TELECOM Digest     Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:10:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 308

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Lisa Minter)
    Nasty Virus Writers Get Even Nastier (Lisa Minter)
    Pirated Live 8 DVDs on E-Bay; Music Industry Complains (Lisa Minter)
    Microsoft Ready to Discuss RSS Security (Lisa Minter)
    IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft (Lisa Minter)
    Time to Explode the Internet (Lisa Minter)
    Deutsche Telekom Mulls T-Mobile USA Sale (Telecom dailyLead from USTA)
    Harvard Project to Scan Millions of Medical Files (Monty Solomon)
    Saluting Thumbs in Perpetual Motion (Monty Solomon)
    Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Bob Vaughan)
    Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Don Shoemaker)
    Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Marc Popek)
    Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story (jmeissen@aracnet.com)
    Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Lisa Hancock)

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.  

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:28:36 -0500


By M.P. DUNLEAVEY

ABOUT two weeks ago, I was alarmed by a phone message from my bank
alerting me to some "unusual activity" on my debit card. Unusual
wasn't the word.  Someone had gone on a shopping spree -- $556.46 and
$650.81 at one store, $264.99 and $300 in charges that were pending at
another -- and none of it was mine.

My debit card was still in my wallet. I hadn't used it in days. The
bank said thieves might have created a counterfeit card. Someone -- a
store clerk, waiter, whoever -- could have used a card reader to
harvest the information imbedded in the magnetic strip to create a
fake one. The bank assured me the debit account was closed and the
thieves no longer had access to my cash -- but who could be sure? How
much of my personal information did these thieves get?

Between bouts of tears and frantic phone calls to my bank, I became
obsessed with what I might have done to prevent this.

The recent spate of data breaches was worrisome, but I never expected
to become a victim. Maybe I should have. Companies like Citigroup,
Bank of America, ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have lost, misplaced or
otherwise exposed the personal information of tens of millions of
Americans. Even the government concedes it lost records containing the
Social Security numbers of more than a million employees.

UNFORTUNATELY, although there are steps you can take to protect
yourself -- and you should -- there are no guarantees. "You cannot
protect yourself completely," said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer
program director at the U.S.  Public Interest Research Group in
Washington. "The best thing you can do is react swiftly if it does
happen."

That said, Mr. Mierzwinski endorsed the preventive measures offered by
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org), a nonprofit
consumer advocacy group, and by the Identity Theft Resource Center
(www.idtheftcenter.org), also a nonprofit. Besides the standard advice
to shred personal documents, following are some tips I found useful:

 -- Avoid letting your cards out of your sight. Do not let store
clerks take your card away on the pretext that there's a "problem."

 -- Restrict the access to your personal data by signing up for the
National Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov); remove your name
and address from the phone book and reverse directories -- and, most
important, from the marketing lists of the credit bureaus to reduce
credit card solicitations. The site www.optoutprescreen.com can help.

 -- Consider freezing your credit report, an option available in a
growing number of states. Freezing prevents anyone from opening up a
new credit file in your name (a password lets you gain access to it),
and it doesn't otherwise affect your credit rating.

 -- Protect your home computer with a firewall, especially if you have a
high-speed connection.

 -- Rein in your Social Security number. Remove it from your checks,
insurance cards and driver's license. Ask your bank not to use it as
your identification number. Refuse to give your Social Security number
to merchants, and be careful even with medical providers. The only
time you are required by law to give your number, Mr. Mierzwinski
said, is when a company needs it for government purposes, like tax
matters, Social Security and Medicare.

 -- Curtail electronic access to your bank accounts. Pay bills through
snail mail. Avoid linking your checking to savings. Use a credit card
for purchases rather than a debit card. Although I was able to get all
$1,772.26 reimbursed, I was lucky. While individual liability for
fraudulent credit card purchases is only $50, it can be higher for
debit cards: up to $500 or even all the money in your account in some
cases.

These and other preventive steps may help, but people really can't
safeguard their money and their data on their own. Robert Douglas, the
chief executive of PrivacyToday.com, a privacy advocate, believes that
this is not an issue of consumer responsibility but of corporate
negligence. "These companies are trying to tell people it's their
fault, but the largest breaches have been within the financial
services industry itself," Mr. Douglas said.

Mr. Douglas and Mr. Mierzwinski say that shredding documents is fine,
but calling your state and local representatives is better. "Companies
have refused to give consumers control over their financial DNA and
they've refused to take responsibility for their actions,"
Mr. Mierzwinski said.  "What will stop identity theft are stronger
notification laws and stronger penalties, which we don't have now."

M. P. Dunleavey writes about personal finance for MSN Money.


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Nasty Virus Writers Get Even Nastier 
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:30:51 -0500


by Jay Wrolstad, cio-today.com

Malware practitioners are more prolific than ever these days and have
reached a level of sophistication where the viruses they produce can
spread across the Internet in minutes, according to a new report by
security specialist Sophos.

Thus far this year, Sophos has detected nearly 8,000 new viruses, up
59 percent from the first six months of last year. At the same time,
the average time from initial release to widespread infection is
decreasing rapidly.

According to Sophos, there now is a 50 percent chance of being
infected by an Internet worm in just 12 minutes of being online with
an unprotected Windows PC.

Money To Be Made

For users, the latest virus report should serve as an incentive to be
more diligent with security patches and other software updates, said
Gregg Mastoras, senior security analyst at Sophos.

Mastoras attributes the potential profits from spyware and other
attacks that let hackers obtain information -- such as bank-account
data or credit-card numbers -- as a primary reason for the rise in
virus activity.

In fact, he said, Sophos has seen a threefold increase in the number
of keylogging Trojans so far this year. Once planted, these keyloggers
run in the background and monitor a user's keystrokes, feeding
passwords and other personal information back to the Trojan writer.

Zafi, Sober Worms Top the List

The long-running Zafi-D worm accounts for more than a quarter of all
viruses reported to Sophos thus far this year. Dominating the top of
the monthly virus charts for the first four months, this worm
circulates under the guise of a Christmas greeting to trick users into
opening an infected attachment.

"Protection against this worm has been around for a while, but
infections are still being reported, which means consumers are not
protecting themselves," said Mastoras.

The Sober-N worm also is nasty. Primarily, it uses file-sharing
networks for distribution, then hides in the background of infected
PCs before upgrading itself to a newer version to churn out spam from
compromised machines.

Sophos noted that traditional PC threats seem to be consolidating,
which makes it difficult to identify certain kinds of attacks as being
spam, spyware or virus. Some Trojans, for example, infect user
machines to engage in several kinds of malicious activities.

Moving Beyond Microsoft

While the ubiquity of Windows-based PCs makes them the preferred
target, Mastoras said virus writers seeking personal information are
showing greater interest in Linux, Unix and Mac systems.

As a result, businesses and others using alternative operating systems
 -- on desktops or servers -- should not let down their guard in the
belief that they are not vulnerable to attack, he said.

"It's important for all users to update their OS with the latest
patches and to use antivirus applications," Mastoras said.

Copyright 2005 NewsFactor Network, Inc.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
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------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Pirated Live 8 DVDs on eBay, Industry Protests
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:33:39 -0500


Internet auction site eBay said on Tuesday it had begun removing
illegal DVD copies of the Live 8 poverty awareness pop concerts from
its Web site, after the record industry complained.

Some of the pirate recordings on the site early on Tuesday were on
sale within 24 hours of Saturday's concerts ending, and have been
attracting bids of up to 16.99 pounds ($31) each.

One of them boasts footage from huge concerts in London's Hyde Park
and Philadelphia.

Ten concerts took place in all, from Tokyo in the east to near Toronto
in the west, and more than a million people turned up to see the
greatest line-up of rock stars ever assembled.

While the concerts were free, British media said record company EMI
(EMI.L) paid millions of pounds for the rights to release the official
DVD of the event, which Bob Geldof organized to put pressure on world
leaders to do more to beat poverty.

"There are too many people out there who believe music is for
stealing, regardless of the wishes of artists and the people who
invest in them," said David Martin, director of anti-piracy at the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

"Sadly we are not at all surprised by this incident."

EBay said it had begun removing the listings.

"The unauthorized copies of Live 8 DVDs we have been told about have
been taken down, because the sale of fake items is not permitted on
eBay.co.uk," the site said in a statement.

EBay has already been labeled an "electronic pimp" by Geldof after
free Live 8 tickets appeared on the site ahead of Saturday's concerts.

It suspended some of the accounts of users who placed hoax bids for
the tickets of up to 10 million pounds in order to sabotage the sales.

Geldof also organized the Live Aid charity gigs 20 years ago to raise
money for Ethiopian famine victims, and brought out a re-recording of
the 1984 "Do They Know It's Christmas?" track to try to prevent
bootleggers profiting from the original.

The BPI urged eBay to toughen its safeguards against piracy, noting a
dramatic rise in illegal sales.

In 2001, the BPI arranged for the removal of 2,315 illegal online
auctions, but in the first six months of this year that number had
risen to 13,280.

Copyright 2005 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.

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Microsoft Ready to Discuss RSS Security
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:35:31 -0500


Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

Microsoft will be taking a closer look at the security of a new Web
publishing technology it plans to integrate into the next major
version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Microsoft plans to offer ways
for developers to use the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) standard to
create Windows applications, but the company first wants to talk about
the security implications of such a move.

Developers should expect to discuss RSS security at Microsoft's
upcoming Professional Developers Conference, to be held in Los Angeles
this September, says Robert Scoble, a Microsoft technical evangelist
writing in a recent Web log posting. "This is something we all need to
do a lot of thinking and work on," he says.

RSS is now used primarily as a way of letting Web surfers know when
new articles have been posted to Web sites, but they must use special
software in order to view and subscribe to RSS feeds. With Longhorn,
expected in the second half of 2006, that capability will be built
into the operating system. Microsoft will also provide new developer
tools so that developers can more easily build Windows applications
that use the protocol.

Cause for Concern?

Microsoft declined to say what, if any security concerns it has about
RSS, but observers say that once it is included in Windows, RSS will
be a much more appealing target to attackers. Jupiter Research
estimates that the protocol is used by about six percent of
U.S. consumers, but once it is embedded in Windows that number will
jump substantially.

As Web browsers and e-mail clients moved into the mainstream, so too
did worms and viruses, says Rich Miller, an analyst with
Netcraft. Some are concerned that the same pattern may emerge with RSS
readers, he says. "Once that becomes a technology that's on
everybody's desktop and can be accessed using the Windows operating
system, that changes the dynamic quite substantially."

Though there haven't yet been any major security risks associated with
RSS, which is generally considered more secure than many other Web
technologies, security may become more of an issue as RSS begins to be
used for a wider variety of tasks.

"We have an opportunity to look at ways we could build into RSS some
of the security features that we wished had been present in e-mail,"
says Phillip Hallam-Baker, principal scientist with VeriSign.

Phishing, for example, could become a problem as new applications are
developed for RSS, he says. "At the moment, I don't see that there is
a phishing issue with RSS," he says. "However, if banks start using it
to distribute statements, it may become an issue."

"The more automation that people have built in [to RSS] the more
places that you might have somebody work out some dirty trick,"
Hallam-Baker says. "Are we going to make sure we've locked down as
many rat holes as we could have done, or are we going to find that if
we'd put better security in there, we'd be happier with the result?"
he asks.

Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc.

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft 
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:37:19 -0500


IBM Wins $850M Settlement vs. Microsoft
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer

BOSTON - IBM Corp. will get $775 million in cash and $75 million worth
of software from Microsoft Corp. to settle claims still lingering from
the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft in the
1990s, the companies announced Friday.

The payout is one of the largest that Microsoft has made to settle an
antitrust-related case. And it brings the software giant closer to
moving on from claims involving technologies long since eclipsed.

IBM was pressing for restitution for the "discriminatory treatment"
that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson cited when he ruled
in 2000 that Microsoft had broken antitrust law.

IBM and Microsoft once had a trailblazing collaborative relationship,
dating to Big Blue's historic decision in 1981 to have Microsoft write
software for the original IBM PCs.

Later, IBM and Microsoft would jointly create the OS/2 operating
system. But the partnership soured, and Microsoft eventually focused
on Windows and left OS/2 development to IBM.

In the mid-1990s, IBM irked Microsoft by selling PCs that were loaded
with OS/2 as an alternative to Windows and with its SmartSuite
productivity software, a rival for Microsoft Office programs. IBM also
backed Java, a programming language that doesn't need Windows to run.

Jackson noted that Microsoft retaliated by charging IBM more than
other PC makers for copies of Windows.

There were other tactics. Months before Windows 95 came out, Microsoft
let other PC companies pre-install the operating system on new
computers that could go on sale right after the launch. But IBM got
its license only 15 minutes before the event.

As a result, many customers eager for the latest software opted for
machines made by IBM's rivals. Since Windows 95 arrived in August, IBM
missed out on back-to-school sales and lost "substantial revenue,"
Jackson wrote.

IBM didn't sue Microsoft over the findings, but kept the right to do
so under a 2003 agreement between the companies. Similar talks led to
a $150 million settlement with Gateway Inc. in April.

Separately, Microsoft has spent more than $3 billion in recent years
settling lawsuits by rivals, including a $1.6 billion deal with Sun
Microsystems Inc. in 2004 and a $750 million truce with America
Online, part of Time Warner Inc., in 2003.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft still faces legal challenges, including
a lawsuit by RealNetworks Inc. and an appeal of a $600 million
antitrust ruling by European regulators. Though software maker Novell
Inc. reached a $536 million settlement with Microsoft in November,
Novell got a judge's approval last month to proceed with a separate
antitrust suit over the WordPerfect word-processing program.

Even so, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, said he believes
antitrust issues are close to being resolved. IBM had been the biggest
rival with a pending claim.

"This takes us another very significant step forward," he said. "We're
entering what I think is the final stage of this process."

The $775 million payment will pad IBM's second-quarter earnings, which
are due to be released in two weeks. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company is
coming off a first-quarter report that included a $1.4 billion profit
but fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

Microsoft set aside $550 million for antitrust claims in April, during
the company's fiscal third quarter. At least part of the IBM payment
could result in a charge in the company's fourth quarter; results are
expected July 21.

IBM shares rose 47 cents to close at $74.67 on the New York Stock
Exchange. Microsoft shares fell 13 cents to $24.71 on the Nasdaq Stock
Market.

When Jackson ruled against Microsoft in 2000, he ordered the company
broken into two as punishment. But a year later, the Clinton-era
Justice Department having given way to the Bush administration, the
government decided not to seek the breakup. The case was settled in
2002.

Even with Friday's deal, IBM reserved the right to press claims that
its server business was harmed by Microsoft's behavior. But such
claims appear unlikely to surface soon. IBM agreed not to seek damages
for actions that occurred before mid-2002, meaning the findings in
Jackson's ruling would no longer apply.

But while much of that case is anachronistic now -- OS/2 faded by the
late 1990s, and IBM doesn't even make PCs anymore, having sold the
business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. -- there's still conflict
between Microsoft and IBM.

Perhaps Microsoft's toughest competitive challenge today comes from
the open-source Linux operating system, which has made steady gains
especially in overseas markets. Some of Linux's biggest backing has
come from IBM.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Time to Explode the Internet?
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:23:28 -0500


An editorial comment from Chicago Tribune, July 4, 2005:

In the beginning, the Internet was an experiment among a small group
of government scientists and military folks who all seemed to know
each other. They were friendly. Then the doors were thrown open to the
public, and millions revved their engines and zoomed onto the Internet
superhighway. All these technological pioneers marveled at the clever
new ways to share information, find out stuff, buy things and connect
with others who have common interests.

Unowned and virtually unregulated, the Internet functioned for a few
years in the mid-1990s under self-governance, a certain
live-free-or-die ethic of community responsibility. Most people were
still friendly. The Internet's original design rested on the premise
that all these new Netizens would be as law-abiding and conscientious
in the privacy of their home offices as they would be strolling
through a public park.

But even savvy computer users aren't monolithic. Some have a
dark side.

In came the hackers, the viruses, worms, spyware, phishing, and spam;
the purveyors of pharmaceuticals and porn sites; and Nairobi bank
presidents and generals promising to wire millions of dollars into
your bank if you'd kindly give them your account number.

According to a Washington Post report last weekend, Carnegie Mellon
University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security
vulnerabilities in 2004. In 2000 the center logged 1,090. In 1995, it
was just 171.

Weeks ago, in one of the largest security breaches of the Internet to
date, MasterCard International revealed that more than 40 million
credit card numbers had been exposed to hackers and potential fraud.

"The Internet is stuck in the flower-power days of the 1960s during
which people thought the world would be beautiful if you are just
nice," computer scientist Karl Auerbach told the Post. Formerly with
Cisco Systems Inc., Auerbach now volunteers with engineering groups to
try to improve the Internet. Auerbach is part of a handful of groups
now looking into whether the entire Internet needs an overhaul, or, in
Web-speak, a Version 2.0.

What the existence of those groups tacitly acknowledges is that too
many people aren't just nice. With more than a billion Internet users
across the globe, and nearly everyone who surfs it vulnerable to
hazards, a structural overhaul is not an outlandish idea.

Copyright 2005, Chicago Tribune

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.

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

Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 12:31:48 EDT
From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com>
Subject: Deutsche Telekom Mulls T-Mobile USA Sale


Telecom dailyLead from USTA
July 5, 2005
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22830&l=2017006

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* Deutsche Telekom mulls T-Mobile USA sale
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Broadcom sues Qualcomm
* Mobile phone companies eye music business
* European telecom market heats up
USTA SPOTLIGHT 
* Just Released: The USTelecom IP Video Implementation & Planning
Guide
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
* AOL's Live 8 coverage a success
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* P2P, music companies seek new business model

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22830&l=2017006

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

Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 21:56:08 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Harvard Project to Scan Millions of Medical Files


By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff

Harvard scientists are building a powerful computer system that will
use artificial intelligence to scan the private medical files of 2.5
million people at local hospitals, as part of a government-funded
effort to find the genetic roots of asthma and other diseases.

The $20 million project -- which would probe more deeply and more
quickly into medical records than human researchers are capable of --
is designed to find links between patients' DNA and illnesses.
Although the effort could raise concerns about privacy, researchers
say the new program, called 'I2B2' (for 'Informatics for Integrating
Biology and the Bedside) would respect the strict guidelines set out
in federal and state laws, and could be a powerful tool for many kinds
of research.

Hospitals gather huge amounts of information from patients each day --
from blood tests to chest X-rays and brain scans. For decades,
researchers have pored through these records and gleaned insights that
have helped millions of Americans. Now, the Harvard team hopes to put
far more information at the fingertips of researchers, and to speed
the process with sophisticated automation.

Scientists said the Harvard work and similar efforts elsewhere
increase the stakes in the nation's move to medical records stored
electronically.

With mounting examples of personal financial information being
compromised, work such as this will have to be done with extreme
care. Scientists also said, however, that if the project is
successful, it would be widely copied -- and it could mean that
studies that now take months or years could be done in weeks or even
minutes.

"If we could use routine clinical care to generate new findings
without having to do multimillion-dollar studies, that would be a true
change in the way medical discovery is done," said Dr. Isaac Kohane,
an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who is one of the
project's directors. "We want to use the healthcare system as a living
laboratory."

All of the records -- from patients at Massachusetts General Hospital,
Brigham and Women's Hospital, and several Partners HealthCare
hospitals -- are protected by multiple layers of security designed to
prevent private medical information from being released, the
scientists said. None of the information will be sold, said John
Glaser, the project's other director, and the chief information
officer for Partners HealthCare.

Funding for the five-year I2B2 project began in the fall of 2004;
researchers are now getting the first hints of success and are forming
plans to contact patients.

The first study to be carried out under the project is an effort to
understand the genetic roots of asthma, which afflicts about 20
million Americans. For reasons that are not well understood, some
asthma patients do not respond well to the usual treatments and suffer
repeated, frightening attacks that send them to the emergency room,
said Dr. Scott Weiss, a scientist at the Channing Laboratory at
Brigham and Women's Hospital who is leading the asthma team.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/07/03/harvard_project_to_scan_millions_of_medical_files/

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

Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:54:27 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Saluting Thumbs in Perpetual Motion


@LARGE

By Scott Kirsner

ESPN doesn't understand the excitement, and Fox Sports doesn't grasp
the inherent danger. The New England Sports Network simply can't
appreciate the technique and strategy.

That's why none of those channels carried live coverage of the
first-ever @Large BlackBerry Invitational Tournament, held last week.
Their mistake. This would've been a ratings bonanza. Who cares about
baseball or golf when you could be watching a middle manager
surreptitiously typing 60 words-per-minute under the conference table
during a plodding PowerPoint presentation?

Nearly 50 entrants vied for the grand prize: a mention in print, and
the right to add a line to one's e-mail signature boasting, 'Winner of
the 2005 @Large BlackBerry Invitational.' Proceeds from the
competition went to the American Association for the Prevention of
Thumb Tendinitis, a painful affliction that sadly ends the careers of
many talented BlackBerry users. (Perhaps you'll donate, as there were
no proceeds this year.) Two observations led me to launch the
tourney.The first was that people with hand-held e-mail devices tend
to get obsessed with responsiveness. (I use the term BlackBerry to
encompass devices like the PalmOne Treo and the T-Mobile Sidekick,
which I'm sure infuriates the legal department at Research In Motion,
the Canadian company that makes BlackBerrys.) They volley back answers
mere milliseconds after the sender has asked the question.The second
observation was that as people have been getting more comfortable with
their devices, responses have been getting longer.

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/07/04/saluting_thumbs_in_perpetual_motion/

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

From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan)
Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 10:48:09 UTC
Organization: Tantivy Associates


In article <telecom24.307.9@telecom-digest.org>, Paul Coxwell
<paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

>> Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding
>> electrodes (such as the one for phone service) must be bonded to
>> the primary electrode.  Where does the NEC apply?  According to
>> what the telco man admitted seven years ago, I assume our county
>> code says the same thing.

> Which edition of the NEC are you looking at?  In the 2002 edition
> article 250.54 relates to supplementary electrodes which MAY be
> bonded, not MUST.  250.58 does seem to correspond with 250.54 in
> earlier editions though, so that could be the section you are looking
> at.

> Chapter 8 of the NEC also relates specifically to communication systems.
> Article 800.40(D) in the 2002 edition states:

> QUOTE
> Bonding of Electrodes.  A bonding jumper not smaller than 6 AWG copper
> or equivalent shall be connected between the communications grounding
> electrode and power grounding electrode system at the building or
> structure served where separate electrodes are used.
> /QUOTE

>> Is this a recent addition to the NEC?

> No.  I don't know how far back the requirement goes, but the 1971 NEC
> says much the same thing in article 800-31(b)(7):

> QUOTE
> Bonding of Electrodes.  A bond not smaller than No. 6 copper or
> equivalent shall be placed between the communication and power grounding
> electrodes where the requirements of (5) above result in the use of
> separate electrodes.
> /QUOTE

It looks like 800-31(b)(7) was added after 1965.

The 1965 code says, in section 800-31 (b)(5):

[QUOTE] 

Electrode. The grounding conductor shall preferably be connected to a
water pipe electrode. Where a water pipe is not readily available and
the grounded conductor of the power service is connected to the water
pipe at the building, the protector grounding conductor may be
grounded to the power service conduit, service equipment enclosures,
or grounding conductor of the power service.

In the absence of a water pipe, connection may be made to a continuous
and extensive underground gas piping system, to an effectively
grounded metallic structure, or to a ground rod or pipe driven into
permanently damp earth. Steam or hot water pipes, or lightning rod
conductors shall not be employed as electrodes for protectors. A
driven rod or pipe used for grounding power circuits shall not be used
for grounding communication circuits unless the driven rod or pipe is
connected to the grounded conductor of a multigrounded neutral power
system.  The requirements for separate made electrodes for power and
lighting system grounds, those for communication systems, and those
for a lightning rod installation shall not prohibit the bonding
together of all such made electrodes. See Section 250-86.

[ It is recommended that all separate electrodes be bonded together to
limit potential differences between them ans between their associated
wiring systems. ]

[/QUOTE]

> Disclaimer: Being British I'm just an outside observer to the NEC.  I
> could post your query in a Stateside electrical forum where we have
> some NEC experts though, if you wish.>

> - Paul

               -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine --
Bob Vaughan  | techie @ tantivy.net 		  |
	     | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 |
-- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? --

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

From: Don_Shoemaker@HotMail.com
Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes
Date: 5 Jul 2005 09:26:46 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


John Hines wrote:

> The NEC does get revised periodically, 2002 the most recent.

The 2005 version has been out for several months.

> Grounding and bonding have been revised in the last few years.  In
> summary, the service entrance has to have a ground rod installed, and
> this is bonded to the electrical system at one and only place at the
> main box, this is the grounded conductor aka neutral.

A great resource on grounding and anything related to electrical work
& the NEC is www.MikeHolt.com.

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

From: Marc Popek <LVMarc@att.net>
Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home?
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:32:28 GMT
Organization: AT&T Worldnet


And some wish to have a VOIP and a PSTN local presence. Why into use a PSTN
/VOIP automatic switch so that you can mange both services from a single
handset, answering machine etc?

Marco

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5786887222&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

fiatlux <jmc@canon.org> wrote in message
news:telecom24.299.2@telecom-digest.org:

> Written by: Jason Canon
> Peach ePublishing LLC

> VoIP Phone Home?

> The movie Extra Terrestrial (ET) coined the phrase "phone home" and
> each year American's look for more cost effective ways to do just
> that.  The past 10 years have seen the development and growing
> popularity of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to
> achieve cost savings over the traditional circuit-switched telephone
> networks. The two dominate technologies used for VoIP are: (1) the
> Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and (2) Peer-2-Peer (P2P).  For
> business and educational institutions SIP VoIP solutions have produced
> substantial savings. For home voice users, however, SIP VoIP is still
> value challenged.

> A typical circuit-switched landline phone costs about $19.95 per month
> (plus tax). The good old American landline phone should be graphically
> depicted beside the word "reliable" in the dictionary. Not only does
> it keep working, even when all electrical power fails, but it can even
> provide you with a light to dial with. At $15 dollars per month SIP
> VoIP is still value challenged due to the lack of full support for
> E9-1-1 emergency services and of course the reliability issues
> inherent with using a real time application over a "best effort"
> network like today's Internet. Although few VoIP articles still
> reference Internet Request For Comments (RFC) 3714 "IAB Concerns
> Regarding Congestion Control," the technical challenges associated
> with VoIP are widely known. Further, even with the recent dubious
> edict by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that VoIP service
> providers will provision support for E9-1-1 within 90 days, this still
> leaves the reliability issues unresolved. The use of adaptive rate
> CODEC's to prevent congestion collapse is a swell idea if it applies
> to my neighbor's service but not my own. Using adaptive rate CODEC's
> to elicit voluntary user preemption has no appeal in the modern world.
> Technology is supposed to be getting better and it is clearly not
> better that users receive disconnects or degraded service quality in
> order to constrain network bandwidth consumption.

> Quality of Service (QoS) has been the four letter word of the Internet
> for a very long time. Yet, we know that real time applications such as
> video and voice are a mismatch for "best effort" service models.  Cost
> savings are important, but not if they require users to accept
> backward technology leaps. After 9/11 the United States should have
> begun standardization efforts to insure that VoIP QoS levels would be
> equivalent to circuit-switched networks, especially where emergency
> E9-1-1 calls are concerned. The recent FCC order only requires that
> E9-1-1 call center traffic be properly routed. It does nothing to
> insure QoS of the connection once the call is completed.

> As for SIP VoIP in the home, there is too little incentive for savvy
> consumers to part with more of their hard earned communications
> dollars for an industry offering that simply does not meet the needs
> of the user. Until something concrete can be done to move SIP VoIP
> forward, service based on P2P such as Skype seems to be the only
> sensible choice on the kitchen table. Why should home users pay $15 or
> more per month for less reliable communications than they already have
> with their land line? Skype gives users the ability to experience
> "best effort" voice over the Internet for FREE. Could this be the
> reason why more than 125 million copies of Skype's P2P software has
> been downloaded?  And for the occasions where interconnection with the
> existing circuit-switched telephone networks is required, Skype offers
> a very competitive 2 cents per minute interconnection rate. With Skype
> you can talk for 12 =BD hours interconnected to the phone system for
> the same cost as a basic rate SIP VoIP service.

> Until genuine changes are made to support SIP VoIP QoS there does not
> appear to be a convincing or compelling reason today for users to
> choose anything other than P2P VoIP services such as Skype to render
> Internet "best effort" home phone services.

> You can read the complete article and view associated graphics online
> at: http://canon.org/VoIP_Phone_Home.html.

> Copyright 2005 Peach ePublishing, LLC

> Jason Canon has authored numerous technical research papers including:
> photonic switching, gigabit networking, VoIP E9-1-1 and others. He is
> an expert author for EzineArticles.com. E-mail: Jason Canon at
> jmc@canon.org.

> 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.

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

From: jmeissen@aracnet.com
Subject: Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story
Date: 5 Jul 2005 04:02:02 GMT
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com


In article <telecom24.307.14@telecom-digest.org>, Justa Lurker
<JustaLurker@att.net> wrote:

> No one is stopping you (or anyone else) from leaving.  So if you are
> so unhappy and dissatisfied here in the USA as you seem to be based
> upon your constant snide comments and whining, then by all means I
> suggest you move to some other country more to your liking.

Ah, yes. "Love It or Leave IT". If you don't like being shagged by the
power elite, well, TS, Eliot! No criticism allowed!

I would point out that the right of dissent is at the core of our
country. If that's not acceptable to our esteemed anonymous lurker
then I invite him to go live in a country more suited to his beliefs.

Oh, wait ... that's what the Administration is making this country!
;-)

john-
(not afraid to sign his real name)

John Meissen                        jmeissen@aracnet.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, Justa signed his name elsewhere,
and he has been around here for awhile, so his screen name is no
hassle to me. In fact, John, you may come to regret signing _your_
name to most anything sometime soon. It has been well known for quite
a long time now that there are rotten, no-good jackals who read this
Telecom Digest each day _just to harvest any real names_ they can find.
So I do not fault anyone who feels they need to at least camoflouge
their email address these days. If I were not the editor here, and had
to stand in the open as a place for guys to write to, I probably would
hide my email address also -- in fact, in other instances, I do in
other forums, etc. So I seriously doubt that Justa is afraid of any
repercussions from _me_ or this forum; more that likely he has been
eaten alive so often by spamscam he does not give his real name any
more often than necessary. PAT]

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone
Date: 5 Jul 2005 08:56:32 -0700


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now I would think that a prepaid
> customer was the best possible customer; no credit problems for the
> company to worry about; they probably have a few million dollars in
> effect 'loaned' to them on a revolving basis each day that they do
> not yet have to account for.  To add insult to injury, the cell
> phone people even route their prepaid customers through some idiot
> service bureau in an international place.  PAT]

I have heard problems from people using pre-paid phones, such as
"Trac" phone (believe it's offered by Verizon).  Yes, the service
offices were international and no help at all.

I don't understand either why the wireless companies treat these
ad-hoc customers so poorly.  Maybe because they really want the
guaranteed $40/month customers and hope they'll spend money on premium
services to generate even more profit.

I shudder to think what people are paying for cell phone service these
days given how often and long they talk, esp teenagers.  I hear my
cube neighbors yelling at their kids for overuse of txt messaging or
other premium services that drove up the bill.

Do cell phone plans still charge per call?  I have an old plan that is
$19.95 a month.  Even on 'free' off peak calls there is a 12c land
line fee for each call made or received.  Since I don't use the phone
that much I don't mind it.  Periodically some clueless salesperson
calls me to push an upgrade to a fancy new phone (that I must
purchase) and pay $40 a month for a "cheaper plan".  Considering usage
charges are now about $1-3 a month it would be quite foolish for me to
switch; but they tell me I'll save money.

When I first got cellphone service I went to the wireline carrier.  I
expected the same sort of treatment regular phone service got.  I
quickly learned it was a very separate division with very different
practices.  I thought I'd get best service by being in one of their
owned stores, not an agent or mall kiosk.  Didn't matter.  The
salesgirl was bored, pretty much threw the phone at me, didn't bother
explaining how it worked until I insisted she do so and still left out
a lot.  She spent time on the phone making her social plans for the
evening.

When I pass the kiosks today I don't see anything different.  The
sales people just push the $40 plans and fancy features.  If they
realize you want very basic service they lose interest and shoo you
away.  I guess they work only on commission.

I've had a few good people on customer service (one even gave me her
direct inward number so I could call her back if not resolved), but
most were clueless.

It is clear, unlike the old days when someone in the Commercial Dept
of Bell was a career worker, today's workers are just passing through.
Turnover is very high and nobody thinks that is a problem.  Today some
kid (ie a 19 y/o) is selling cell phones, tomorrow he or she will be
serving pizza down the shore and the day after they'll be working for
a bank boiler room.

I do get frustrated at this world when the server of pizza at my
local joint has more knowledge of food preparation and service
then someone at phone store has about phones.  The servers at my
pizzaria are young but still have been there a few years and if
you ask for a special order they will accomodate you.  This is great
for getting pizza, but why can't the rest of the business world
operate this way?  What is the pizzaria owner doing for his employees
so that they stick around for a few years -- in what is not the most
pleasant job in the world -- that big companies can't do for their
employees in what should be far more pleasant working surroundings?

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


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