From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Nov 15 00:47:54 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iAF5lra23623; Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:47:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:47:54 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200411150547.iAF5lra23623@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 #547 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:47:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 547 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The End of Privacy -- It's Not the FBI or CIA (Marcus Didius Falco) Supervision for DID Lines? (Lincoln J. King-Cliby) While I'm Asking Questions: CalNet (Lincoln J. King-Cliby) Re: Update: Vonage Ring Problem (Tony P.) Re: Update: Vonage Ring Problem (Steve Crow) Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns (Neal McLain) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (DevilsPGD) Re: Use Comcast Cable Modem? Go to Jail! Judy Sammel (Rick Merrill) TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU (Rich Greenberg) Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU (Rick Merrill) Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU (Henry) Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU (SELLCOM Tech) Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU (Ted Klugman) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 17:55:06 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: The End of Privacy -- It's not the FBI or CIA * The Original NYTimes article is below, and then a response: (johnmac -- .. but the customer / citizen may benefit from this ... and is it worth it?) From the New York Times -- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/business/yourmoney/14wal.html?th What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits By CONSTANCE L. HAYS HURRICANE FRANCES was on its way, barreling across the Caribbean, threatening a direct hit on Florida's Atlantic coast. Residents made for higher ground, but far away, in Bentonville, Ark., executives at Wal-Mart Stores decided that the situation offered a great opportunity for one of their newest data-driven weapons, something that the company calls predictive technology. A week ahead of the storm's landfall, Linda M. Dillman, Wal-Mart's chief information officer, pressed her staff to come up with forecasts based on what had happened when Hurricane Charley struck several weeks earlier. Backed by the trillions of bytes' worth of shopper history that is stored in Wal-Mart's computer network, she felt that the company could "start predicting what's going to happen, instead of waiting for it to happen," as she put it. The experts mined the data and found that the stores would indeed need certain products -- and not just the usual flashlights. "We didn't know in the past that strawberry Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate, ahead of a hurricane," Ms. Dillman said in a recent interview. "And the pre-hurricane top-selling item was beer." Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and six-packs were soon speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most of the products that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said. Such knowledge, Wal-Mart has learned, is not only power. It is profit, too. Plenty of retailers collect data about their stores and their shoppers, and many use the information to try to improve sales. Target Stores, for example, introduced a branded Visa card in 2001 and has used it, along with an arsenal of gadgetry, to gather data ever since. But Wal-Mart amasses more data about the products it sells and its shoppers' buying habits than anyone else, so much so that some privacy advocates worry about potential for abuse. With 3,600 stores in the United States and roughly 100 million customers walking through the doors each week, Wal-Mart has access to information about a broad slice of America - from individual Social Security and driver's license numbers to geographic proclivities for Mallomars, or lipsticks, or jugs of antifreeze. The data are gathered item by item at the checkout aisle, then recorded, mapped and updated by store, by state, by region. By its own count, Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes, made by NCR, at its Bentonville headquarters. To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts. Information about products, and often about customers, is most often obtained at checkout scanners. Wireless hand-held units, operated by clerks and managers, gather more inventory data. In most cases, such detail is stored for indefinite lengths of time. Sometimes it is divided into categories or mapped across computer models, and it is increasingly being used to answer discount retailing's rabbinical questions, like how many cashiers are needed during certain hours at a particular store. All of the data are precious to Wal-Mart. The information forms the basis of the sales meetings the company holds every Saturday, and it is shot across desktops throughout its headquarters and into the places where it does business around the world. Wal-Mart shares some information with its suppliers -- a company like Kraft, for example, can tap into a private extranet, called Retail Link, to see how well its products are selling. But for the most part, Wal-Mart hoards its information obsessively. It also takes pains to keep the information secret. Some of the systems it uses are custom-built and designed by its own employees, the better to keep competitors off the trail. Companies that sell equipment and software to Wal-Mart are bound by nondisclosure agreements. Three years ago, Wal-Mart summarily announced that it would no longer share its sales data with outside companies, like Information Resources Inc. and ACNielsen, which had paid Wal-Mart for the information and then sold it to other retailers. "When you look at their behavior, you can tell that Wal-Mart considers data to be a top priority," said Christine Overby, a senior analyst for consumer markets at Forrester Research. Over the years, she said, Wal-Mart executives have spent handsomely for their systems, paying $4 billion in 1991 to create Retail Link and signing onto innovations like bar codes and electronic data interchange, a forerunner of the Internet, well ahead of the pack. Wal-Mart is also driving manufacturers to invest in radio frequency identification. By next October, the company will require its biggest suppliers to tag shipments to some of its distribution centers with tiny transmitters that would eventually let Wal-Mart track every item that it sells. With so much data at Wal-Mart's corporate fingertips, what are the risks to consumers? Most have no clue that their habits are monitored to such an extent. There are no signs -- like the ones for Wal-Mart's anti-shoplifting cameras -- advising customers that information is being collected and stored. And there is no giveback: Wal-Mart doesn't use loyalty cards and rarely offers promotions based on past purchases. It is aware, however, that shoppers are concerned about privacy. On its Web site, Wal-Mart posts a privacy policy that states, in part: "We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information. We maintain reasonable physical, technical and procedural measures to limit access to personal information to authorized individuals with appropriate purposes." NOT everyone agrees. "People don't know that Wal-Mart is capturing information about who they are and what they bought, but they are also capable of capturing a huge amount of outside information about them that has nothing to do with their grocery purchases," said Katherine Albright, the founder and director of Caspian, a consumer advocacy group concerned with privacy issues. "They can find out your mortgage amounts, your court dates, your driving record, your creditworthiness." One source of information can be a credit card or a debit card, Ms. Albright said. Wal-Mart shoppers increasingly use the cards to pay for purchases, particularly in the better-heeled neighborhoods where the company has been building stores recently. Some companies specialize in what is known as data enhancement, in which a customer's name and address, or a telephone number, can open the door to additional information. "If Wal-Mart had a customer database and wanted to start e-mailing their customers, we could append their e-mail addresses," said Sarah Stansberry, director of marketing for AccuData America, a company based in Fort Myers, Fla., that specializes in such services but does not use credit card records. With e-mail addresses, AccuData can track names and home addresses, she added. Other information follows: "We can access what they paid for their house, and their mortgage," though not driving records. The company has not done any work for Wal-Mart, she said. Ms. Dillman said that she did not think Wal-Mart had ever tried to squeeze data from credit cards to learn more about customers' buying habits. Indeed, she said, it wouldn't be necessary. "We can do that without the credit card information," she said. "We can look at what's happening in the market, and look at what's happening in other markets that are similar." WAL-MART uses its mountain of data to push for greater efficiency at all levels of its operations, from the front of the store, where products are stocked based on expected demand, to the back, where details about a manufacturer's punctuality, for example, are recorded for future use. The purpose is to protect Wal-Mart from a retailer's twin nightmares: too much inventory, or not enough. "They recognize that technology is a critical tool for them to have an efficient supply chain," said Kathryn Cullen, a principal at Kurt Salmon Associates, a consulting firm, who said that she has not advised Wal-Mart. "They track the purchases and very quickly route that back to their suppliers so they can be replenished. They are very strict with their suppliers, but they give them the data that they need." Armed with sales results from past weeks and months, Wal-Mart meets with each of its suppliers to establish sales goals for the coming year. Suppliers are actively encouraged, so to speak, not to miss those goals. A manufacturer that fails to meet its sales target -- or has data-documented problems with orders, delivery, restocking or returns -- can expect even tougher negotiations in the future from Wal-Mart, which is renowned for its steeliness in such situations. Still, achieving sleeker operations is not the whole story. In many ways, data are used to forecast and drive Wal-Mart's business. "We use it in real estate decisions, understanding what the draw is like and what the customers will be like," Ms. Dillman said, referring to the company's planning for new stores, including the number of shoppers it expects to attract to each. When it comes to Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's membership warehouse chain, "we know who every customer is," she added. So Wal-Mart does a kind of outreach, contacting nearby convenience store owners, for example, to let them know that "the items they buy, they could save money on by buying at Sam's." AT Wal-Mart, problems are referred to as "exceptions," and technology is essential for what Ms. Dillman calls "exception management." Within the company's empire, "we keep watching everything that just happened," she said. "We are pretty near real time. We can tell people that they need to go do something, and we are within hours, depending on the event." The "event" may be a truck's failure to drop off or pick up something, or the delivery of a load of shoes missing their mates. It could be the absence of an important product in a store's backroom, or in the distribution center that serves that store. Or it could be an act of nature like the hurricanes that descended, one after another, on Florida and other parts of the Southeast this year. Eventually, some experts say, Wal-Mart will use its technology to institute what is called scan-based trading, in which manufacturers own each product until it is sold. "Wal-Mart will never take those products onto its books," said Bruce Hudson, a retail analyst at the Meta Group, an information technology consulting firm in Stamford, Conn. "If you think of the impact of shedding $50 billion of inventory, that is huge." The impact will probably be felt by suppliers, he added, but none are likely to complain. "You can see the pattern of Wal-Mart's mandates, and as Wal-Mart grows in power, it is getting more dictatorial," he said. "The suppliers shake their heads and say, 'I don't want to go this way, but they are so big.' Wal-Mart lives in a world of supply and command, instead of a world of supply and demand." Consumers willingly turn over plenty of information. For example, cashing a payroll check at Wal-Mart requires a two-step process, said an assistant manager in a Wal-Mart in Saddle Brook, N.J., who asked to be identified only by her first name, Mary. "First you enter your Social Security number into the system, twice," she said, pointing to the number pad hooked up to a register in the checkout lane. "The cashier can enter it, but some people don't like to share that information." Next a customer must enter his or her driver's license number, the assistant manager said. If payroll checks are cashed regularly at Wal-Mart, there is no need to keep punching in the Social Security number, only the driver's license number: "The system will recognize you the next time." All of that information winds up at the company's office in Bentonville, the assistant manager added. Ms. Dillman said it was "separated out, along with any personal identifiable information," and warehoused in a way that requires special permission to gain access. For check approval -- when a customer writes a personal check to pay for something at a Wal-Mart, for example -- "we don't keep it any longer than we need it for that transaction," she said. "All it's linked to is the checking account number, when we scan your check," she added. "We don't mine that data. We don't use it for anything other than the transaction." Historically, Wal-Mart's focus has been on the products it sells, not to whom it sells them. One of the most difficult pieces of information to harvest is which customer bought what. Such information is expensive, too. "When you are in the everyday-low-price market, you tend not to gather a lot of information about customers directly because you don't spend a lot of time with them gathering name, address, telephone numbers through a loyalty card," said Gene Alvarez, a vice president at the Meta Group. "That is the proper focus, because when you want to get customer-intimate, you have to offer a loyalty program, and there's the cost of that loyalty program." Wal-Mart has discovered the potential of its own Web site in learning more about customers. Ms. Dillman said the site was beginning to allow users to buy a product online and have it delivered to a store near them, an option that Sears, Roebuck and other retailers have had for years. Naturally, some personal information would have to be submitted as part of the transaction. "You can do some association there, what products are of what interest," Mr. Alvarez said. But Wal-Mart executives tend to care more about how products sell as part of a larger basket. "Me knowing what you specifically buy is not necessarily going to help me get the right merchandise into the store," Ms. Dillman said. "Knowing collectively what goes into one shopping cart together tells us a lot more." Analyzing what ends up together in that cart drives Wal-Mart's pricing, other experts said. Shoppers might buy cold medicine along with chicken soup and orange juice during flu season, but not all of those products need to be priced at rock-bottom, said Ms. Overby, the Forrester analyst. "They might say, 'If we get really good at pricing the cold medicine and promoting it and letting people know that, hey, we have that product in stock and also at the best prices,' then they get people into the store," she said. "The other items in the basket might not be the lowest price in town, but the entire basket will be 10 to 20 percent less." STILL, as Wal-Mart recently discovered, there can be such a thing as too much information. Six women brought a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the company in 2001 that was broadened this year to a class of about 1.6 million current and former female employees. Lawyers for the women have said that Wal-Mart has the ability to use its human-resources database to calculate back pay for the plaintiffs as well as to determine whether women were fairly promoted and paid. The judge hearing the case, which is pending in a federal court in San Francisco, has agreed. The database is unusually detail-rich, said Joseph Sellers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "They've put into their work force database the information that bears on virtually every facet of compensation," he said. "They have performance reviews, along with seniority, the time spent with the company, which store they worked in. So you can compare people working in the same store, to measure whether men and women are paid differently." If that comes to pass, it will be a rare moment indeed, with Wal-Mart's carefully assembled data being channeled for a purpose Wal-Mart did not desire. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The 'johnmacsgroup' 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, New York Times Company. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml John F. McMullen http://www.westnet.com/~observer ==------------response below-------------- From Cherie Price on the OSINT discussion list -----Original Message----- From: CodeTen7 < > To: discuss-osint@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [discuss-osint] The End of Privacy -- It's not the FBI or CIA -- What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 09:50:38 -0700 I am NOT a Walmart fan. When they first started opening huge numbers of stores in and around the area in which I live(d), I shopped there because I was suckered into their "everything we sell is made in the U.S.A.". That sure didn't last long. I've read all about their unfair and downright unethical practices used against their employees and have read all the info ciruclated about their overseas "sweat shops". I've further read about their tracking policies of which customers purchase what items. The only thing I can't fault them on is their unique and brilliant (and very expensive) technology of knowing what to stock their shelves with. That is simply 'good business'. So why do I continue to shop there when I dislike 'them' so much? Prices, of course. Though as a regular (and former) Walmart shopper, I could testify under oath that their prices are going up, up, up. A couple of years ago, I sought out and complained to a Walmart manager that they don't put 'shelf prices' on a huge percentage of their items. I was laughingly told that they were working on it (like hell) and I always had in-store price scanners available to me to check the price of an item I might be intersted in. Trust me, by not putting up shelf prices, most people will buy the wanted items anyway thinking "it will be cheaper here" than elsewhere. Wrong, people! 3 weeks ago, while grocery shopping in Walmart, I was on the other side of the store and found a couple of GI Joes that are missing from my grandson's collection. Trust me, it's difficult to find a toy he doesn't own! No shelf price. I take them to a scanner and they scanned at $9.96 each. Though they were basically the same toy, I scanned both of them -- just to make sure. When they were rung up at the checkout register, they rang up at $13.96 each. STOP, I told the cashier and explained why. She called management at my request. We ended up having 3 'managers' at my register and I accused them of unlawful practices. An in-store scanner and the cash register ringing up different amounts in a period of 45 minutes?? I don't think so. They finally ended up generously (gag) "offering" me the toys at $9.96. I told them where they could put them and it wasn't into my shopping bag. A week ago, against my own better judgement, I returned to Walmart. There ARE some things that are cheaper ... snacks for the kids, hair spray etc. Let me back up a minute. When I walk into a store ... ANY store, my brain turns into a very functionable and extrememly accurate caluculator. Whether I buy 12 things or 212 things, when they are rung up, I know to the penny whether the items are being rung up at the right price. In Walmart, you are required to take your purchases from your cart and put them on the conveyor belt. What I do that I've never seen anyone else do, is turn the "customer-view-register" (or whatever it's called) to face me. I then put my items on the counter by touch as my eyes are on the register. When the cart is empty and I have to move a couple of feet forward, I again turn the register to where I can see it. I would suggest everyone do this. OK ... back to shopping a week ago ... I again bought a toy. My 5 yr old was with me and had 'worked and earned' a treat. He wanted a new Star Wars figure (said he'd been wanting this one for 200 years ;-) ) ... It was $4.96 ... on the SHELF. It rang up at the register for $9.96. BULL! Needless to say, since the child was with me, I HAD TO buy the action figure ... but I bought it for $4.96. Sorry this is so lengthy, as well as personal, but I'm trying to warn all Walmart shoppers ... BUYER BEWARE. I, for one, will NOT return to this store. Take a look around you when in Walmart and see how many items are in everyone's shopping carts ... A LOT! Now, think how many people are paying $9.96 for a $4.96 toy and don't even know it happened. Walmart soared to leading the pack in the category of 'discount' stores and I am waiting for the day when their self inflated balloon bursts. BUYER BEWARE. I am bcc'ing this to all of my friends (especially the toy shoppers who have kids/grandkids) as holiday shopping has begun. If you shop at this consumer unfriendly store, watch your back. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have had the same problems when I have been in Walmart here. Shelf price says one thing, check out clerk says another; the clerks are told not to budge on the price; your only alternative is to have them call a manager over to the register all the time they are condescending to you and six or eight customers in line behind you are giving you dirty looks. And unless you can match up the exact product number at the sales sign in the aisle with the product number on the item itself, they'll keep insisting the sales sign pertained to a 'different model' or a 'different size'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: chsvideo@hotmail.com (Lincoln J. King-Cliby) Subject: Supervision For DID Lines? Date: 14 Nov 2004 18:18:29 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello, A question I've been pondering for a while: When you call a DID number, at what point does the call start to be billed? For example, Cal State University San Marcos (my employer and school) has the entire 760-750-xxxx range -- serving the campus with an EADS Telecom PointSpan switch, served by the telco with a Nortel DMS-100 Large Remote, located on campus (actually in the middle of one of the parking lots). If I were to call campus long-distance, when would the call become billable? At the time ringing starts? At the time someone answers (but how can the telco determine this)? What about misdialed calls to numbers not in service (which there are a large number of and IIRC, ring infinitely)? Now for another example, from my desk phone I tried calling my counterpart at Cal Poly Pomona ... Thanks to old directory information on their website my first attempt was not successful: I got two beeps of the "fast busy" signal followed by (not exact, but close) "You have called a non-working number at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. If you feel that you have reached this recording in error, please consult our website at --- or call the university operator (hours) at ---" Would we be billed for this call? If it were a telco generated recording I would say no ... but since this was a customer-generated (and LONG) recording ...? Just curious and thanks for any answers, Lincoln ------------------------------ From: chsvideo@hotmail.com (Lincoln J. King-Cliby) Subject: While I'm Asking Questions: CalNet Date: 14 Nov 2004 18:30:00 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com While I'm at this: How does CalNet work? The particular system I'm refering to is what appears to be a private telephone network connecting some (but by no means all) California state agencies with its own dialplan. For example, from the Office of Risk and Insurance Management website: Susan Hogg (Office Chief) (916) 376-5271 CALNET: 8-480-5271 Or the Agricultural Labor Relations Board PHONE 916-653-3803 CALNET 8-453-3803 etc., etc., etc., But other agencies -- such as (as far as I can tell) every campus within the California State University system, and the University of California have absolutely no participation in CalNet. So how does it work? I can't imagine the State of California mantaining its own LD switching equipment ... well, actually I can, but I'd rather not. Thanks, Lincoln ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Update: Vonage Ring Problem Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 17:15:00 -0500 In article , devilspgd@crazyhat.net says ... > In message Tony P. > wrote: >> I found either dialing 1+NPA+NXX+XXXX completes calls in < 2 seconds >> while dialing NXX-XXXX takes 5 to 6 seconds -- they're waiting to time >> out in that case. > Try dialing NPA+NXX+XXXX and it will connect the call immediately. >> Overall the receive audio quality is mostly superb (I do notice a >> slight background noise that reminds me of the old microwave >> transmissions systems for LD calls.) and outgoing audio reminds most >> people of a cell phone less the gaps. I can live with that. > Last I heard Vonage is artificially adding background noise. So people wouldn't think the connection dropped. Usually you can hear the person breathing on the other end among other background noises. If I just punch a digit I can hear a distinct hiss of sorts on the line. Tried this using a number of phones ranging in year from 1949 to the present. They all did it. ------------------------------ From: Steve Crow Subject: Re: Update: Vonage Ring Problem Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 23:54:15 GMT Tony P. wrote: > Ah yes, I should have mentioned that I tried the terminator also. That > also gives a < 2 second connection time. > It's funny how spoiled you get by the incumbent carrier though. Punch a > 7 digit number with no terminator and the call connects immediately. > Probably because they've got all sorts of ARS and routing tables set > up to handle it. Kind of hard to do on a little Linksys router. Not necessarily. When Sprint (former Centel) replaced the aging TRW-Vidar switch in Montpelier, VA with a shiny new Nortel DMS-100 in late-1999, the DMS was set up to wait for additional digits on anything that was not a local exchange (of which there are a whopping THREE). So unless you're dialing 883-xxxx, 227-xxxx, or 449-xxxx, there's a 4-digit delay at the end while it waits for more digits. Hitting [#] expedites the call. It even does this with 10- or 11-digit dialing (local or long distance), and 3-digit dialing (411, 611, 711, 811, and presumably 911). Irrelevent to the topic at hand, but interesting nonetheless: The old Vidar handled the prefix of "1" as well as the local area code (804) quite strangely. If I wanted to dial a local call, I could not put 804 in front of it; it would roll the call to intercept. If I wanted to dial a long-distance call in the same area code, I did not need the "1". I could dial 1-749-xxxx, or I could do 804-749-xxxx, since it treated the "804" as a "1". I could also do 1-804-749-xxxx, or (and this was fun) 804-804-749-xxxx (the first "804" was treated as a "1"). Also amusing was out-of-area-code long distance: 804-540-829-xxxx would work. Time and temperature, however, was simply 8463. :) The new DMS still won't allow the area code in front of a local exchange. You just can't do fun stuff like this with these newfangled VoIP boxes. Personally, I want my Vidar back. Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 16:16:29 -0600 From: Neal McLain Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns Steve Crow wrote: >>> Louisiana and Minnesota both "straddle" the Mississippi >>> River. >> In my experience (mostly in cable TV), the Mississippi- >> River rule can be more accurately stated as follows: >> "K" = west of the Mississippi River plus the entire >> state of Minnesota. >> "W" = east of the Mississippi River plus Louisiana >> parishes located in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans >> DMAs. >> But even with this version of the rule there are >> numerous exceptions, especially in the case of low-power >> television stations (LPTV, Class A, translators, and >> boosters). > Do the same rules apply to radio stations as well? I > would imagine so, but what about KYW in Pennsylvania? > According to: > http://www.kyw1060.com/stationinfo/station_history.cfm > ... the station has moved several times (Chicago, > Cleveland), but appears to have maintained the same call > sign even in moves across state lines. Is this common? Since the second-level (">>") quotes above seem to be taken from my post in TD 23:505, I'll attempt to provide an answer. What I called "the Mississippi-River rule" was intended to apply only to television stations. I didn't intend it to apply to radio. Furthermore, my "rule" is not the official FCC rule; it's just an attempt on my part to define the line in such a way that it minimizes the number of exceptions. It certainly doesn't eliminate all exceptions: as Robert Bonomi pointed out in TD 23:510, my rule creates several (four, by my count) exceptions in Duluth, Grand Marais, and Hibbing, Minnesota. But it eliminates far more exceptions than it creates. Furthermore, it eliminates ambiguity in DMAs (or smaller non-DMA markets) that straddle the river, but don't straddle a state line: Baton Rouge, Bemidji, Minneapolis, New Orleans, St. Cloud. With regard to radio: as Mark Roberts pointed out in TD 23:506, a good source of information about the K/W rule, as it applies to AM broadcast stations (including KYW), is Thomas H. White's "United States Callsign Policies." http://earlyradiohistory.us/kwtrivia.htm A comprehensive state-by-state list of all broadcast stations is available at http://www.tvradioworld.com/region1/usa/usastates.asp . From this site, you can drill down to a list of stations in each individual city. Unfortunately, this list is often out-of-date. To verify the specifics related to any particular station, click on the "F" button in each station's listing; this will link you to the FCC's database for that particular station. Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 18:26:15 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In message TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock): > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, their prices are not necessarily > lower. Prices are only lower in areas (of the merchandise) they > want to push one week. At our downtown grocery store, Marvin's, the > selection is always just as good, and the prices are nearly always > at least competitive (if not sometimes better) than Walmart. Plus > which, I *hate* large crowds in a mall-type setting, and not getting > the customer service, carry out to your car arrangements that Marvins > and the stores downtown offer. PAT] I don't shop at Walmart's grocery stores ... But I don't believe that Walmart is pushing dry catfood, wet catfood, cat litter, fish tank pumps and other accessories, or dandruff hair care products over the last two years, are they? I'm one of those people that prices things out at different stores. I don't blow an 8 hour day looking to save $0.25 on a $5 product, but when I do buy something, I write down the price. When I go to another store that carries the product, if it's cheaper I write down the new price. Walmart is consistently the cheapest on those products, for example. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car isn't called a racist? ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Use Comcast Cable Modem? Go to Jail! Judy Sammels's Experience Organization: Comcast Online Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 22:47:53 GMT > Unfortunately, I think I know what the problem is. I had signed up for > Comcast@home cable modem service last March, but had not signed up for > cable TV service. (Last time I checked, this was legal. In fact, it is > mentioned specifically as a service in the FAQ list on @home's web > site.) But, when they came to install my @home service, they had > neglected to install the filter (they call it a video trap) to filter > out the video signal; from reaching my home. ... I think there is a misconception about the "video trap" : it does NOT cut out the video, but removes some video reflections so that said reflections will not interfere with the cable modem! The "solution" to your original problem was simply to Not Connect your TV to the cable. - RM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 23:53:55 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction Did anyone else watch the first part of this two part movie on CBS Sunday night. (For us, CBS is cable channel 6/7 in Joplin, MO/Tulsa, OK.) The movie purported to be about a major disaster in Chicago, when a major power outage covering several midwestern states takes place on the same day as a major storm (converging on the city from *three* directions all at once). The movie implied the power outage was due to a greedy company they called the 'Lexer Corporation' which was a power supplier to the local electric utility, which they called 'Midwest Edison'. Apparently Lexer had been manipulating things all over the midwest with the various power companies and was the villian responsible for the midwest power outage in several states which was going on. To make matters worse, in the midst of this multi- state power outage, weather conditions made it necessary to evacuate large numbers of citizens to shelters, etc. The unusual weather conditions were due, the movie claimed, to the large number of climate changes known as 'global warming' and 'greenhouse conditions' which this company (Lexer Corporation) was also causing through their mistreatment of the atmosphere. (They, and other companies in the business of manufacturing and using aerosols). When the first part of the movie ended Sunday night, the 'Jarvis Station' of 'Midwest Edison' was running well beyond capacity at the instuctions of the 'Lexer Corporation' people who were desparate to keep the power up and running everywhere, despite the fact that that the federal government was after them to reduce the power output at 'Jarvis' due to the dangers which were being caused. The 'Lexer' and 'Midwest Edison' people have begun to suspect maybe a 'computer hacker' has caused much of this trouble. The movie producers frequently use 'Lexer' and 'Enron' in the same scenes, as if to imply that Lexer's corporate structure and sheer bully pressure on its employees are going to eventually cause an 'Enron-like' collapse of Lexer. All the while we see people trapped in elevators and on subway trains and no one able to get news of any kind on the radio or television unless they happen to have a portable battery operated unit. It was a very frightening movie about what will be the consequences of 'global warming' and what will happen if the very complex computers which run our interlocking power grid go out of order at the same time as a major storm in a large metropolitan area. The second and final part of this movie will air on CBS at 8 PM central time on Wednesday night. If you did not see the Sunday night portion of the movie, you may want to watch the Wednesday night sequel. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU Date: 14 Nov 2004 19:26:54 -0500 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , HENRY CASTLE wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of the 126 times in the past two days > I have been selected by some bogus Solicitor in Nigeria somewhere to > serve as the executor of some poor deceased devils estate (always > numbering in the millions-billions of dollars) I have never once > answered them. I am wondering what would happen if I did. I've had > many folks say these charlatans would try to pick me clean, getting > my bank deposit account numbers, my social security number, etc. And > some have suggested they (the charlatans) would send you a bogus > draft for several thousand million billion dollars to be deposited > in my bank account, which, surprise!, would turn out to be > counterfiet after I had endorsed/negotiated it and remitted proceeds > back to the Solicitor, etc. > Has anyone on the net ever played their game back at them? That is to > say, responded saying "I am so sorry to hear of my long lost relative > being deceased, how can I help you?" then milked them and toyed with > them as long as they kept playing back? I wonder what they would > say/do then? Let's say, a few typographical errors in your social > security number, your bank and credit card numbers, etc. Or maybe a > *l o n g* time before you remitted proceeds back to them less the > matter of your fees, of course. Naturally you do not withdraw five > cents of the 'money order' or 'bank draft' they use to pay you with > until *it* has cleared, in the unlikely event it ever does. I would > suggest you give it to your bank and ask *them* to clear it first > before they issue any credit to you. Above all, do not sign or endorse > it in any way. See if you can get any good, legitimate email or > street addresses for these fools before you get them on the run, of > course. So -- if there are any Sires or Madams in our audience today > who feel like playing along and milking Henry Castle, Solicitor at > Law for whatever he may be worth, have at it. Here is his Crock > for your examination and purusal. PAT] There are two flavors of these scams and the "You have won the lottery" scam. One flavor is that you have to send them several hundred dollars of earnest money/processing fee or some such. You send that and you never hear from them again or perhaps they attempt to get an additional fee. The other is that if they can get your bank account and bank routing numbers, they will monitor your account a while and at a peak, they will drain it with an ACH transfer through a Nigerian bank that works with them (for a cut of the action). Best thing to do with them is to ignore them. If you want to do something at all, forward them with complete headers to 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov which I have been doing for a while. Not sure what if any good that does but they have never asked me to desist. Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta GA USA richgr atsign panix.com +1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ sst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU Organization: Comcast Online Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:56:21 GMT HENRY CASTLE wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of the 126 times in the past two days > I have been selected by some bogus Solicitor in Nigeria somewhere to > serve as the executor of some poor deceased devils estate (always > numbering in the millions-billions of dollars) I have never once > answered them. I am wondering what would happen if I did. I've had > many folks say these charlatans would try to pick me clean, getting > my bank deposit account numbers, my social security number, etc. And > some have suggested they (the charlatans) would send you a bogus > draft for several thousand million billion dollars to be deposited > in my bank account, which, surprise!, would turn out to be > counterfiet after I had endorsed/negotiated it and remitted proceeds > back to the Solicitor, etc. > Has anyone on the net ever played their game back at them? Yes. I've seen some of the back and forth of this effort. It is fruitless and potentially dangerous and is not advised. There are just too many of 'them.' - RM ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 06:26:37 +0200 Organization: Elisa Internet customer > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > Has anyone on the net ever played their game back at them? That is to > say, responded saying "I am so sorry to hear of my long lost relative > being deceased, how can I help you?" then milked them and toyed with > them as long as they kept playing back? I wonder what they would > say/do then? Oh yes, Pat. Check out www.scamorama.com for a barrel of laughs. cheers, Henry ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 04:57:39 GMT > Has anyone on the net ever played their game back at them? It is becoming a major sport. Here are some sites I found. www.419eater.com www.ebolamonkeyman.com Now, these websites have some objectionable content but after all they are dealing with criminals. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Ramsplitter firewood splitters If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 05:00:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Ted Klugman Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Purely Spam! MY PRESENTATION TO YOU Organization: Optimum Online On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 05:45:22 -0600, HENRY CASTLE wrote: > Has anyone on the net ever played their game back at them? You bet. There's a website dedicated to it. Lots of laughs. http://www.419eater.com ------------------------------ 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. 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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