TELECOM Digest     Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:35:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 251

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Corporations Entering World of Blogs (Monty Solomon)
    Wrong Time in Vonage Caller ID (Chris Farrar)
    SEX.COM Owner Responds to Charges (Gary Kremen)
    Vonage Virtual Numbers (Chris Farrar)
    New Anonymous Free Surfing Site: anonycat.com (Tom Cervenka)  
    Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steven Lichter)
    Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Porting an 800 Number (Fred Atkinson)
    Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Fred Atkinson)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

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

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 21:08:59 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Corporations Entering World of Blogs


By NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON Associated Press Writer

When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that
it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob
Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in
arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog.

"The media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to
paint an ugly portrait of General Motors," began Lutz's entry on GM's
FastLane Blog, which the company launched in January.

The March 30 entry went on to say that widely reported remarks he made
to analysts the week before had been "taken out of context" and that
the automaker would not shed the brands.

A growing number of companies are stepping softly into the
blogosphere, following a path blazed by Microsoft Corp., Sun
Microsystems Inc. and others in the technology field.

The Internet journal format, they find, lets businesses expand their
reach, generate product buzz and encourage consumer loyalty _ while
bypassing traditional media.

      - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49647343

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

Date: Sun,  5 Jun 2005 17:48:43 -0400
From: Chris Farrar <cfarrar@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID


I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else
is experiencing this problem.

I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line
phone.  Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange.  Line
2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX
exchange.

The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform
with the last Caller ID information available.  Bell Canada is sending
the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage
is sending Eastern Standard Time.  So whenever I receive a call on
Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in
EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on
Bell Canada to put it back into EDT.

Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in
the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock
before then?

Chris

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

From: gary.kremen@gmail.com
Subject: SEX.COM Owner Responds to Charges
Date: 5 Jun 2005 14:59:09 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John Smith writing about
the article posted here on Gary Kremens ( http://sex.com ) :

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if 'Mandy Howard' of Parents
>> United is any relation to 'Nancy Howard' who submitted this article?
>> I would also like to point out that in this somewhat offensive article
>> (to me, at least), neither of the Misses Howard's is entitled to use
>> absolute terms like 'predator' or 'should be incarcerated for life',
>> certainly without _an adjudication in a court_. My first reaction was
>> to pitch the article out unused, but with the possibility there is
>> some smidgen of truth herein, i.e. Kremen _was_ arrested on the
>> allegations named, and his known legal problems with the 'sex.com'
>> domain, etc I decided to use the article. ....PAT]

> No reputable psychotherapist would blur the distinction between gays
> and pedophiles, much less try to make an outright connection.  This is
> just hate-group propaganda, piggybacking on what might otherwise be an
> actual news story.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for saying that ... out of
> curiosity, I went to look at the http://sex.com site last night for
> the first time in my life, to see what apparently makes it such a
> famous and popular site, and to find out what would make it worth
> fighting over, as Kremen did with that fellow who apparently tried
> to cybersquat on it (remember the fellow who snatched the name, got
> sued, and the registrar wound up getting sued also, and the lawyer
> who was going to get a piece of the action as his fee in the case?)
> I _thought_ I was going to see something really amazing, etc. Well,
> all I wound up seeing was a sort of poorly designed web site with a
> jillion links to other sites on it, all of which wanted your credit
> card number, etc. Over all, it was sort of boring, with slow
> responding links, etc. (Of course my computer is not the fastest,
> and to be charitable, maybe the links were so slow loading because
> of the millions of web users trying to get in and supply their credit
> card numbers, etc, but I don't think so. Of course, I did not feel
> very well last either, but it is hard for me to imagine some lawyer
> agreeing to settle for _fifteen percent_ of the action on that site
> in exchange for his fee, then suing the client to get that little dab
> of (what appeared to me to be) nothing special. I understand the
> registrar who got sued in that thing settled for $150 thousand. Damn!
> Is _any_ web site worth that kind of money? How and why?  Would
> someone like to hijack http://telecom-digest.org from me? I'd be
> glad to let you do it, if there was any possibility I could 'settle
> out of court -- or in court, for that matter -- for $150 thousand from
> the transgressor. Geeze ...   PAT]

Gary Kremens says:

1) Completely fake news article
2) See http://www.sex.com/corporate/lawsuits/
3) Settlement with Versign is confidential -- see
    http://downloads.sex.com/corporate/lawsuits/pdf/9th_Circuit_Appeal_Ruling.pdf


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In (1) above, I presume Ms. Howard took
an _existing_ true report of sex.com legal problems as dealt with in
great length in the various files reached by looking at the URL
mentioned in (2) and (3) and embellished it with the central points of
her "news item", i.e. a pedophile situation and heroin use. Gary
Kremens does not say if he knows who Ms. Howard is, or what her
possible motivation was in further smearing his name around. I cannot
imagine she just made the whole thing up out of whole cloth ... he
must have some knowledge of _who_ she is and _why_ she chose to submit
the report. But I am not going to dwell on it unless Mr. Kremens
wishes to elaborate further. I will say those things are always
_nasty_ allegations to make about anyone, given the general dislike of
many in society for those things. I did go through (2) and (3) above
in some detail, and it appears to me this is not something recently
started, but rather, it has been going on for about ten years, or
since the production of a letter to the registrar from Mr. Cohen in
1995 which Mr. Kamens says is fraudulent. Warning: some of the legal
documents shown in (2) above are very long, complex and boring, and
there are a couple of audio files -- over an hour long -- of lawyers
in court arguing before a judge on things such as 'who owns which
site' and how registrars do their duties, etc. PAT]

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

Date: Sun,  5 Jun 2005 18:36:37 -0400
From: Chris Farrar <cfarrar@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Vonage Virtual Numbers


This is hard to work out, as I don't have a Hargray Telecom (
http://www.hargray.com the local landline provider,) phonebook to
reference as to local calling area.  Does anyone know wheich of the
following communities that Vonage has numbers available in that are a
local call to Hilton Head Island, SC (area code 843, exchange 842)?

Charleston, SC
disto Island, SC
Folly Beach, SC
Hollywood, SC
Mount Pleasant, SC
Sullivans Island, SC
Summerville, SC
Yemassee, SC

 From looking at a map of SC, Edisto Island may be close, but I can't
tell for sure.

Chris

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

From: tom.cervenka@gmail.com
Subject: New Anonymous Surfing Site (Free):  anonycat.com
Date: 4 Jun 2005 23:01:01 -0700



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is being reprinted in case you
missed it in an earlier issue of the Digest over the weekend. PAT]

There is a new (free) web-based proxy for anonymous surfing at
http://anonycat.com

It's much better than the other web proxies, like anonymizer.com, and
it doesn't require registration.

-Tom

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy 
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 14:18:13 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Chris Farrar wrote:

>> Godaddy is a reputable registrar.  I have three domains registered
>> with them.  The don't sell spam address lists or function as a
>> spamhaus.

>> What led you to jump to this particular conclusion?

> Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number
> of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site
> orginating them.

Well, there are two issues with GoDaddy. First, they register a ton of
domains, some of which are registered by/for spammers.

Second, they do offer mailing list services. I can resell those
services as a WildWestDomains/GoDaddy reseller, but I refuse (I only
do TrafficBlazer, domains and SSL certificates). In fact, when I have
time over the next couple weeks, I'm going to email GD president Bob
Parsons requesting that he drop the email service. It's just way too
easy to abuse.

But the question is ... are you seeing emails coming from GoDaddy
customers using their mailing list product? Or are you just seeing
lots of spam from GoDaddy-registered domains? Both are bad. I'd argue
that the former is a lot worse.


JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
     --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

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

From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com>
Reply-To: Die@spammers.com
Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc.  (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co.
Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy 
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 23:06:16 GMT


Chris Farrar wrote:

>> Godaddy is a reputable registrar.  I have three domains registered
>> with them.  The don't sell spam address lists or function as a
>> spamhaus.

>> What led you to jump to this particular conclusion?

> Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number
> of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site
> orginating them.

> Other major spammers to my inbox seem to be kornet.com, hanaro.com,
> comcast.net

All I know is that almost all the spam that got to my junk mail box came 
from sites on their servers; if they are a reputable registrar then they 
are not inforcing their rules.  I have sent copies and complaints to 
them, nothing happens.  As my take says, goes for them also.

The only good spammer is a dead one!!  Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2005  I Kill Spammers, Inc.  A Rot in Hell Co.

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging?
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 14:19:24 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Joseph wrote:

> messaging to your phone.  They cannot and will not remove phone to
> phone text messaging from your account.

That's interesting. Both Verizon and Sprint have disabled SMS
completely when I requested it. Why can't T-Mobile?

JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
     --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

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

From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com>
Subject: Re: Porting an 800 Number
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:33:20 -0400


> Even if Vonage would let you transfer tollfree numbers, I wouldn't do
> it, Vonage's monthly fee for the included minutes is more then I'm
> spending now.

It's not Vonage that I'm transfering it to.  It's yet another VOIP
provider.  I saw their rates and it is not bad.  The long distance
carrier that I am now using has a higher rate than this new company
offers.


Fred

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites
Date: 5 Jun 2005 18:00:14 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Dean M. wrote:

> Forgive my ignorance, but if this whole exercise on the part of public
> schools is simply aimed at reducing their liablility exposure, how do
> the private schools others mentioned get around that issue?

Private schools are afraid of lawsuits, too, obviously.  They
protect themselves by:

1) Strict standards of behavior that are enforced.  If a kid screws
around too much in a private school, they're out.  Further, private
schools limit who is admitted in the first place.  There's normally a
smaller staff/student ratio at private schools and students are
monitored more closely.  I've done some work at private schools and I
wouldn't want to be a student there despite the prestige.

2) Contractual limited liability:  Unlike a public school which
is governed by law, private schools can and do have contracts
with students limiting the schools' liability.  (Public schools
do that for some optional activities, like school sports).

> It would be like cutting school sports entirely because some students
> may get hurt playing. Or does that happen too?

It does at times, although the law has granted some immunity to
schools and coaches if a kid gets injured.

Liability law is a tricky thing.  It is often set by the courts
by granting a lawsuit over something.  However, legislators may
limit liability in certain situations and they do on occassion.
Often these issues become very contentious (ie limiting malpractice
awards, for example).  They generally protect sports coaches
because no one would host a sport if they'd get sued every time a
kid got injured.

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

From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com>
Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites
Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 01:01:58 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:39:11 -0400, Barry Margolin
<barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Who do they need to use school equipment to pursue these hobbies?  You
> do school work on school equipment, you go home and work on your
> hobbies.

I think you meant 'why' rather than 'who'.  Well, a number of kids do
research for their papers.  Writing about radio and other things
aren't out of the realm of reason.  I wrote several papers and did a
presentation or two about radio when I was in junior and senior high.
I learned a lot about electronics when I was in high school from
reading books in the school library.  And I went on to get an
electronics degree, a commercial radiotelephone operator's license,
and a great deal more later.

I ask you what is the difference between reading about it on the
Internet and reading about it in a library?  Would you advocate
removing books like that from the library simply because *you* think
that they don't 'need' to read them?  And it's a damned sight better
thing for a kid to be doing with his or her time than getting involved
with the wrong crowd or worse.

This is not personal, but you need to severely rethink your position.

Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to
information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is
a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take.

Regards, 

Fred 

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #251
******************************