TELECOM Digest     Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:45:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 331

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Telcos' Q2 Broadband Subs to Surpass Cable's (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Phil Earnhardt)
    Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Choreboy)
    Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Tony P.)
    Re: More Music Industry Complaints (Tony P.)
    Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware (jared)
    Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern (Dale Farmer)
    Re: A Pass on Privacy? (Dale Farmer)
    SS7 C7 Solutions for Cisco VOIP (techresell@att.net)
    Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Eric Tappert)

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

Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:10:29 EDT
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Telcos' Q2 Broadband Subs to Surpass Cable's


USTelecom dailyLead
July 19, 2005
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23167&l=2017006

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
TOP STORY
* Telcos' Q2 broadband subs to surpass cable's, analysts predict
NEWS OF THE DAY
* France Telecom mulls move to acquire Amena
* Verizon continues cable franchise push
* Nortel to supply BT with VoIP capability
* Sprint, Verizon to offer mobile games
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Opinion: USTelecom CEO responds to editorial on rural Internet access
* Entrepreneur bets on one-stop shop for wireless
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT 
* SBC CEO to open TELECOM '05
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
* ITown unveils FTTP plans in West Virginia
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* FCC chief looks to broadband expansion

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23167&l=2017006

Legal and Privacy information at
http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp

SmartBrief, Inc.
1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005

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

From: Phil Earnhardt <pae@dim.com>
Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:57:17 -0600
Organization: http://newsguy.com


On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
wrote:

> By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF

> Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in
> computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the
> offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_
> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...]

If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can
probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X.

I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I
don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for
almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a
pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies,
etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies
periodically just as a regular practice.

The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For
most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs.
If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package
(Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine.
The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address
that in the next release.

With the dropping cost of hardware, more and more people should
clearly look at this option. As an aside, I've been surprised that
Apple hasn't been more aggressive in getting the Mac Mini into Kinkos
stores so people can "test drive" them there. The current Apple
machines in Kinkos stores are crappy old G3 machines. According to the
local Kinkos shop, Dell has been very aggressive getting their
machines in Kinkos stores. Apple: are you listening?

--phil

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

From: Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com>
Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 04:23:28 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


Steve Sobol wrote:

> Monty Solomon wrote:

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_
>> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced?

> The sad thing is that it's simply not that hard to protect yourself.

> We have two computers here that never get infected ... the other one
> can't be infected because it's not on the Net, but my wife's and mine
> both are.

One can't be infected because it's not on the internet.  Why is the
other one safe?

It seems that nobody bothers to infect classic macs.  Anyway, spyware
would be easy to eliminate on a classic mac.  

I do get email spam, but not on Choreboy, with which I have posted to
usenet without munging.  The spam, perhaps ten pieces a day, comes to
another email address.  It started after I filled out a form asking an
online vendor to tell me when an item was in stock.  I think somebody
there made money selling customer email addresses.

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet?
Organization: ATCC
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:55:36 -0400


In article <telecom24.328.9@telecom-digest.org>, barmar@alum.mit.edu 
says:

> In article <telecom24.327.6@telecom-digest.org>, Tony P.
> <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote:

>> Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would
>> still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful
>> or easy to use than it is now.

>> Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to
>> connect.  DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine
>> readable.

> What you *really* use are binary digits represented as electronic
> signal levels on various types of wires and radio transmissions, but
> we don't make users modulate those manually, either.

That's the physical level that most people consider to be Freakin' 
Magic. And it isn't just modulated on wire or over the air, but via 
light in fiber optic cables. 

> And what about all the load balancing and fault tolerance that come
> from allowing a host name to resolve to multiple addresses and
> changing the mappings on the fly?

You could perform something similar with your hosts file. It's just
that the explosive growth of the net meant the hosts files that SRI
would transfer around got to be a bit too large.
 
> Names are more than just a way to make things user-friendly, they're
> an important piece of the Internet architecture.  I don't think
> there's ever been a network of more than a few dozen machines that
> didn't depend on a naming scheme to enhance the capabilities.

> Consider this: how useful would the phone be if you could only call
> people whose phone numbers you already knew, i.e. there were no phone
> books or directory assistance?

Right now there isn't anyone I know whose phone number is in a phone
book. Between cell and VoIP it's damned near impossible to do a lookup
these days unless the end user is smart enough to list their selves on
a lookup site.

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: More Music Industry Complaints
Organization: ATCC
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:59:40 -0400


In article <telecom24.328.5@telecom-digest.org>, newswire@telecom-
digest.org says:

> Music industry says pirated CDs make everyone suffer.

> The Recording Industry 2005 Commercial Piracy Report, prepared by the
> International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), paints a
> stark picture when it comes to global pirating of music compact discs.

> According to the report, illegal traffic in pirated music was worth
> $4.6 billion last year, 34% of all CDs are illegal, and fake
> recordings outsell legitimate recordings in 31 countries around the
> world.

Oh boo freakin' hoo. You could contain my tears over his in a thimble. 

Perhaps if:

a) They didn't rake us over the coals wrt pricing of CD's;

and

b) They put material on CD's that matched peoples tastes a bit better. 

I make custom CD's from my iTunes library all the time. On occasion
I'll give one to a friend. So now I'm the worlds biggest pirate.

And to anyone using iTunes in a workgroup setting there's MyTunes
Redux.  It snags the packets of iTunes shares and downloads the song
files to your library.

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 19:20:56 -0600
From: jared@nospam.au (jared)
Subject: Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware


I've set my browser to request confirmation of every (new)
cookie. I've taken to looking at the date the cookie expires. If it's
'this session' or within a day, and it's from the site* I'm trying to
use, then I accept, otherwise into the bit bucket.

And, I do see repeated requests and the comment helps explain
why. Seems stupid to me, but I'm just the consumer.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way some web sites are getting
> around that now is by issuing the cookie, as always, then going back
> one or two seconds later (while loading the page) _looking_ for the
> cookie ("Didn't I just give you a cookie? What does it say? What do 
> you mean you don't have it any longer? That's it for you, goodbye.")

I can understand, but not agree with, cookies that expire within a year.
But expiry in several years or more, for example 2038 (aka infinity) is
likely just poor programming.

* or some similar name, again programmers or maybe marketeers have run
amuck with the beauty of replacing xyzz.com/abcd with xyzzabcd.com to make
life easier for them.

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

From: Dale Farmer <dale@cybercom.net>
Organization: The  fuzz in the back of the fridge. 
Subject: Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 02:16:10 GMT


Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote:

> Dale Farmer <dale@cybercom.net> wrote:

>> Disney does have a problem with (typically teenage) chronic
>> troublemakers.  They get caught, given the usual don't come back on
>> the property spiel, and escorted off the property.  The problem is
>> that some of them come back with revenge in mind.  By getting these
>> folks prints and scanning everyone upon entrance, they can easily
>> recognize them at the gate and block them.

> While I don't doubt that is one use of the technology, I'd have to see
> the details of the implementation before I'd believe that the hand
> geometry from two fingers would be sufficient to uniquely identify
> anyone.

> What is far more likely in my mind is Disney's ongoing desire to
> prevent multiday passes and resort passes from being used by more than
> one individual. I suspect that Disney ties a hash function of a few
> points from the hand to the serial number of the pass.

> Try to use the pass by someone else and the odds of the hash being the
> same are sufficiently high enough to be detected ...

If the conditions of sale for the passes say that they are for one
person only, then this is, again, perfectly legitimate.  Two fingers
worth of fingerprint (depending on the particular algorithm used to
analyze the prints) is more than enough accurate for this usage.  All
the scanner is going to do is bring this to the attention of the human
being at the gate, and put the relevant images on a computer terminal
or whatever.

My guess is that the system only keeps in active storage the
fingerprint signatures of employees, troublemakers, and the previous
week or so worth of park visitors, and folks with season passes.  Once
the pass has expired, there is no reason I can see for the fingerprint
signature to be retained, and good reasons for it to be purged.

    --Dale

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

From: Dale Farmer <dale@cybercom.net>
Organization: The  fuzz in the back of the fridge. 
Subject: Re: A Pass on Privacy?
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 02:17:47 GMT


Tony P. wrote:

> In article <telecom24.327.2@telecom-digest.org>, monty@roscom.com
> says:

>> By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

>> Anyone making long drives this summer will notice a new dimension to
>> contemporary inequality: a widening gap between the users of automatic
>> toll-paying devices and those who pay cash. The E-ZPass system, as it
>> is called on the East Coast, seemed like idle gadgetry when it was
>> introduced a decade ago. Drivers who acquired the passes had to nose
>> their way across traffic to reach specially equipped tollbooths -- and
>> slow to a crawl while the machinery worked its magic. But now the
>> sensors are sophisticated enough for you to whiz past them. As more
>> lanes are dedicated to E-ZPass, lines lengthen for the saps paying
>> cash.

>> E-ZPass is one of many innovations that give you the option of trading
>> a bit of privacy for a load of convenience. You can get deep discounts
>> by ordering your books from Amazon.com or joining a supermarket
>> 'club.' In return, you surrender information about your purchasing
>> habits. Some people see a bait-and-switch here. Over time, the data
>> you are required to hand over become more and more personal, and such
>> handovers cease to be optional. Neato data gathering is making society
>> less free and less human. The people who issue such warnings --
>> whether you call them paranoids or libertarians -- are among those you
>> see stuck in the rippling heat, 73 cars away from the ''Cash Only''
>> sign at the Tappan Zee Bridge.

> Of course when they pry too deeply you can always lie. I do it
> regularly with store discount cards, etc. They can have my name, I
> don't care about that. But address, phone number, email, etc. if
> required will ALWAYS be fudged.

> Of course EZ-Pass is linked to a credit or debit card so it would be
> trivial to dig for information that way.

> And for those of a technical bent, it would be easy to run a bootleg
> EZ-Pass. It is after all and RFID device and you could read numbers
> all day long and then have your computer equipped RFID device send
> random numbers to the sensors.

> Interestingly the city of Providence is putting in parking kiosks. You
> can either insert cash or purchase a ProvPas. It's a mag-stripe based
> system. The card has the amount deposited for the account written on
> the magnetic stripe. But cards are just purchased for cash so one with
> a reader-writer could definitely have some fun with the system.

That's what crooks thought they could do with the metrocard system
used in the Washington DC subway system.

    --Dale


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happened with the crooks and the
metrocard system in the Washington, DC subway?  Feel like telling us
the story?   PAT]

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

From: techresell@att.net
Subject: SS7 C7 Solutions for Cisco VOIP
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:32:31 +0000


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tel USA techresell@att.net

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

Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:00:00 +0100
From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town


> During its long active life, the "His Master's Voice" label has
> enjoyed a unique reputation with both the music business and the
> public. Over the years a healthy market has developed in collecting
> the vast array of items produced in its image. A Collectors' Guide,
> originally published in 1984, has been now updated for publication in
> 1997.

> Though only used by EMI today as the marketing identity for HMV Shops
> in the UK and Europe, the "His Master's Voice" trademark is still
> instantly recognised and sits proudly and firmly in the Top 10 of
> "Famous Brands of the 20th Century".

The image did indeed enjoy a very long life on the British HMV record 
label from 78s through to the 45rpm era, although not quite so 
prominently after 1963 when EMI adopted a common black label for its 
HMV, Parlophone, and Columbia 45rpm labels.

Due to the use of the trademark by HMV, the image never appeared on
British RCA-Victor pressings.  In fact at one point when American RCA
pressings were being sold here, the importers actually stuck little
labels over the mark.

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

From: Eric Tappert <e.tappert.spamnot@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today?
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:18:54 GMT
Organization: AT&T Worldnet


On 18 Jul 2005 12:39:17 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> The Western Electric Co, manfuacturing arm of the Bell System, had
> three large factory complexes ("works") in Chicago (Hawthorne), Kearny
> NJ, and Baltimore (Breezy Pt).  I get the impression all three are
> long closed up, if the buildings even exist?

> W/E also built some newer facilities to make computer components for
> modern gear, such as in Allentown PA.  I take it today Lucent
> (successor to W/E) uses those places, though I presume Lucent is far,
> far smaller than W/E.  I also recall W/E having a modern office
> building in Newark NJ (near the train station) in the mid 1980s, and I
> wonder if that is in use by Lucent today.

> FWIW, in W/E's early days, they made relays for Hollerith's tabulating
> machines.  Hollerith's outfit became IBM.

> [public replies please]

Agere Systems inherited the Allentown, Reading, and Orlando
facilities.  Reading is now closed, all production at Allentown has
ceased and the production buildings have been demolished (some office
buildings are still in use, however).  Orlando was up for sale a
couple of years ago, but I don't know the current status of production
there.

Hawthorne, Kearny, and Baltimore are long closed.  Phoenix was sold to
local management, who moved several cable lines from the Atlanta works
to Phoenix.  Teletype's plants in Skokie and Little Rock went to
Avaya, but I'm not familiar with the current status of those plants,
although last I heard Shreveport and Denver (also went to Avaya) were
still in business.

I believe that the Northern Illinois works is closed and all switching
manufacturing for Lucent domestically is in Dallas.  Last I heard
Merrimac Valley (Massachusetts) was still doing manufacturing, but at
a reduced level.  The North Carolina plants are all closed, AFAIK.
Kansas City works has also closed.

Lucent is shadow of the former Western Electric and is doing more
manufacturing overseas (after all, they are a global supplier now).

E. Tappert (former WECo employee)


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not certain, but I think in the
case of Cicero, Illinois at that location now is a shopping mall/
condominium apartment complex called 'Hawthorne Place'.  PAT]

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #331
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