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TELECOM Digest     Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:18:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 315

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records For Sale (Jon Krim)
    Google Wins in 'Typosquatting' Dispute (Michael Liedtke)
    Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi (Monty Solomon)
    Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked (Monty Solomon)
    June Commentary on Cellular Providers Features (Kelly Daniels)
    F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope (PRN)
    Verizon VOIP Questions (snow)
    Re: Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical (Tim)
    Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments? (burris)

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: Jonathan Krim <newswire>
Subject: Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records For Sale
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 16:25:16 -0500


http://washingtonpost.com

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer

They're not just after your credit card or Social Security numbers.

Fueled by the ease of online commerce, snoops are on the trail of
other personal information, too. One of the hottest markets: records
of phone calls, especially from cell phones.

A tool long used by law enforcement and private investigators to help
locate criminals or debt-skippers, phone records are a part of the sea
of personal data routinely bought and sold online in an
Internet-driven, I-can-find-out-anything-about-you world. Legal
experts say many of the methods for acquiring such information are
illegal, but they receive scant attention from authorities.

Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you
with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last
billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name,
address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online,
and get results within hours.

Carlos F. Anderson, a licensed private investigator in Florida, offers
a similar service for $165, for all major telephone carriers.

"This report provides all the calls with dates, times, and duration on
the billing statement," according to Anderson's Web site, which adds,
"Incoming Calls and Call Location are provided if available."

Learning who someone talked to on the phone cannot enable the kind of
financial fraud made easier when a Social Security or credit card
number is purloined. Instead, privacy advocates say, the intrusion is
more personal.

"This is a person's associations," said Daniel J. Solove, a George
Washington University Law School professor who specializes in privacy
issues. "Who their physicians are, are they seeing a psychiatrist,
companies they do business with ... it's a real wealth of data to find
out the people that a person interacts with."

Such records could be used by criminals, such as stalkers or abusive
spouses trying to find victims.

Unlike Social Security numbers, which are on many public documents
that have been scooped up for years by data brokers, the only
repository of telephone call records is the phone companies.

Wireless carriers say they are aware that unauthorized people seek to
get their customers' call records and sell them, but the companies say
they take steps to prevent it.

"There are probably 100 such sites" known to security officials at
Verizon Wireless that offer to sell phone records, said Jeffrey
Nelson, a company spokesman, who said Verizon is always trying to
respond to abusive practices. He said that the company views all such
activity as illegal and that "we have historically, and will continue
to, change policies to reflect the changing nature of criminal
activity," though he declined to be specific.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Cingular Wireless, said his company
constantly is on guard against people trying to get at customer
information. But he called the acquisition of call records "an
infinitesimally small problem" at his firm.

Some experts in the field aren't so sure.

"Information security by carriers to protect customer records is
practically nonexistent and is routinely defeated," said Robert
Douglas, a former private investigator and now a privacy consultant
who has tracked the issue for several years.

Experts say data brokers and private investigators who offer cell
phone records for sale probably get them using one of three
techniques.

They might have someone on the inside at the carrier who sells the
data.  Spokesmen for the telephone companies said strict rules
prohibiting such activity make this unlikely. But Joel Winston,
associate director of the Federal Trade Commission's Financial
Practices Division, said other types of data-theft investigations have
shown that "finding someone on the inside to bribe is not that
difficult."

Another method is "pretexting," in which the data broker or
investigator pretends to be the cell phone account holder and
persuades the carrier's employees to release the information. The
availability of Social Security numbers makes it easier to convince a
customer service agent that the caller is the account holder.

Finally, someone seeking call data can try to get access to consumer
accounts online.

Telephone companies, like other service firms, are encouraging their
customers to manage their accounts over the Internet. Typically, the
online capability is set up in advance, waiting to be activated by the
customer.  But many customers never do.

If the person seeking the records can figure out how to activate
online account management in the name of a real customer before that
customer does, the call records are there for the taking.

Federal law expressly prohibits pretexting for financial data -- which
at one time was a primary means of stealing credit card and other
account information -- but does not cover telephone records, which are
covered by a patchwork of state and federal laws governing access to
personal information.

Some privacy advocates argue that the federal pretexting law needs to
be broadened.

At the very least, "there need to be audit trails to detect employee
access to this personal information and a data retention schedule that
mandates deletion of records" after a certain period of time, said
Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center.

The center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission
yesterday against one data broker, Intelligent e-Commerce Inc. of
Encinitas, Calif., saying it misrepresented its right to obtain the
information. The firm, which operates the Web site
http://www.bestpeoplesearch.com , advertises a variety of personal
data for sale, including cell phone records.

The company, which says on its Web site that it uses a licensed
private investigator to get the information, said through its lawyer
that it seeks to comply with all local, state and federal laws. 
Attorney Larry Slade said he does not know how the company acquires 
the phone records.

Phone companies view all these tactics as illegal, even if they are
used to help track down criminal activity. Instead, carriers say, they
require court orders before releasing customer records.

If someone uses pretexting to gain access to records, "these people
are acting criminally, posing as someone they are not," Nelson
said. He added that Verizon is preparing legal action against one data
provider.

The FTC views pretexting as a deceptive practice even without a
specific ban on its use for telephone records, Winston said.

But he said the agency has never taken such a case to court and does
not know how widespread the problem is. He said the FTC must focus its
resources on the practices of data thieves that can cause the most
damage to large numbers of consumers, such as financial fraud.

Many of the vendors of call records are unregulated data brokers, such
as Data Find Solutions Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., which operates
Locatecell.com.  Company officials did not return calls seeking
comment.

At the Florida office of private investigator Anderson, a man who
answered the phone and identified himself only as Mike said, "I don't
really think we're going to reveal our sources" of phone
records. "There's a lot of ways of doing it."

At Reliatrace Locate Services of Wisconsin, a man who declined to give
his name said only that his firm buys the data from another firm.

There is active debate within the private investigator community about
the propriety of getting phone records. In at least one online
discussion group for the industry, some members defended the practice
as legitimate while others said it was illegal, according to
transcripts provided to The Washington Post.

"I do not know of any legal way to obtain a person's telephonic
history," Robert Townsend, head of the National Association of Legal
Investigators, said in an interview. Townsend added that he thinks
only a small minority of licensed investigators engage in the practice
of acquiring and selling the data.

Copyright 2005 The Washington Post Company


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: Michael Liedtke <newswire>
Subject: Google Wins Typosquatting Dispute
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 16:56:14 -0500


By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

An Internet arbitrator has awarded Google Inc. the rights to several
Web site addresses that relied on typographical errors to exploit the
online search engine's popularity so computer viruses and other
malicious software could be unleashed on unsuspecting visitors.

The National Arbitration Forum, a legal alternate to litigating in
court, sided with a Google complaint alleging that Sergey Gridasov of
St.  Petersburg, Russia, had engaged in "typosquatting" by operating
Web sites named googkle.com, ghoogle.com and gooigle.com.

After former Stanford University graduate students incorporated the
search engine in September 1998, Google registered its domain name a
year later.  Gridasov registered his Web sites in December 2000 and
January 2001, according to Google's complaint.

In a decision made earlier this week, arbitrator Paul A. Dorf,
endorsed Google's contention that the misspelled addresses were part
of a sinister plot to infect computers with programs - known as
"malware" - that can lead to recurring system crashes, wipe out
valuable data or provide a window into highly sensitive information.

Gridasov didn't respond to Google's complaint, filed May 11, meaning
the arbitrator could accept all reasonable allegations as true.

The Associated Press sent an e-mail Friday to the address that
Gridasov listed when he registered his Web sites. The response, which
wasn't signed by Gridasov, acknowledged the misspelled names were
adopted to attract more visitors, but said there hadn't been any
complaints until the sites began posting code from another company,
which assured it wouldn't cause any trouble.

F-Secure, a Finnish company specializing in identifying malware,
identified googkle.com as a troublemaker in an advisory posted April
26 -- nearly three weeks before Mountain View-based Google filed its
complaint.

Trying to piggyback on the popularity of a heavily trafficked Web site
isn't new. For instance, the address Whitehouse.com used to display
ads for pornography was a surprise for Web surfers looking for
Whitehouse.gov, the president's official online
channel. Whitehouse.com now operates as a private Web site that sells
access to public records.

Google's brand ranks among the most trusted on the Internet and its
Web site attracts more than 66 million unique monthly visitors, making
it an inviting target for scheming opportunists.

On The Net:

http://www.google.com

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. See all Associated Press headlines and stories at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html   No login or registration
requirements.

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

Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 12:43:33 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi


Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/04/State/Wi_Fi_cloaks_a_new_br.shtml

Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/07/1351258

Florida case raises questions about Wi-Fi mooching
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5778822.html

FAQ: Wi-Fi mooching and the law
http://news.com.com/2100-7351-5778822.html

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

Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 19:22:08 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked


By DIONNE SEARCEY, SARMAD ALI and ALMAR LATOUR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Like many London residents, when Marianne Dunn heard about the bomb
attacks, she immediately tried to call colleagues on their cellphones
to see if they were all right. But all the computer trainer got were
busy signals. Then Ms. Dunn heard on the radio that authorities
advised people to use text messages via cellphones in lieu of calls.
"I got the message through using text," she said.

A sudden surge of voice traffic following yesterday's attacks
overloaded many British cellphone networks for at least three hours.
The calling volume was so high that even parts of the landline
networks were congested: The network of BT Group PLC, the largest
U.K. landline operator, experienced disruption, as did that of Cable &
Wireless PLC, another large phone company.

Several newer communication tools appeared to hold up better,
including text messages sent via cellphone keypads, wireless email and
instant messaging sent over computers. And some state-of-the-art,
"third-generation" cellphone networks, which are equipped to send and
receive video images and music as well as calls, also continued
working. Some customers even recorded images of the bomb damage on
their cellphone cameras and sent them to media outlets.

The communications problems indicate that, at least in Britain,
cellphone-system operators may not have learned many lessons from the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. And landline networks,
which previously were thought to be more robust, also face
challenges. After the World Trade Center attacks, landline phones
generally held up in New York, though there were some congestion
problems, while cellphone networks were clogged.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112077406111780071-h53OpBx5tN92js2XzLVusfCU43w_20060708,00.html

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

Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 10:51:27 -0700
From: Kelly Daniels <telco@teleport.com>
Reply-To: telco@teleport.com
Organization: Telco Planning, Inc.
Subject: June Commentary on Cellular Providers Features


Hello Bob Wallace, 

I have come to the same conclusion as you when you opened up the June 
edition on using Features on your new phone. Cellular providers are 
selling features but no support is available to encourage usage.  From 
discussion groups (TELECOM Digest and Telephony On-Line) for Industry 
Leaders and Veterans, many are coming to the same conclusion.

Cellular Operators and in particular the marketing groups are selling
features without any consideration of ability to implement.  At first
I though I just needed better training when handed the phone.  That is
true for some features but not all.

After being with AT&T wireless (Cellular One) for over 14 years (and
designing many different systems for that network from inception), I
was in Australia on Roaming that was quoted to me incorrectly.  My
second bill, instead of $140.00 was $2,300.00.  The trouble, no
web-site, store personnel, CSR or technical people could correctly
quote which Edge card to take and what the rate would be.  I was
extremely lucky to have the incorrect rates verified by three sources
in writing.

After being off-line for one month (when I arrived there), I was told
the only way I could get the correct device was to transfer to
Cingular.  What I was not told and did not even consider is that
Cingular put me on a new plan (no-signatures or any pamphlet).  I was
happy to get a new phone (I like Motorola V551) but the DATA card is
simply a firmware change.  I found out three months later Cingular
does not have any of the AT&T plans nor will it honor any of those
plans when converting consumers.  One comment though, the Cingular
International Roaming Plan certainly is a deterrent to Global
Commerce.

I was off-line another 2 months while trying to get the rates
straightened out.  New rule in conversion from AT&T to Cingular --
AT&T let you suspend the account when service would not work, Cingular
says tough, you still have to pay so I did for the two months that I
had to suspend service because they could not quote the rates and
re-rate the errant bill.  They would re-rate the bill, they just could
not re-rate the bill.

Now we get to the features. 

1) Cingular Web site could not be updated with my account information or 
bill review or pay-online for the first four months.  I could access the 
web site only if I am Microsoft IE user.

2) E-mail or Web site support contact not allowed for first six-months
"we do not support e-mail correspondence".  I did not argue this
because I knew they would get a few hundred thousand complaints to
cause them to change.

3) International Support assistance Free with AT&T, Not with Cingular.
11 hours of charges for conversations on bill and support while I had
turned off service yet had to pay for monthly service.

4) Motorola Phone, USB cable, PhoneTools.  Absolutely will not work,
is not going to work and no refunds allowed on the cable or the
software application.  17 hours of troubleshooting excluding leaving
it with the Cingular Staff.  The source of the trouble, Cingular
Connection Manager Software for my Edge Card AND an integration
problem on selecting the USB port instead of the Modem for Windows 98
users.  I cannot move my contacts, retrieve my pictures or set my
alerts.

5) My personal E-mails on the phone -- Motorola Phone supports it but
Cingular discontinued the capability.  Cingular advertises it, support
is on the web site but it has been discontinued.  I am forced to used
their e-mail which, amazingly, will not accept Microsoft Messenger.  I
now have four subscription products for DATA services (MMS, MediaNet,
PhoneTools, Edge Card) of which only the edge card works on a
dedicated PC (phone integration capable but not allowed).

6) Pictures available for MMS will not send pictures to e-mails
recipients.

7) E-mailing pictures was allowed (and still works if you use the
service outside the USA) and is allowed but will not work because
Cingular E-mail is limited in size.  It would work if I used my
external e-mail service but I am no longer allowed to.

8) Cingular Web site is required to set-up e-mail and Medianet.  Media
net requires I use Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Since I only use IE
for OS upgrades and patches, I decided I could use IE for Cingular.
All of the personalization you do on Media net is only for your
browser on your PC the changes do not go to the phone set, there is
no correlation between Medianet and your phone.  I have absolutely no
idea what MediaNet is for after registering and browsing.  It appears
only if I use a PC to make my Cingular account my home page.  There is
absolutely no interaction with the phone or edge card.

9) Web Browsing, like external e-mail and phonetools is advertised and
the Cingular Web site support pages support it but the service has
been turned off.  You cannot set links to WML enabled web sites.  You
can only use the Web sites Cingular provided on the pre-loaded
application in the phone.

What a complete mess.  It is true I have plenty of features on the
phone, one I really like, is taking pictures but I must use it only
when outside the USA because all of the send support features have
been removed in the Cingular network. I cannot think of anyone who
would want to receive picture of my work on their MMS enabled phone.
Like I said it cannot be moved to a PC because MobilePhone tools will
not work and external e-mail has been discontinued and internal e-mail
restricts size.

The phone is simply a phone and appears it will only be a phone.  I
have not adopted text messaging but in light of the above, I do not
expect it to work.

Kelly

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

Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 07:34:30
From: Editor (PRN) <editor@pressreleasenetwork.com>
Subject: F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope


Source: F-MMS Forum Secretariat
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com

F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope Towards Triple
Play And IP Services

Berne, Switzerland - Jul 8, 2005 (PRN): Addressing the Triple Play
challenge, the F-MMS Forum adopted a new direction towards Multi-Media
Services in the IP-driven Fixed Line environment during its recent
General Assembly, held on the 29 June 2005 in Sophia Antipolis,
France. The newly adopted charter of the Forum focuses on one major
task, to translate growth opportunities that arise from the Triple
Play challenge into breakthrough revenue earning Fixed Line
Multi-Media Services and devices. The Forum wishes to provide
leadership in service evolution, as an unbiased source of information
and as a platform for expertise and exchange of ideas.

With shrinking revenues from traditional circuit-switched networks,
the Forum foresees that the Global industry is looking towards the
merits of IP-technology, pushing Interactive Multi-media Services
(IMS) as the hottest terminology. With IP-technology in Fixed Line
Access networks, opportunities arise for the development of innovative
seamless Triple Play services that converge voice, data and video over
fixed and mobile telephony access, broadband access, wireless (Wi-Fi)
access and cable systems.

"Not only the industry but actually the consumers desire interoperable
services and devices when they think of future communications at home
and on the move", says Thomas Carnaghi, the chairman of the F-MMS
Forum. "It is this desire that makes the development of new communica-
tions services and devices complex; any service should work on any
device and in any network. IMS is the right network platform for that.
On a product level, a common understanding of interworking standards
is essential and is a pre-requisite to create a user experience people
are willing to pay for."

Based on the success the Forum had in the development and promotion of
standardization of Multi-media Messaging Services and devices in the
circuit-switched networks, the Forum is in an excellent position to
steer its members through the challenge of the upcoming IP-access
environment, as well.  Martin Rolls, who led the 'Broadening Project'
within the Forum and represents BT within the Steering Committee,
adds: "Triple Play is a key opportunity within the Global future
communications business but it will only create satisfying margins to
those players who come up with real, seamlessly interoperable,
converged services and devices that provide rewarding customer
experiences. The Forum addresses this new reality by broadening its
scope from messaging to multimedia services and from the focus on
circuit-switched to convergent IP and IMS domains."

Carnaghi concludes, "The world is complex, no doubt. No company alone
can deploy anymore an innovative home communications service or device
without securing interworking. As a Forum we want to bring all major
industry players around the globe to the table. We strongly believe
that we make a difference as we provide our members with guidance in
the development of innovative Fixed Line Multi-Media Services based on
sound consumer insights and by offering early access to standards
related data within a non-discriminating environment. We also provide
to our members with tremendous opportunities to discuss and set market
requirements that influence standards and, last but not least, we
create possibilities to conduct interoperability testing that ensure a
reduced time-to-market of profitable services and devices. It is the
overall vocation of the Forum, to enable its members to benefit from
the opportunities in the Triple Play challenge and to achieve
profitable growth with their services and devices.  And we are open to
all players around the globe."

Visual Material
Illustrating the triple play pyramid:
http://www.fixedlinemms.org/news/releases/2005070701.JPG.

About F-MMS Forum

The objective of the Fixed Line MMS Forum is to develop & promote
Multimedia Services (including voice, video & data) in the fixed
network in order to enhance attractiveness by adding new
services. This will lead to fixed - mobile convergent applications
while ensuring interoperability between fixed, mobile and wireless
networks.

Since its foundation in 2002, the Forum has achieved major
breakthroughs for its members as standards for Fixed Line SMS and
Fixed Line MMS over PSTN/ISDN were adopted by Standardisation Bodies,
inc ETSI, and commercial deployments of the services and devices in
Europe and Overseas began.

The Forum's agenda is now focused on the task to research, develop and
evaluate market and consumer requirements that serve as a robust basis
for services and devices definition and testing. The Forum will
co-ordinate and deliver technical recommendations to Standards Bodies,
drive standardization and interoperability and reduce time-to-market.

In so much, the Forum is set to promote the services and devices
applications and standards in important industry venues, conferences and
across appropriate media channels.

This non-profit industry-wide organisation is based in Berne, Switzerland.
Since its creation, companies from all over the world have joined the Forum
(see also http://www.fixedlinemms.org ):

Binatone, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips,
Siemens, Telecom Italia.  @utotools, Alcatel, Alterbox, AOL, Arkon,
AVM, Bitcom, Comverse, DeTeWe, Dial Face, DSP Group, Huawei, Inventel,
Jataayu Software, LogicaCMG, Materna, MR&D Institute, National
Semiconductors, Openwave, Purple Vision, RTX, Sagem, Speech Design,
Suncorp, Swissvoice, Teleca, Telefonica, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom
South Africa, Thales, Thomson Telecom, Unisys, UPC, Urmet Domus, Urmet
TLC, VTech, Winbond.

For more information, contact:

Heinz Ochsner
F-MMS Forum Secretariat and Press Office
P. O. Box 7465
3001 Berne
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (32) 6212692
Fax: +41 (32) 6212691
Email: info@fixedlinemms.org
Website: http://www.fixedlinemms.org

###

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

From: snow <dlessard1@verizon.net>
Subject: Verizon VOIP Questions
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 21:43:18 GMT


I subscribe to both Verizon local telephone and its DSL service. I was
on their website and read about VOIP broadband phone service. I am now
considering dropping the regular landline phone and trying out VOIP
service.  I am interested in opinions about broadband phone.  Is it
reliable and good sound quality. Also, are the traditional phone taxes
applied to a VOIP connection?  Even with taxes added in, I figure I
save $10 a month and get premium services on top of it like caller ID
which I don't have now. If I do switch, I would purchase a wireless
phone system, so I can use at least two phones in the house. Any
opinions on pros and cons of broadband phone appreciated.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Beware of any DSL offering VOIP service
unless you can absolutely disconnect your landline phone service (as
it now stands) in lieu of the VOIP service instead. You may get told
that you have to subscribe to Verizon local service in order to have
DSL, in order to have the VOIP service. Ergo, you may wind up with a
phone you do not need or want, in order to have the VOIP line you do
want. That same thing happened to me, although my underlying carrier
is SBC (Southwestern Bell). In order to dump SBC phone service, I had
to dump their DSL as well, to get the company I really wanted (Prairie
Stream) and Vonage VOIP. So I wound up with cable internet (CableOne)
instead of DSL for that reason. I have two lines in my house, but
connected through a PBX, so I can dial 9+ for Prairie Stream or 8+ 
for Vonage. (or '10X' for any of the extensions in my house.)  PAT]

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

From: Tim@Backhome.org
Subject: Re: Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical?
Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:04:59 -0700
Organization: Cox Communications


Monty Solomon wrote:

> It's good to have a healthy skepticism about the claims of the
> hype-driven technology industry. But there are times when even a
> hardened skeptic has to admit to amazement and delight at the sheer
> coolness of some of the things you can do on a personal computer
> today. And one of those "wow" moments happens the first time you run a
> new program called Google Earth.

As someone who works with topo and satellite info as part of my work,
I find Google Earth to be basically fluff with little substance.
(aka, hype).

Sat data are expensive and all Google is doing is baiting with some
metro area stuff.  Most of the country is junk photos.  Maybe they
will eventually have real coverage for a whole lot of money.
Terraserver.com is a lot better and a lot more honest about this
stuff.

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

Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 18:13:11 -0400
From: burris <responder@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments?


jmeissen@aracnet.com wrote:

> Back in November of last year there was an announcement posted here
> about Sunrocket VOIP http://www.sunrocket.com . I don't recall
> seeing anything about them since.

> Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, about their service?

> John Meissen                           jmeissen@aracnet.com

I have them for about 5 months now and am very pleased.  Sure, they
have an occasional crash and perhaps they don't have every feature you
would like, but ... $199.00 for the year, including everything ...

A few forums to consider:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip

http://www.sunrocketforum.com/index.php?

http://www.talkaboutvoip.com/forums/index.php?

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