From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 8 17:06:37 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i68L6ak18991; Thu, 8 Jul 2004 17:06:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 17:06:37 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200407082106.i68L6ak18991@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #323 TELECOM Digest Thu, 8 Jul 2004 17:07:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 323 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson US FCC Wants Radio, TV to Keep Tapes of Shows (Monty Solomon) What TiVo Teaches Us (Monty Solomon) T-Mobile USA Views Highest Ranking in Customer Care; JD Power (Solomon) Verizon Wireless 'Beefs Up' Wireless Capacity Invests $2M (M. Solomon) California Online Privacy Protection Act (Monty Solomon) Testing a New SMS Application - Need Some Messages! (Simon Luttrell) Western Electric Test Gear Information Needed (Eagler) BAS Equipment Price (slo) Phone Phishing? (Ben) Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers (ranck@vt.edu) Re: Internet Phone Service For Every Home Not Far Off (John R. Covert) Re: Internet Phone Service For Every Home Not Far Off (AES/newspost) Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software? (Paul Vader) Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software? (Fred Goldstein) Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software? (Lisa Hancock) Last Laugh! What if This Was Your Daughter? (Lisa Minter) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 01:11:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: US FCC Wants Radio, TV to Keep Tapes of Shows WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - U.S. communications regulators proposed on Wednesday that radio and television broadcasters keep recordings of their programming for a period of time to help the agency enforce federal indecency standards. The Federal Communications Commission proposed that stations keep recordings for shows that air between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and asked for comment on how long they should be required to retain them, possibly two to three months. The FCC has been cracking down on indecent antics on television and radio but one of the problems is filed complaints do not always include a transcript or tape of the show in question, making an investigation tougher. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42397985 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 01:32:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: What TiVo Teaches Us by Sam Whitmore How can you not admire TiVo, the Alviso, Calif.-based company that pioneered the use of digital video recorders (DVRs) and built a brand synonymous with the DVR category? Investors might not. Though it is currently cash-flow positive, TiVo (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people ) hasn't made a dime in five years. The company desperately needs a partner to sell DVR service directly to cable TV subscribers, but carriers Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people ), Cox Communications (nyse: COX - news - people ), Charter Communications (nasdaq: CHTR - news - people ), Time Warner (nyse: TWX - news - people ) and Adelphia Communications (otc: ADELQ - news - people ) all offer DVRs built by TiVo competitors. DirecTV (nyse: DTV - news - people ), which according to TiVo Chief Financial Officer Dave Courtney generates 900,000 of TiVo's 1.6 million subscribers, last month sold its 3.4 million TiVo shares and is gearing up to offer DVRs built by NDS Group (nasdaq: NNDS - news - people ), a TiVo archrival. TiVo's latest 10-Q statement spells out 36 material threats to the company. http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2004/07/06/0707whitmore.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 11:16:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: T-Mobile USA Views Highest Ranking in Customer Care by JD Power Confirmation that T-Mobile Customers Indeed do "Get More" BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2004--The results of the 2004 Customer Care Performance Study released today by J.D. Power and Associates ranks T-Mobile USA highest among national carriers, by a significant margin. This independent top ranking for T-Mobile makes it clear when T-Mobile talks about offering "the best value in wireless" that means more minutes, more features and more service. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42407231 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 15:25:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless 'Beefs Up' Wireless Capacity, Invests $2 M Preparing for Democratic National Convention - Jul 8, 2004 02:01 PM (PR Newswire) FleetCenter Receives a Boost; Network COW Visits Downtown Boston WOBURN, Mass., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- As Massachusetts plans for four days of street closings, traffic shifts and tightened security in the Boston area during the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Verizon Wireless has already invested nearly $2 million to enhance its network to handle the expected increase in wireless voice and data calls by Convention goers, tourists, the media and local residents. The company has increased wireless capacity inside the FleetCenter and the immediate surrounding area to accommodate expanded cell phone coverage on the DNC convention floor, local streets, hotels and restaurants. Verizon Wireless will also add a "Cell On Wheels," or COW -- a mobile cell site -- to provide increased capacity, especially in high wireless traffic areas. Additional capacity has also been added to the newly constructed Convention Center, the World Trade Center and Fenway Park, locations. where DNC events are currently being planned. Verizon Wireless invests more than $1 billion in its network every 90 days to provide customers with the most extensive wireless voice and data network in the United States. The volume of voice calls and data usage demands of DNC visitors, Massachusetts telecommuters and visiting media representatives, has Verizon Wireless planning for a very busy week in late July. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42414505 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 08:44:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: California Online Privacy Protection Act Excerpt from Piper Rudnick E-Commerce & Privacy Group @lert Vol. 4, No. 5 http://www.piperrudnick.com/db30/cgi-bin/pubs/E-Commerce%20Alert062504.pdf CALIFORNIA LAW REQUIRING WEB SITES AND ONLINE SERVICES TO POST A PRIVACY POLICY GOES INTO EFFECT JULY 1, 2004 Overview and Summary of Requirements On July 1, 2004, the first online privacy law in the country that applies to the collection of information from consumers over the age of 13 will take effect. The California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, CAL. BUS. & PROF. CODE §§ 22575 et seq., ("Section 22575") is a privacy notice requirement law. It contains a generous safe harbor that gives companies 30 days to come into compliance if notified of failure to post a policy. The law also prohibits "negligently and materially" or "knowingly and willfully" failing to follow promises in a posted privacy policy. The California law will require operators of a commercial Web site or online service that collect through their Web site or online service personally identifiable information(1) from consumers(2) residing in California to conspicuously post their privacy policy on their Web site (or, in the case of an online service, to use any other "reasonably accessible means of making the privacy policy available to consumers"). The law exempts Internet service providers and similar entities that transmit or store personally identifiable information at the request of third parties. Because many Web sites and online services do not collect physical address information, and for that reason may be unaware that they are collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers, sites and services may be well advised to conform their privacy policies to the requirements of this new law. http://www.piperrudnick.com/db30/cgi-bin/pubs/E-Commerce%20Alert062504.pdf ------------------------------ From: simonluttrell@yahoo.com (Simon Luttrell) Subject: Testing a New SMS Application - Need Some Messages! Date: 8 Jul 2004 07:22:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I'm sitting out in sunny Bangkok and testing a new SMS application that will soon be launched on the US mobile networks. I need some inbound test messages!! Any abusive or rude message will do!:) Just send your text message to the SMS shortcode 62339. This should then get routed through to my Linux server. You will not get any reply from me and I won't harvest your numbers. (I really only need a few mobile phones to text me, not thousands!). I'll post back on here to thank anyone who helps me out. If you do send me a message can you post on this thread to let me know so I can check my logs? Cheers, Simon ------------------------------ From: Eagler Subject: Western Electric Test Gear Information Needed Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 01:01:12 GMT Organization: RoadRunner - Tampa Bay Any help in identify this piece of test gear would be greatly appreciated. It is a J94730A 1A Fault Locator Test Set from Western Electric. Anyone know the age? How common are they? I can not locate anything on the web concerning this piece of gear. Here are some photos: http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault1.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault2.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault3.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault4.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault5.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault6.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault7.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault8.jpg http://www.pogbird.com/ebay/fault9.jpg Thanks for any info. Mike ------------------------------ From: slo Subject: BAS Equipment Price Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 11:24:00 +0800 Is there anybody that can tell me the price of RedBack SmartAge800 amd Unisphere BAS equipment And some Telecom or ISP's BAS equipment information and price ? Best Regards! slo You'd better forget Horizon if you want fly higher ! ------------------------------ From: tanstaafl69@yahoo.com (Ben) Subject: Phone Phishing? Date: 7 Jul 2004 16:52:07 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I've been getting some odd calls on my cell phone recently that go something like this: - When the call comes in, the Caller-ID shows only an area code, no number. - On answering the call, and automated voice announces it has a message for me. It does so saying my name in my voice, using the name announcement from my voicemail. - It then gives instructions on handling the call if answered by an operator. - Then is says "Press 2 if you are" and my name again. - At this point, it asks for my voicemail passcode to continue. I'm not about to give any information to anyone who hasn't identified themselves and their purpose. This is NOT my own voicemail calling me. I checked with the carrier, and it's not them either. Is this some sort of phone phishing scheme? Does anyone know? ------------------------------ From: ranck@vt.edu Subject: Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 18:39:56 UTC Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA John David Galt wrote: > I'm looking for a cell provider that offers all or most of these: > - Low or no per-month charges (say $10 or less); the provider > should make most of its money from a high per-minute rate instead. OK. > - No insistence that I accept services I don't want (paging, text > messaging, video, or Custom Calling type features); OK. > - Per-line caller-ID blocking and a promise that the number won't > be included in cellular directories or sold to marketers; Not sure about this one. I don't think I understand your requirement actually. > - No commitment longer than 90 days (especially if the provider is > unwilling to commit in return that its plan and rates won't change); > I have no problem with paying for the phone up front; and OK. > - No locking the phone so that I can't use it with multiple All the above, except as noted, sounds like Trac Fone to me. It's a pre-paid cell service that you basically can get for about $8/month plus time charges. You buy "units" which equate to minutes in your home area, and 2 units per minute when roaming. I have been looking into this myself recently, and will probably be getting one of their phones at WalMart in the next couple of days. You can also buy the pre-paid cards at WalMart and other big retailers. Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:10:21 EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Re: Internet Phone Service For Every Home Not Far Off Tony P. wrote: > get a measured service line, in most places they're < $10 a month anyhow. Not in Massachusetts. In fact, once you include the $6.45 FCC Line charge and USF charge, not anywhere, unless local service is less than $3.00 per month. And I doubt that it is less than $3.00 per month anywhere. 1 Measured Residence Service $12.36 2 Verizon Local Calls 1.05 3 Surcharges and Taxes FCC Line Charge 6.45 Federal USF Surcharge .57 MA State and Local Tax .25 Federal Tax .61 Total $22.14 The 1.05 in local calls paid for 41 calls totalling 40 minutes at 0.0100 per call plus 0.0160 per minute, for $1.05 in usage. /john ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: Internet Phone Service For Every Home Not Far Off Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:50:38 -0700 In article , Tony P. wrote: > I'm sorry but if you want to live in the boonies, you damn well should > be paying the price to string the cable out to your location. I > shouldn't have to pay for it. I think I agree with you that there's some level of "out in the boonies" beyond which stringing cables (and other utilities) should be paid for by the remotely residing residents and not the rest of us. But at the same time, I also think that in urban and most surburban areas, a policy of requiring a service provider to serve everyone in an entire incorporated area, rather than just "skimming the cream" of the most easily accessible areas, is a reasonable and overall a socially desirable policy, as well as a fair quid pro quo for the use of public right of ways to reach any of these areas. I was trying to think of a reverse example to your original comment, which might apply to city folks rather than booneie dwellers. How about, "If you want to live in a developed community, you damn well should be paying the price to provide parking for all your car(s) off the streets. I shouldn't have to pay for paving areas for you to use as overnight or even as temporary parking." Fair enough? ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software These Days? Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 21:05:52 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes: > GWBASIC was not the original Microsoft Basic. At the time the IBM PC You're right of course -- it was the first DOS basic. I'll be danged if I can come up with a name other than just "Microsoft Basic" - did the original one have any other name? * -- * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:05:02 -0400 From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software? I suspect that Bill has a pretty good handle on Microsoft's core product lines -- he is "Chairman and Chief Software Architect", after all, not President or CEO. Not that I expect him to be bashing much code. In those early days, BASIC was far and away the most popular small-computer language. Microsoft's first product was Altair BASIC. Released in 1975, it was sold by MITS Inc. of Albuquerque, where Bill went after the last term he spent at Harvard. I believe there were three authors: Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff. Monte didn't stay with the company. I know he was involved because that summer, I went to work for a magazine publisher who had one of the early Altair 8800s. It sat on his shelf, lights blinking, but no real programs running. The Altair had a cassette interface to load code, and used an external Teletype or "TV Typewriter" terminal. We wanted to get it to do something, but it wasn't exactly obvious how. We did figure out how to read the BASIC (I forget if it was the 4K or 8K version) cassette into the system, and then look byte by byte at the beginning of the file. It was a copyright notice naming Microsoft (yes, the name was in use that early) and programmers Bill Gates and Monte Davidoff. So we phoned MITS and asked for Bill. He told us what to do (probably something with the sense switches on the front panel, like jump to a certain address and then hit the run switch, but I really don't remember), and indeed the interpreter did get running. So that was the one time I personally did speak to Bill Gates, who was just a young pisher like me at the time, and nobody had any idea that he would become, well, Bill Gates! Stories that have circulated since then suggest that Bill was working on the interpreter while still a student at Harvard, and that some of the code he claimed credit for was not, uh, entirely his. But I have no real knowledge of that. Given how quickly Altair BASIC came out, he and his friends probably were working on it it while still in school. Oh yes, one other interesting quote, from Hartmut Frommer's web page, where he has a set of documents on OS/2: " The FAT was invented by Bill Gates and Marc McDonald in 1977 as a method of managing disk space in the NCR version of standalone Microsoft's Disk BASIC. Tim Paterson, at that time an employee of Seattle Computer Products (SCP), was introduced to the FAT concept when his company shared a booth with Microsoft at the National Computer Conference in 1979. Paterson subsequently incorporated FATs into the file system of 86-DOS, an operating system for SCP s S-100 bus 8086 CPU boards. 86-DOS was eventually purchased by Micro-soft and became the starting point for MS-DOS Version 1.0, which was released for the original lBM PC in August 1981. " More recent reports deny Bill's personal involvement in FAT, though it would explain Microsoft's sticking with such a bad system for so long. He may have simply been given credit, the way songwriting credit is often given to people who had nothing to do with writing the song, but who do want royalties. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: How Much Does Bill Gates Know About His Software These Days? Date: 8 Jul 2004 07:49:44 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Richard S. Shuford wrote: > There are some dark rumors about how Gates obtained timesharing > resources on a large computer system to complete this project. In one of the biographies it was mentioned that Gates was using his school's computer for commercial work when he was young. However, this was very common in those days for the kids to get little contracts and run them on their school's (high school or college) computer. Generally, the jobs were pretty small. Many were research for professors. In those days it seemed most of the computer enthusiasts were boys even though many early computer pioneer programmers (like Grace Hopper and many others) were women. Here's a little story: In those days (1970) the city had separate public academic high schools for boys and girls.* Each had a Teletype timesharing terminal for student use. The boys' school terminal was very busy since lots of boys wanted to use it, but the girls' school terminal didn't have much use. Some boys in the computer club got the idea to link up with girls' school for two reasons -- 1) to get some of their idle terminal time, and 2) have an opportunity to meet girls (esp important for an all-boys school). The boys went to the girls' school and suggested a link up. The teachers at the girls' school were ok with the idea; they didn't mind the social aspect, but were concerned about losing their computer time to the boys. Unfortunately, the teachers at the boys' school vetoed the idea and nothing ever came of it. *The courts ordered the boys' high school to go co-ed, which it did. The girls' high school remains all girls to this day. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 12:36:10 PDT From: Lisa Minter Subject: Last Laugh! What if You Had a Daughter Like This? A mother enters her daughter's bedroom and sees a letter over the bed. With the worst premonition, she reads it, with trembling hands: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm telling you that I eloped with my new boyfriend. I found real passion and he is so nice, with all his piercing and tattoos and his big motorcycle. But not only that mom, I'm pregnant and Ahmed said that we will be very happy in his trailer in the woods. He wants to have many more children with me and that's one of my dreams. I've learned that marijuana doesn't hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and his friends, who are providing us with all the cocaine and ecstasy we may want. In the meantime, we'll pray for the science to find the AIDS cure, for Ahmed to get better, he deserves it. Don't worry Mom, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Some day I'll visit for you to know your grandchildren. Your daughter, Judith ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. 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If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. 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 V23 #323 ******************************