slowly expanded to track ever larger groups of people than legislative sentiment and a fragile coalition of legislators who are sympathetic to civil liberties values. Burnham uses this example to illustrate another key feature of recent surveillance systems: records systems which are set up for rather narrow purposes of one organization are used by investigators in another organization. The Parent Locator System, for example, is not a particular, specialized CBIS. Rather, it is a set of procedures and arrangements which enable certain investigators to send lists of "missing parents" to the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Defense Department, the Veterans Administration, and the National Personnel Center. Each of these organizations honors these requests, searches its CBIS for the current locations of the "missing parents" and returns the information to the requestors on magnetic tape. While many CBIS could be operated as manual systems, these searches would be prohibitively expensive add-ons with manual record systems. However, the marginal costs of search are affordable with computerized record systems. The Parent Locator "System" is one of many "matching programs" in which public agencies use existing files to search for deviants. Organizational payroll files have been "matched" against welfare files to find gainfully employed people who are committing welfare fraud. State Department of Motor Vehicle files have been matched with Selective Service files to identify eligible 18 year olds who have not registered for the draft. In each of these cases, the records of thousands of people who have broken no laws are matched to find the few that have. Burnham finds the principle offensive, even though the applications are expedient and have so far have been aimed at lawbreakers. In his eyes, expediency and efficiency should not be preeminent values for administrative action. PRIVACY REGULATIONS Burnham briefly examines some of the Federal privacy initiatives of the last decade, including the Privacy Act of 1974, the proposals of the Privacy Protection Study Commission, and the 1978 Financial Right to Privacy Act. These laws have provided minimal protections, and important protections of the Federal Right to Privacy Act have been undermined in implementation by Federal agencies under Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Only a few of the 155 recommendations reported by the Privacy Protection Study Commission in 1977 have been enacted in law. Burnham mentions these laws and examines some of their limitations. However, he doesn't evaluate their potential. Would many of the problems of CBIS operated by firms like the U.D. Registry be ameliorated if they were brought under laws like the Fair Credit Reporting Act? Would civil liberties be better protected if the remaining recommendations of the Privacy Protection Study Commission were enacted in law? Unfortunately, Burnham is mute about these possibilities. Burnham is strongest in identifying concrete problems. Most serious there is no permanent institutional counterweight to Federal agencies when they propose new, more efficient, or enlarged personal record systems. Agencies such as the FBI, the IRS, or the Social Security Administration can return to Congress every few years with proposals for massive CBIS which have problematic privacy aspects and expect that sooner or later, the civil libertarians who restricted their last proposal will be weaker or pre-occupied with other matters. POLLING Burnham examines opinion polling as another form of organizational intelligence which has been rendered substantially more efficient and sophisticated by computers. He views opinion polling by elected officials and organizations which are campaigning for specific legislation as selective intelligence which places the target public at an unfair disadvantage. The main problem he sees in market research in the service of electoral politics is the extent to which it helps make propaganda less transparent and the public more manipulable by marketing strategists who target different messages to different groups. While there is nothing new in political actors tailoring their appeals to different audiences, Burnham fears that the modern versions of sophistry are less obvious and consequently far more successful for those who can afford to employ them. He also views opinion polls as easily subject to manipulation by politicians seeking legitimacy or publicity. Polling is not simply a reporting device. Pollers gain leverage relative to the larger public since much of the audience for polls will read headlines and short news items which distort the scientific meaning of a poll by neglecting to explain the nature of the sample, the detailed distribution of responses, or the questions asked. Political polling is not only "information gathering;" it can be a devise for persuading larger publics about the popularity of one's position. NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY In a dramatic chapter, Burnham reports how the National Security Agency (NSA) has operated under a charter which has remained secret it was initiated by President Truman in 1952. The NSA specializes in electronic surveillance. A large fraction of its efforts probably go to observing military force deployments and strategic resources worldwide. Burnham reports how the NSA has also illegally eavesdropped on a significant fraction of international telephone calls and telex messages which leave the United States. Burnham reports on the character of specific programs of domestic surveillance which were illegal. According to Burnham, the NSA developed files on political dissidents including civil rights activists, antiwar activists, members of Congress, and ordinary citizens who were critical of official government policies. While most of the domestic political surveillance appeared to take place in the late 1960's through mid-1970's, the shroud of secrecy that surrounds the NSA makes it difficult to have significant Congressional oversight of its policies and practices. During the last 5 years, the NSA has moved to control cryptographic research in the United States. Recently developed encryption schemes are based on sophisticated algorithms which require digital circuits for rapid coding and decoding. Some of the new schemes even allow the code keys to be public, rather than secret. As more business operations in the United States is computerized, organizations seek ways to protect the privacy of data such as large funds transfers. Thus the market for efficient and effective data encryption devices has expanded beyond the intelligence community to include financial institutions. The NSA has recently taken control of this research out of the hands of the National Science Foundation, even though it has no publicly documented legal mandate for its action. There are deep policy questions about whether national security is well served by the availability of cheap encrypting devices which are effectively unbreakable. These questions are not being raised in public debates, nor does Burnham shed much light on them. Rather he simply adopts the libertarian critique of surveillance. Like other political labels with strong moral content, it has been abused as a cover for unsavory actions carried out by government operatives. The term in not wholly vacuous and Burnham glosses most of the knotty policy issues. TOWARD A POLICE STATE? Burnham's theses are loosely fabricated from dramatic examples. He does not offer explicit hypotheses, strong organizing concepts, and a way of placing his examples in a context which enables a reader to understand their overall significance. Examples of bad outcomes can elicit sympathy for "victims." But systematic information about the frequency and extent of problems and abuses are necessary to demonstrate that the overall social setup within which they happen is badly flawed, corrupt, or perverse. Some of his examples of people victimized by slips in CBIS and organizational practices suggest that Kafka has provided better guiding images than Orwell for appreciating a computer-based, mobile, organizational society. Burnham has little taste for irony, and explores Orwellian abuse rather than Kafkaesque happenings. Do the events Burnham describes indicate that Federal agencies and other large computer users are pushing the the US along a path of political development that is leading to a much less democratic form of Federal government? Unfortunately, Burnham does not describe the changing nature of Congressional oversight and public accountability sufficiently well to provide a clear answer to that question. He succeeds in generating sentiments in favor of this hypothesis by his accumulated cases of organizational seaminess and occasional abuse. But he relies heavily upon a reader's distrust of elected officials and large bureaucracies to help cement his case. He also relies upon general theses about power, such as Lord Acton's maxim. Unchecked power often corrupts and organizations are often less willing to be fair to their clients than efficient and autonomous. But general principles do not make the particular case since the variations in actual organizational practices are significant and vast. One peculiar feature of contemporary police states, such as those in Eastern Europe and Latin America, is the extent to which they have relied upon low technologies for extensive social control and even mass terror. Many abusive ruling cliques rely upon neighborhood informants, secret trials, and mysterious disappearances to maintain control. They don't need database management systems, teleprocessing, and spy satellites. Low technology strategies are especially effective in "small town" societies. Burnham's implicit argument is that less obtrusive forms of surveillance and social control can harm the political culture of liberal democracies. CBIS are attractive to administrators and politicians because they promise heightened efficiencies and sometimes enhanced fairness in providing services to large mobile populations. However, the anecdotes of errors with a human cost and even abuses which Burnham piles on the reader, illustrate problems but do not make his case. Burnham's strongest case is his critique of the NSA's abuses of authority. Like, the secret Law Enforcement Intelligence Units, much of the problem with the NSA comes from its shroud of secrecy and freedom from significant legislative oversight. It's use of computer-based monitoring systems is incidental to its problematic place in American political life. I suspect that one basic issue is accountability of these agencies to the public through the legislatures. At times this is no easy task when the administrative agencies can shroud their actions with the complexities of high technologies. There is a strong case to be made that in the clashes between branches of government, administrative agencies have found legal and technological loopholes to temporarily free themselves from regulatory restraint. Congressional actions are not always right. But there is an argument that administrative agencies have been able to exploit computer-based technologies to shift the balance of governmental power away from elected officials. This systematic shift of power has been best documented in the case of local governments. It is likely to be happening at other governmental levels as well. COMPUTERS AND POLITICS Burnham is sensitive to the shifts of power to executive agencies. But he is at a loss to explain them very well. He misses the deeper politics of computing. I find a clue to his misperception, a very common one, in his reference to "the computer's system of thinking." For Burnham, CBIS are simply highly structured, logical, possibly hierarchical information processing "tools." He misses the ways in which CBIS designs often reflect the "systems of thinking" of those who propose them. CBIS promoters may label their preferences as "required by computers" to help their case, but they often ignore or discourage many technical and administrative alternatives. Many CBIS are usefully viewed as forms of social organization. They are composed of many layers of data, programs, and communications support stretched across different organizations. Those who oversee them need some ability to appreciate technical alternatives and also have some substantive expertise in the organizational functions which have computer support. This dual expertise is rare, particularly among elected officials at all levels of government. As a consequence, they have trouble in providing sensible guidance to executive agency staff. QUALITY OF BURNHAM'S ANALYSIS I would like to like this book more than I do. I like Burnham's eye for detail and his relentless questions about the underside of computer-based surveillance systems. Some new data brokering organizations start up each year. Each year, many existing organizations expand the scope and scale of their record keeping. Laws and administrative practices also change slowly each year. Over ten year periods, these gradual small scale changes accumulate. Periodic reviews of these practices are useful. As a consequence of continuing changes in organizational practices, legal arrangements, and technology, studies published in the early 1970's such as Westin and Baker's "Databanks in a Free Society" or James Rules' "Public Surveillance and Private Lives" have become dated. Both of these studies pre-date the use of computer matching, and several Federal privacy initiatives. Unfortunately, this book is weak in analysis. Even the chapter headings don't guide the argument. The first three chapters are labelled "surveillance," "data bases," and "power." However, themes of power, surveillance, and data bases are strong elements in each of them. The chapter labelled "power" primarily examines political polling. This lax labelling of chapters signifies the way that Burnham eschews tough analysis in favor of easy sentimentalizing. It should be hard for Burnham, a reporter and hence a kind of intelligence agent, to find observation, reporting, and persuasion to be inherently sinister acts. However, Burnham colors his narrative so that people who administer a CBIS are stigmatized in descriptions such as "(speaking) in the quiet monotones of many long-time government employees," or are "slightly Mephistopholean." People who sympathize with civil libertarian values are portrayed without any frailties. Burnham is deeply suspicious of pollsters and politicians who manipulate the public with numbers, but he is very adept at manipulating his audience with images. These images which equate personal goodness with political philosophy grossly mislead. Despite these limitations, "The Rise of the Computer State" is particularly important because it helps articulate and illustrate important questions about computing and social power. Unfortunately, there is no other up-to-date inquiry into organizational surveillance and high technology. "The Rise of the Computer State" is an important contribution to the tiny stream of literature which examines the political dimensions of computer-based technologies in public life. I hope that many people read this book despite its analytical flaws. It helps dramatize the current problems of computer-based surveillance systems. Burnham's graphic episodes can help give people who are not intimate with CBIS a keen appreciation of the dilemmas which their use and users are now creating. It can help more systematic investigators by providing a rich set of clues from which to continue this inquiry. These questions will not go away after 1984 has passed. ================================================================ It is interesting, is it not, how so much of what shocked the public in 1983 is today treated as ho-hum. I wonder what Mr. Burnham thinks about computer surveillance today, a quarter-century later? And what about Mr, Kling, our book reviewer at that time? What about you readers? 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V26 #168 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 16 13:03:38 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ptownson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id BF1B122AB; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:03:37 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V26 #169 Message-Id: <20070616170337.BF1B122AB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:03:37 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:04:00 EDT Volume 26 : Issue 169 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Selects Vendors for U-verse G-PON Fiber Deployment (PRN Newswire) Internet Content Providers Urge FCC Not to Regulate Net (PRN Newswire) Internet Defamation Suit Tests Online Anonymity (Jason Szep, Reuters) EBay Sees no Near-term Price Rise on Auction Sales (Jim Finkle, Reuters) Re: Single-Slot Payphones (History) (T) Re: Single-Slot Payphones (History) (Mr Joseph Singer) Re: A Quaint Relic From Our Archives on Computer Spying (Lisa Hancock) ====== 26 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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. 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Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:15:20 -0500 From: PRN NewsWire Subject: AT&T Selects Vendors for U-verse G-PON Fiber Deployment AT&T Selects Vendors for U-verse G-PON Fiber Deployment in New Residential Construction Areas New-Generation Gigabit Passive Optical Network (G-PON) Equipment From Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson Will Be Used in 'New Build' Neighborhoods Across AT&T's Local Communications Footprint SAN ANTONIO, June 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. has announced that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson have been selected to provide equipment for the planned deployment of Gigabit Passive Optical Network (G-PON) in "new build" areas of AT&T affiliates' local service territories as part of the overall U-verse(SM) network strategy. Financial terms of the awards were not disclosed. G-PON is the newest standard for fiber-to-the-home technology, with capacity to deliver greater speeds than current-generation Broadband Passive Optical Network (B-PON) technology. With its U-verse strategy, AT&T is deploying fiber-to-the-home technology, including PON, in new-build residential areas throughout the local communications service territories and will deploy a fiber-to-the-node network infrastructure in existing neighborhoods. Both of these network infrastructures enable delivery of the U-verse portfolio of IP-based services. AT&T U-verse service offers customers a combination of next-generation digital television -- including access to more than 25 High Definition (HD) channels -- and high speed Internet access. The award-winning AT&T U-verse TV includes cutting-edge features that are unmatched in the market, while the new U-verse enabled AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet builds on AT&T's position as the nation's leading provider of broadband DSL. The Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson G-PON solutions consist of several passive optical network-based elements, including equipment for the central office and home terminals. Both suppliers will soon begin lab testing and certificati