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TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:06:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 335 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bush Creates New Post to Fight Global Piracy (Reuters News Wire) China Internet Users Grow 18 Percent; Reach 103 Million (Reuters News) It Rings, It Plays, It Has TV (Gregory Lamb) NYC's Consumer Affairs Suing Cellcos Re: False Adverts (Danny Burstein) Is Co-Existence of HLR and HSS Possible? (qazmlp1209@rediffmail.com) Round Three For Texas Telecom Bill (USTelecom dailyLead) Need to Drop SBC LD Service; Info Wanted on Alternatives (George) VOIP Intercom (Scott Dorsey) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Tony P.) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (DevilsPGD) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Marc Popek) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (Barry Margolin) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (jmeissen@aracnet) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Steve Sobol) Re: Prepaid + Pay phones (Duh_OZ) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Jim Haynes) 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: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Bush Creates New Post to Fight Global Piracy Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:21:33 -0500 President Bush has created a new senior-level position to fight global intellectual-property piracy and counterfeiting that cost American companies billions of dollars each year, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Friday. "Intellectual-property theft is a major problem around the world. We believe that it is costing U.S. businesses about $250 billion in lost sales," Gutierrez told Reuters in an interview with reporters and editors. Bush has tapped Chris Israel, currently deputy chief of staff for Gutierrez, to head up the administration's anti-piracy efforts. China -- where 90 percent of music and movies are pirate copies -- will be a chief priority, Gutierrez said. "Frankly, our goal is to reduce (China's piracy levels) to zero," Gutierrez said. He declined to specify a timetable, but acknowledged it could be a lengthy effort. Gutierrez got a personal glimpse of rampant piracy in China during a visit earlier this month, when he was offered the chance to buy a pirated copy of the newest Star Wars movie for $1 dollar, an aide said. The United States will closely monitor a long list of anti-piracy pledges China made at this month's high-level Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, including a promise to increase criminal prosecutions, Gutierrez said. The skyrocketing U.S. trade deficit -- which reached a record $618 billion last year -- has compounded U.S. concerns about piracy and counterfeiting. Companies that produce movies, music and software and other intellectual property account for a growing share of what the United States has to sell to the rest of the world. U.S. manufacturers of products ranging from shampoo to auto-safety glass also complain that they often have to compete with counterfeit versions of their own products in China and other markets around the world. The Commerce Department estimates nearly 7 percent of the goods in the global market are counterfeit. Israel was a public policy executive at Time Warner, a media company with strong interests in intellectual property rights protection, before joining the Commerce Department. He also has worked in Congress as a legislative aide. 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: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: China Internet Users Grow 18 Percent to Hit 103 Million Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:23:01 -0500 The number of Web users in China, the world's second largest Internet market, grew by 9 million people in the first half of this year to hit 103 million, the China Daily said on Friday. The growth represented an increase of 18.4 percent over the same period last year in a market that still has vast potential for further growth, the report said, citing a survey released by the "quasi-governmental" China Internet Network Information Center on Thursday. "While more than 67 percent of the U.S. population, about 135 million, have access to the Internet, in China the percentage is only about 7.9 percent," it said. State media previously predicted 120 Chinese million would be surfing the Web by the end of the year as computers find their way into more homes and domestic telecoms networks grow. Nearly 20 percent of China's Web surfers had shopped online, and Internet-based transactions in the six months of 2005 could total around 10 billion yuan ($1.23 billion), the newspaper said. "Most of China's Internet users are well educated and have hefty purchasing power," analyst Lu Weigang was quoted as saying. The burgeoning online gaming market proved especially lucrative, with Internet gamers spending 4 billion yuan on virtual equipment for their online alter-egos in the first six months, it said. The Internet's explosive growth in China has come despite the government's stepped-up efforts to control of the medium, in which occasional pockets of free speech have appeared in chat sites and blogs. Beijing pressures popular Web portals to block sensitive news and screen chatrooms for "politically sensitive" statements and regularly blocks access to some foreign Web pages. The government announced earlier this year that all China-based Web sites had to register by June 30 or face being declared illegal and shut down. ($1=8.11 Yuan) 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: Gregory M. Lamb <lamb@cs.monitor.com> Subject: It Rings, It Plays, It Has TV Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:27:33 -0500 http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0721/p14s02-stct.html First there were TVs. Then came PCs. Now, mobile phones are becoming the 'third screen' for viewing video. By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Mobile phones once wanted only your ears; now they're after your eyes, too. By delivering a variety of viewing options -- video games, music videos, clever ads, news, weather, and sports -- the littlest screen may have the biggest of futures. Already, cellphones serve as a third screen for some consumers -- along with their televisions and computers. Because it's always with its user, some think the cellphone could become the most important of the trio -- the first source for entertainment and information. Plenty of questions remain, of course. Some are technological, such as the need to beef up battery life to power heavier usage and to employ bandwidth more efficiently so that the system doesn't jam. Others are financial: How much will subscribers pay to watch something on a tiny screen? If phones eventually can share video with other users, can the content be designed to prevent unauthorized sharing? Still, the promise of a new viewing audience is luring everyone from manufacturers to content providers. "We're at the very early stages of [producing] what could be pretty interesting" video for cellphones, says Larry Shapiro, an executive vice president at the Walt Disney Internet Group, the online arm of the Walt Disney Co. So-called third-generation (3G) mobile phones, which transmit data at much faster speeds than today's 2G digital phones, will open up the prospects for better content, Mr. Shapiro says. Already, 3G games on phones "are equivalent to Game Boy Advance quality in terms of graphics and richness." For advertisers, phones represent new opportunities to reach consumers. For mobile-phone companies, video and other data offer new revenue streams as increased competition for cellphone customers squeezes profit margins. Third-generation phones are already in use in Japan, South Korea, and Europe. In Germany, mobile-phone giant Vodafone announced this month that it had sold 411,000 3G phones there since they were introduced late last year. Though that represents just 1.5 percent of the company's German customers, they bring in 4 percent of total sales revenue. The company aims to have 10 million 3G customers in Germany by next March. In the United States, mobile-phone companies are in the midst of field trials of 3G phones with the expectation of broad deployment in the next year or two. Better video will be one of the chief advantages of 3G. Worldwide, about 25 percent of all digital TVs sold in 2010 will be in the form of mobile phones, predicts a report last month from Strategy Analytics, a consulting firm in Boston. Meanwhile, "for younger consumers, cellphones are already the third screen," says Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis, another consulting firm. They're being used for everything from text messages to downloading ring tones and playing games. "Their phones go with them everywhere," Mr. Greengart says. "They've grown up with these devices. They expect them to do just about anything. And they're willing to pay for additional services -- certainly to a much higher degree than baby boomers." Mobile phones aren't going to replace TV or computers, but they will become a complementary source of media, says Dan Steinbock, author of the new book "The Mobile Revolution" and a researcher at Columbia University's tele-information institute in New York. The quick, widespread adoption of cellphones has led to some optimistic projections about their future, he says. But so far they have been used in concert with existing media, such as when TV viewers used their cellphones to vote for contestants on the "American Idol" TV show. It's likely that cellphone video may be used to deliver short bursts of information, which in turn will cause people to seek out a TV or computer screen for more extended viewing. That's been the strategy so far in Asia, where short-form video, in one- to five-minute bursts, has taken off among 3G phone users. While standing in line at the ATM "you might not want to watch an entire episode of 'Seinfeld,' " Greengart says, "but a 2-1/2-minute standup comedy routine could be compelling." Some companies are creating serials told in one- or two-minute episodes. Dubbed "mobi-sodes," they are suitable for viewing in a spare moment, such as waiting in a supermarket checkout line or at a dentist's office. A video-equipped cellphone can be a mobile baby sitter, too. "I can tell you there's nothing better than sticking 'Sesame Street' in front of a 5-year-old," Greengart says. As for what Americans can watch on their cellphones, Sprint offers Sprint TV, which includes programming from Fox News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, ABC, and other sources. Some of it is identical to the televised version; some is specially adapted for use on phones. The Weather Channel, for example, prints its text larger in proportion to the screen size than on TV to make it readable. Early video on phones has been herky-jerky - "a slide show with audio," acknowledges Dale Knoop, manager for multimedia services at Sprint. But even before the arrival of 3G handsets, quality has greatly improved, he says. Sprint now sends its video at about 15 frames per second; a conventional TV signal sends 30 frames per second. Two Minute Television is offering short original programs like "Genius on a Shoestring," "Adventures in Speed Dating," and "News with a Punchline," asking users to watch ads instead of pay a fee. SmartVideo Technologies, which is distributing the programming, claims a current rate of 15 to 18 frames per second. With 3G, that will rise to 24 frames. Early signs from overseas indicate video-phone viewers have little tolerance for conventional ads, Mr. Steinbock warns. Advertisers must be entertaining or risk the wrath of viewers. "You don't want to turn on your mobile device just to be turned off by 10 advertising messages," he says. Another cellphone development that could draw viewers: video projectors. This fall, Mitsubishi Electric will introduce its Pocket Projector. About the size of a digital camera, it attaches to a mobile phone. Using three advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs), it can project the incoming video image onto a wall or desktop at sizes up to 40 diagonal inches. To extend battery life, a consumer will probably turn it on only when he or she needs to display a big screen, as when playing an online video game, says Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass. The device can also be attached to other mobile devices, such as DVD players or digital cameras, to let a group of people see a movie or snapshots more easily. Eventually, the projector may shrink enough to be built right into the phone. In the end, though, what people will want most is a reliable way to communicate, Greengart says. "Does it have a camera, does it have a music player, does it have videos, is it a PDA [personal digital assistant], does it make me a sandwich? All those things are nice," he says. "But it has to be a phone first." Look who's snapping up cellphones. Three-quarters of the world live within range of mobile-phone services, but only one-quarter actually subscribe. Now, that's beginning to change, especially in Africa. . The fastest-growing mobile-phone market is Nigeria, where by mid-2003 the number of mobile phones had grown 143 percent in a single year. . It took 15 years for Britain to see mobile phones outnumber wire-line phones; it took Zambia five. . There were 6 mobile phones for every 100 Africans in 2003, a far smaller ratio than for Europeans (55 out of 100), Americans (49), or Asians (15). But Africa has twice as many mobile phones to wire-line phones, a ratio no other continent can match. . A group of mobile-phone networks is pushing manufacturers to come up with a $30 mobile phone for the developing world. Earlier this month, Philips Electronics said it would deliver key electronic components that could push the price below $20. Sources: PC World; Vodaphone www.csmonitor.com | Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, the Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: NYC's Consumer Affairs Suing Cellcos Re: False Adverts (fwd) Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:10:05 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced the agency has filed suit in New York Supreme Court against three major wireless companies for pitching cell phones and services in deceptive advertisements that misled consumers. DCA filed suit against Nextel Communications Inc., Sprint Spectrum L.P., and T-Mobile USA Inc. seeking maximum fines and compliance with New York City's landmark Consumer Protection Law. " 'You can't promise a great deal in the headline and hide the true costs in the fine print,' said DCA Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz. "If a cell phone company promises free long distance, consumers should get free long distance - period ..." ( rest of article describes a whole bunch of "free long distance" claims which required additional fees, Nextel's "incoming free" which also required more money ... numerous related things, and a claim against T-Mobile that "Billing of roaming charges and minutes of use and services may be delayed" which I don't quite understand) rest at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/pr_072105.html Minor disclosure: I'm a shareholder in Omnipoint ... ------------------------------ From: qazmlp1209@rediffmail.com Subject: Is Co-Existence of HLR and HSS Possible? Date: 22 Jul 2005 09:50:29 -0700 Is it possible for HLR and HSS to co-exist in a Network? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 13:27:29 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com> Subject: Round Three For Texas Telecom Bill USTelecom dailyLead July 22, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23252&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Round three for Texas telecom bill BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * France Telecom, Auna reportedly reach deal * Nokia faces increased pressure * SBC strategy shift affects DISH sales * Earnings Reports USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Hearst-Argyle CEO to Share Broadcast Television Perspective at TELECOM '05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Skype CEO envisions video phone boom VOIP DOWNLOAD * Wi-Fi VoIP handset sales rise * Vonage unveils VoIP cordless phone * Securing VoIP a joint effort Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23252&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 ------------------------------ Subject: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? From: George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net> Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:15:09 -0500 Organization: Cox Communications Beginning in September, all of SBC's LD calling plans will have a monthly charge, so I need to find a new home -- one that will only charge me for calls, with no monthly fee or minimum. Assuming there still is such a thing. But I'm having trouble finding reviews of particularly the smaller companies or resellers. Where can I go to find that? Is there a newsgroup? I'm talking about companies like Everdial/Primus, which I currenly use as a dial-around, or maybe Americom. And I'm particularly interested in honest dealing and customer service. Assuming there still is such a thing. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: VoIP Intercom? Date: 22 Jul 2005 14:59:46 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) We have a number of stations, some of them in the same building on a single ethernet switch, and some of them in another building somewhere else in the world but with internet or intranet connections to that switch. These stations need to be linked with an intercom, using external hardware. This should act like a party line, where one unit can press a talk button and be heard on all the other units. Selective calling features or multiple channels would be nice, but not essental. There will be fewer than ten total units in place. Does anyone have any suggestion for a device that does this as a simple standalone device, preferably with minimum configuration? I know Telex makes some VOIP modules which can be integrated with their intercom frames, but they all seem to require a central switch. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:52:52 -0400 In article <telecom24.331.2@telecom-digest.org>, pae@dim.com says: > 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. No known viruses per se, but plenty of hacks. I know at least two people who've had their Mac OS-X machines hacked to the point that they were no longer usable without re-installing the OS. > 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. Or just configure Firefox not to allow cookies and immediately flush history. > 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? Apple is clearly moving toward marketing the OS as platform independent. It is FreeBSD after all. I'm running it on an Intel platform. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD <spamsucks@crazyhat.net> Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:36:20 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message <telecom24.331.3@telecom-digest.org> Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> wrote: > 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? Because these days the only real way to get infected is user stupidity ... Free hint: When you get an email from "Microsoft" with a patch, don't install it. Configure your browser properly to not install unrequested shit. Don't install spyware laced crap. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ > machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? I'd > think there might be a market in doing some dumpster diving, retrieving > those old machines, doing a total init of the hard drive and starting > over from scratch, reloading them, etc. My pay for same would come > from refurbishing the old machines with a totally new (and as of > then unmolested) hard drive, absolutely _loaded_ with all the most > recent virus protection and spam protection software. Then I would > sell them for fifty or a hundred dollars each. And I would probably > load Linux on them instead of Windows, or maybe in addition to Windows > 2000 or Windows 98. PAT] What kind of dumbass wouldn't try to sell it for $20? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _This_ kind of dumbass probably. At the internet cafe here in town, the guy who runs the place typically offers his refurbished, reloaded machines for $50-100 each, and considering how little income I have otherwise I would like to recoup my expenses (usually a few hours work) somewhere around ten dollars per hour; in other words a wee bit above minimum wage. But I have heard Chris (the guy who runs the internet cafe) listen to some very sad stories from guys then reduce his price to 20-35 dollars on a specific request for 'hardship rates', which is probably how I would do it also. In other words, try to make some money for your work, and as circumsances dictate, give it away. Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about it; some guys work hard; save their money and buy a computer only to have some virus writer load some crap from a web site onto his page. Not every program which gets loaded on your computer is there because you gave an okay to load it in. I am reasonably intelligent, yet I have had that crap dumped on me before my hands were quick enough to hit a key combination to stop the load from occurring. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Marc Popek <LVMarc@Att.Net> Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:19:05 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Interesting point of view. Marco http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5790337602&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote in message news:telecom24.316.10@telecom-digest.org: > On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:39:44 GMT, Marc Popek <LVMarc@Att.Net> wrote: >> Mostly the cost difference and the convenience. >> Marc >> Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote in message >> news:telecom24.309.2@telecom-digest.org: >>> Why not just get a two-line RJ-14 type telephone? >>> Fred > Well, you can go to Radio Shack and get a very nice two line GE phone > with caller ID, speakerphone, and a bunch of other features for about > fifty dollars. I just got one because I'm going to have two different > VOIP services at my new place in NC for a while. When I have the > bucks, I'm going to get another one, too. > I used to be leary of phones being sold by Radio Shack. But what I've > seen there lately has been an improvement. It used to be off brands. > But now there's not so many different model phones but a few good ones > insteads. > Fred ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Organization: Symantec Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:22:26 -0400 In article <telecom24.334.6@telecom-digest.org>, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to jmeissen@aracnet.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I do the essence of challenge > response right now, as many other mailing list publishers do. You > (or some spammer or other idiot) writes to me. When it gets here if > Spam Assassin detirmines it to be spam it goes into one file. The > allegedly _legitimate_ letter writers get back an auto-ack from me, > but since Spam Assassin lets so much garbage through, a lot of > spammers get an auto-ack also. But spammers DON'T get the auto-ack. Spammers almost universally use forged sender addresses, so the auto-ack goes to some innocent bystander. > (3) then it goes on to say "If you > were not the writer of what I received, then someone apparently took > control of your computer; please get help as needed in cleaning out > the viruses, etc. The computer that was taken control of is almost always *not* the one you notified. Repeat after me: "Spam uses forged sender addresses." A's machine is a spam zombie, and sends out mail from B and C. Bounces and challenges go to B and C, who have no way of fixing A's machine, and probably can't even figure out who A was. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, I do not send auto-ack to 'known (by Spam Assassin) spammers'. Those four to five hundred letters I receive daily just get dropped in a separate file. Its the two or three hundred letters which did not meet the Spam Assassin 'point score' which go in the regular mailbox who get the auto-ack. Trouble is, many of those (which slipped past Spam Asssassin) are also in fact spam. I cannot refine it any closer without throwing out good mail, which happens sometimes anyway. There are 'control copies' of each issue of the Digest which are sent out in the mail and looped back to me to test this with. I have the point scoring set as low as I possibly can without getting legitimate stuff tripped up. When an issue of this Digest (a controlled mailing) returns in the loop and falls into the spam pot then I know the point scoring is a bit too low and I set it up a little. I use Bayesian scoring and Spam Assassin learns a little from its own experience. The system admin here at MIT is going to install a newer version of Spam Assassin for me as time permits; he has a busy schedule also. And I have to disagree at least a little with your recitation above that 'spam uses forged sending addresses'. Yes that is true a little, but it is very rare (maybe four or five each day [out of about 300 auto-acks] which are sent out automatically) that I get back a mailer-daemon from postmaster here with an auto-ack which bounced; and I have _never yet even once in twenty years_ gotten a letter of complaint from some person who had been 'accused' of sending spam or who was 'annoyed' by getting the auto-ack. I get a lot of those myself, where an auto-ack from someone tells me welcome to their group, or thanks me for writing them, etc, and if they did not fall in the spam file and get automatically tossed out when I first log in here each day, then I toss them out by hand when I comb through the so-called legitimate mail file. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Date: 22 Jul 2005 01:42:29 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article <telecom24.334.6@telecom-digest.org>, Pat wrote: > Because of my personal experience with this for a few years now, the > auto-ack begins with the assumption you _are a spammer_ also. It asks > you to (1) remove this email address from your list. (2) It tells you > we are not interested at all ... (3) then it goes on to say "If you > were not the writer of what I received, then someone apparently took > control of your computer; please get help as needed in cleaning out > the viruses, etc. > Then after a couple paragraphs at least of addressing you as though > you are the spammer, or the idiot with the zombified computer, it > goes on to conclude (4) "for everyone else, good netizens who wrote > to me, your letter is being read and evaluated and readied for use > in the Digest. Thank you for writing me." Now, is the complaint I > make in (1),(2) and (3) too much of an imposition to read? I very > strongly support the work of http://www.bluesecurity.com and hope > all readers will at least review it and decide from there. PAT] The problem with that is it assumes that, for spam, either: 1) the return address is the spammer's address, or 2) the return address is the owner of the (probably infected) system that sent the spam. Neither of those is likely to be true. Most spam will NOT have a correct return address, just to avoid getting deluged with bounce messages from places that decide the recipient doesn't exist halfway through the local delivery process. And they're NEVER the email address of the owner of the sending machine. All current trojan/virus spam engines forge From: headers using addresses harvested from various places on the infected machine or even other addresses from the list it's trying to deliver to. So in the case of spam all you're doing is taking the unsolicited email that you got and using it to generate unsolicited email for someone else. The only accurate way to identify the source of spam is from the Received: header generated by your mail server when it accepts the email. And all that gives you is the IP address of the sending system. There's no way for anyone other than the infected user's ISP to associate that information with a username/email address. While generating an auto-ack for submissions seems like a nice gesture, in the case of spam all it does is aggravate the situation. It might be more effective to do something like comp.risks does now -- ask submitters to tag submissions with a unique identifier in the subject line. Or create a unique email address that's recognizable but not harvestable (maybe by adding a tag line to postings with instructions on how to construct the submission address). John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, if I were interested in 'doing like comp.risks does' that's one thing, however although I do have many regular correspondents here, there are also many newer and inexperienced netizens who write me to _ask questions_ about how _telephones work_, etc. I cannot have a system where if someone wishes to write me, he has to include 'keyword' in the subject line. I do not have a closed-loop of my friends or enemies as my only writers. Far too much good letters would get trashed that way. And with twenty some years of postings in our own archives here and many other places, it would take a long time to teach people how to construct the submission address. Let's just face it: passive filtering of email has been from the beginning been a dismal failure. All it has gotten us is an ever increasing ratio of spam/scam to legitimacy; a ratio that now is in excess of 80-85 percent and will eventually (as close as is mathemat- ically possible) reach 100 percent; I suppose it could get to 99.99998 percent spam/scam, there will always be a few fools trying to send out legitimate email. _Filtering does not work_. Filtering is the notion that 'if we ignore them, they will go away' and I can tell you that they will not. Filtering is just a deluded act of self-denial which refuses to admit how bad things have gotten. We continue to keep our filters running overtime; and a whole branch of software writing, a whole new industry -- anti-virus, anti-spam software protection -- has developed to appease those folks who want to use it. You may recall my concept several years ago of a 'Business Directory' which listed the 800 numbers of spammers; the idea was to do as they asked, and call them _on their 800 number_ to inquire about their 'product' or 'service'. Even though Jeff Slaton wound up having to damn near mortgage his home to pay his bill to Southwestern Bell after his 800 number was published here, I did not hear any of the now, all too common excuses and wimpering about doing the essence of DDOS on his phone lines. I did not hear anyone wondering 'oh what if he decides to sue me for this _illegal_ act I am doing'; i.e. calling him as requested to complain about the spam. But now, ICANN is in the picture, and we suddenly hear how _anything_ at all we do to agressively fight spam/scam (instead of just passively rolling over and accepting it, using filters like the defective and faulty condoms they are) is illegal, immoral, etc. That's the genius of the Blue Security approach. It works essentially like my Business Directory concept. Telephone the _actual offender_ (not just some sap whose computer got compromised or some sysadmin who can't get his act together) and inform _the actual offender_ what you want. And its automated, and it does not involve email at all. The netizen goes to the website of _the actual offender_ and fills in the blanks on his page explaining what is wanted, which is what he asked us to do, is it not? Admittedly, the answers I would give are not the answers he wanted, but neither were the answers most of you gave when you telephoned the 800 number of the _actual offender_. And in that instance, telephone numbers are a lot like IP addresses. Yes, people in the middle can make changes in how you get from here to there, and yes, a sufficient number of connections all at one time will cause some hassles. But that is neither here nor there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:30:15 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Eren Reshef wrote: > Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. I'll go further and tell you you're a criminal. It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into a spam. And if you attack my website in response, and I had nothing to do with the original spam, you will have law enforcement knocking on your door. You're in California, I'm in California, should be as easy as a phone call. Did you mention something about the US Constitution? God, I *hate* when ignorant people claim that the Constitution gives them rights with no restriction -- you are welcome to certain rights as long you don't infringe on others' rights in the process of exercising yours. People who whine about their First Amendment rights being impugned often forget that. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Steve, you are forgetting a couple of important factors: although yes, it is 'trivially easy' to put someone else's URL (for a web page) into spam a third party wants to send out, if you have a web page, your web page would have to have one or more 'forms' on it for people to use to fill in their credit card numbers in order for other folks to come along and deface your web site, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be quite a coincidence if you, the innocent web site owner happened to have forms all over your web page which related to the product or service being spammed by some other person, _and_ through some 'human error' your web site got chosen? I really have to wonder if you read any of the FAQ on how the BlueSecurity.com system works ... let's say for example, I am offended by a piece of spam I recieve; I forward it to BlueSecurity; someone there who has a modicum of intelligence (about as much intelligence as the people who write up filtering software) looks at it, quickly finds mid the HTML crap on the source page an IP address which _appears to be_ the offender. He (the investigator) goes to the URL; is it in fact the product or service being spammed? If not, then he junks it. If it is the product being spammed, and it has 'forms' around the page for things like credit card numbers, comments or names/addresses, etc then it gets put somewhere. Now the investi- gtor finds a thousand more pieces from the same spammer, referring to the same URL, then acts on it. It is not a willy-nilly process where 'you' sent me spam so I 'crash your system'. They only release the 'do not spam me further' notices (which simply goes to that URL and fills in the aforementioned, already located 'forms') once they have discovered the _actual offender_, not some innocent bystander. They got a lot of money from somewhere to put investigators to work tracking down _good_ URLs of spammers. Admittedly they cannot get anywhere with much of the crap which comes to them, but they do find some of them. And it is _not_ DDOS since the spammer is first given ample warning, and assistance as needed in cleaning his list. Oh, I know ICANN would not approve of it, nor would many of the old- time netizens who prefer being in denial about spam/scam, etc. ICANN tolerates it since it does the dirty work they don't have to do; driving small web site owners and netizens off of 'their' network, then when anyone like Blue Security gets a sum of money for their 'start up costs' and proceeds to catch and punish eve a few of the spammers, the ICANN-favored users start chanting against it, with all sorts of warnings: it won't work; even it does a little it is a stupid thing; those spammers may claim _their_ First Amendment rights and get _you_ in trouble, yada yada yada ad nauseum ... Oh, and by the way, if http://telecom-digest.org 'suddenly stops working' sometime soon, well ... its just ICANN doing their thing, trying to silence anyone who tells you how naked they and their merry band of choristers are. Anytime you cannot get through on telecom-digest.org, remember that ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu is still a good address and points to the very same place. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Duh_OZ <ozzy.kopec@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Prepaid + Pay phones Date: 21 Jul 2005 19:02:42 -0700 Joseph wrote: > Go to http://abtolls.com and look for CALLING CARD LONG DISTANCE PHONE > RATES. > It doesn't list every card, but you can see that most of them charge > between 30 and 65 cents per call. Thanks! I'll definitely look it over. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:10:40 GMT In article <telecom24.333.8@telecom-digest.org>, Jim Millick <jsm@panix.com> wrote: > From a Lucent friend, an article on Hawthorne Works: > At one time, Cicero, IL, was famous for two things that > had absolutely nothing in common: Al Capone and Western > Electric. The blue-collar town on the West Side of Chicago Actually there was a connection, however slight. In the book Manufacturing the Future : A History of Western Electric by Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler there is an anecdote about a W.E. statistician who wandered over to one of the gambling dens and used his knowledge of statistics to determine that the roulette wheels were not exactly random (because of personal idiocyncrasies of the operators). He was able to win a little money. -- jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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