TELECOM Digest     Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:53:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 406

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    No Thanks, Don't Need Rescuing Here (Patrick Jonsson)
    Red Cross Web Site Has 100,000 Katrina Visitors (Reuters News Wire)
    What Detirmines New Orleans' Future? (Meridian Magazine)
    Alternative News re: Katrina; Some Guys Who Got Away (Debbie Tubiolo)
    Investors Get Behind Podcasting, But Will Listeners? (Monty Solomon)
    How Smart is Your Cellphone? (Monty Solomon)
    You Can't Foil These Parking Meters; Technology Makes Easier (Solomon)
    More Parents Going High-Tech to Track Kids (Monty Solomon)
    Big Bucks Back Next Mobile Frontier: Broadcast TV (Monty Solomon)
    These Online Ads Rely on Telephones; They Use Pay-per-call (M. Solomon)
    Coming For Cellphones: 411 (Monty Solomon)
    Game's Over For These Software Innovators (Monty Solomon)
    Skylink Group Launches Interactive Wireless Security System (PRN)
    Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criticism? (jmeissen@aracnet.com)
    Re: Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects (Robert Bonomi)

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: Patrik Jonsson <csm@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: No Thanks, No Rescuing Needed Here
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:00:45 -0500


      from the September 06, 2005 edition - 
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0906/p11s01-ussc.html

By Patrik Jonsson, reporter for Christian Science Monitor

In New Orleans, not everyone wants to be rescued

Some residents stick with flooded homes -- despite officials'
concerns in hope things will get better soon.

NEW ORLEANS - Gregory Scott steers a commandeered pleasure boat
through the flotsam of New Orleans's flooded 17th Ward, occasionally
scraping bottom -- actually, the roofs of submerged cars.

The area of modest two-story and shotgun-style homes seems empty of
life -- and officials believe that hundreds who tried to ride out
hurricane Katrina here may have perished in their attics. But
Mr. Scott, who makes his presence known by blasting a hand-held horn
as he maneuvers the boat forward, knows there's life -- even laundry
 -- in some quarters.

"There's people all through here," says mate Timothy Waters.

A mucky brown soup flows through what used to be the 17th Ward's
neighborhood of Holly Grove, the only spot Scott has ever called home.
Under almost 10 feet of water, the Beautiful People club is gone.
Scott's own house, with a broken window where he climbed out just
ahead of rising waters, is part of a scene so macabre that even New
Orleansian vampire-novelist Anne Rice might struggle to imagine it.

Yet while thousands finally got out over the Labor Day weekend, Scott
and Waters are holding on -- just two of many who are fierce in their
determination to stay, keeping their feet planted in the muck of this
Cajun Atlantis.

Such decisions perturb emergency-response officials, who warn that
public-health risks posed by the fetid floodwater may worsen, and that
two months of flood conditions may await residents who insist upon
staying put. A stubborn resistance to leaving, they add, will only
waste time and resources of an already-overtaxed search-and-rescue
operation.  The mission remains dangerous, as a nonfatal crash of a
civilian rescue helicopter late Sunday illustrated.

Dennis Nunez, a Louisiana wildlife officer, has seen hundreds of
people living deep in the neighborhoods. Some told rescue workers to
move on, to save others first. In one mostly Vietnamese neighborhood,
people were feeling comfortable enough to have gone fishing, and were
drying fresh fish on their porches. "They won't come out," says Mr.
Nunez.

Less panic, more patience.

As response to Katrina enters its second week, 17,000 National
Guardsmen patrolled the Big Easy by foot, helicopter, and boat, and
the atmosphere shifted from one of panic and scattered violence to one
of a soggy siege. Here on the Jefferson Parish line, a few miles from
where the 17th Street Canal was breached last Tuesday, the water line
has fallen hardly at all as of Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, many hangers-on gave up. Rescuers pulled one woman, barely
conscious, from her home, mattress and all. The job of the day:
Extricating a frightened, 400-pound man. Another woman came ashore
with three cat carriers, each one containing three cats.

But the conflict between the stranded and the rescuers is playing
itself out in ways that, at times, seem bizarre. Rescue helicopters
have even come under sniper fire, police say, as some resist
relocation.

"It's hard on the rescuers, to risk their lives and have somebody say,
'I don't want to be saved.' It boggles your mind," says Lt. Col.  Pete
Schneider, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, in Baton
Rouge, La.

Rescue volunteer Jef Talbert, who has arrived from Texas in a friend's
flat-bottom boat (which he's promised to return without bullet holes),
says it's an odd feeling to be loading every gun he owns before he
heads out to rescue people.

Scott, Waters, and six other men are locals who are aiding with the
rescue, camping on a plot of high ground. They've rescued hundreds
since last Tuesday, asking only food and water in return. They're
using whatever equipment is at hand -- whether an 18-wheel truck
(which they stalled out in deep water) or a waterski boat with a 130
horsepower Yamaha four-stroke on the back.

As they shove aside downed wires and look for submerged cars and
street signs that can damage the propeller on "their" boat, Scott and
Waters shout at one house and toot the horn. Two men emerge onto the
porch.

"Day 7," yells Anthony Belt, refusing his rescuers, indicating he's
got food. He also has a flat-bottom sloop in case he really has to get
out.

As the number of those in need, or want, of being rescued diminishes,
rescuers are shifting priorities: If they see someone has stockpiled
supplies, they've stopped handing out more food.

"If they're not coming out, we're not going to force them," says
Lieutenant Colonel Schneider. "But we can't keep coming back to
resupply."

Fish dinner.

If some survivors are struggling, increasingly aware that they are
surrounded by a huge septic tank, others seem to be doing fine. Rescuers
report seeing large Vietnamese families cooking fish and "looking very
comfortable," some even keeping fish in makeshift pools, then hanging
them out to dry.

Indeed, the stayers-on may be clinging to a belief that, beyond the
muck, is hope. For some, a desire to protect their property is the
driving factor in their decisions to stay, and others simply have
nowhere else to go and are clinging to their patch of the globe. After
surviving for a week in hellish conditions, many say perhaps things
will only get better, suggests Mike Lindell, a psychologist at
Louisiana State University. "We're in uncharted territory for human
behavior."

Two women who had walked through chest-high water from the Superdome
to their homes to get fresh clothes were glad to jump in Scott's boat,
but then started to bicker with each other. Scott wanted none of
it. Voice rising, he sounded off, saying the women should lay aside
petty differences as they pass through waters of death. As the boat
neared a staging area where rescue workers bring their human cargo,
one woman, Tina Collins, turned around and said, quietly, "thank you."

Back on the levee, Scott, a tailor and French Quarter doorman, says
he's found a new calling that lets him stay close to home, bringing
his neighbors to safety when they're ready. Despite the rough
conditions, he has no wish to leave.

"They say a rat has many holes, but I've got only one," he says.  "And
I plan on going down in it."

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.

Read the Monitor and the NY Times on line each day here:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html 

*** 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: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Red Cross Web Site Has One Hundred Thousand Visitors re Katrina
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:04:19 -0500


Nearly 100,000 seek family on Katrina site says Red Cross

Nearly 100,000 people have registered on a Red Cross Web page set up
to help trace family members missing or separated since Hurricane
Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The number of entries on the family links site, set up with the American
Red Cross, rose overnight from 65,000 to 94,000, according to Florian
Westphal, spokesman of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC).

People in the disaster area can register on the Web page to inform their
family and friends that they are safe and provide their current contact
details, while those looking for loved ones can check the list for
information.

"One message we'd like to pass to the public out there is to keep
checking it regularly because new data and entries are being added all
the time," Westphal told a briefing.

People who have re-established contact with their family members
should have their names removed from the list, which can be accessed
via www.familylinks.icrc.org.

Within the United States, the Web site can also be reached via a toll
free phone number + 1 877 568 3317 -- corresponding to +1 877 LOVED1s.

Hundreds of thousands of evacuees are taking refuge in shelters,
hotels and private homes across the United States after one of the
country's worst natural disasters.

The ICRC, a humanitarian agency which helps countries cope with wars and
natural disasters, has also sent five family tracing experts to the
United States, at the request of the American Red Cross.

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: Meridian Magazine <meridian@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: What Detirmines New Orleans Future?
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:10:34 -0500


Culture Clips - Sept. 6, 2005

What determines if a city recovers from disaster?

To the water-soaked citizenry of New Orleans, short term-issues --
water, power, even surviving -- are no doubt paramount today.  But
over the coming weeks, months and years, this city must come to grips
with issues that have determined whether urban areas thrive despite
tragedy, or simply decline in its wake.

Like the Mississippi itself, cities have risen and fallen through
history. Herodotus noted in his own time, the fifth century B.C., that
"human prosperity never abides long in the same place." Many of the
cities that were "great" in his time were small in the recent past, he
noted, while many leading cities of his youth had shrunk into relative
insignificance. Herodotus considered understanding the causes of this
rise and fall to be among the major callings of historians.
Identifying why a city prospers or not over time remains highly
relevant, not only for tragedy-struck New Orleans, but for virtually
all Western cities in the age of terror.

Current intellectual fashion tells us that the crisis in New Orleans
stems primarily from human mismanagement of the environment. Yet
blaming global warming or poor river management practices will not
bring the city back to its condition last month, much less return it
to the greatness that defined it in its 19th-century heyday. The key
to understanding the fate of cities lies in knowing that the greatest
long-term damage comes not from nature or foreign attacks, but often
from self-infliction. Cities are more than physical or natural
constructs; they are essentially the products of human will, faith and
determination.

A city whose residents have given up on their future or who lose
interest in it are unlikely to respond to great challenges.  Decaying
cities throughout history--Rome in the fifth century, Venice in the
18th--both suffered from a decayed sense of civic purpose and prime.
In this circumstance, even civic leaders tend to seek out their own
comfortable perches within the city or choose to leave it entirely to
its poorer, less mobile residents. This has been occurring for decades
in the American rust belt -- think of Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis
 -- or to the depopulated cores in old industrial regions in the
British Midlands, Germany and Russia.

Happily, urban history also contains examples of cities that have
rebounded from natural and other devastation, sometimes far worse than
that wrought on New Orleans. Carthage, purposely destroyed and planted
with salt by its Roman conquerors, later re-emerged as a prominent
urban center, becoming the home of St. Augustine, author of "City of
God." Modern times, too, offer examples which can inspire New Orleans
residents. Tokyo and London rose from near total devastation in
1945. Perhaps even more remarkable, albeit on a smaller scale, has
been the successful rebuilding of Hiroshima into an industrial
powerhouse and one of Japan's most pleasant seaside cities.

Joel Kotkin
Opinion Journal

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=3D110007206


Imagining the Unimaginable

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour called the damage wrought by Hurricane
Katrina "unimaginable." We no longer have to imagine the death and
destruction; We are seeing the unimaginable become tragic reality 24/7
on our TV screens. The challenge now facing Congress and Gulf-State
legislatures is to imagine the unimaginable future -- while doing
everything possible to assist people recover from the current
emergency -- to prepare for future emergencies, reform and restructure
government, which clearly failed catastrophically at all levels during
the last week, and incentivize and empower private ownership and
private enterprise.

The huge calamity of Katrina and the need to rebuild the Gulf Coast
provides Congress and state legislatures with the opportunity to
implement big ideas that could begin to transform America in the first
decade of the 21st century. We have a golden opportunity to "green
line" the Delta and Gulf Coast with government policies that
facilitate and empower the private sector and private citizens.

Out of the tragedies of the U.S. Civil War and World War II,
Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt imagined an unimaginable future.
They created transformative programs that helped define the American
dream of ownership and economic empowerment. Lincoln's Homesteading
Act empowered people with title to 160 acres of land, free, and
Roosevelt's Federal Housing Authority and GI Bill of Rights offered
ways for capital-less people to own a house and to receive higher
education.

As we think about the government's role in assisting people get back
on their feet after Katrina, we should be thinking about how to expand
private property rights, business ownership and create rational
incentives to build a new Gulf Coast and Delta Region unencumbered by
bureaucratic rules and strictures. We have an enormous opportunity to
replace outmoded government programs and bureaucracies with
public-private partnerships and new private institutions that are
built upon the foundation of individual ownership, private property
rights, personal responsibility and social justice that an ownership
society brings.

Jack Kemp
Townhall
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jackkemp/jk20050905.shtml

Copyright 2005 Meridian Magazine.  http://www.meridianmagazine.com/

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, Meridian Magazine, a daily news service of
the LDS Church.  

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

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

From: Debbie DKTubiolo  <debbietubiolo89@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:54 CST
Subject: Alternative News re: Katrina


  From: David Melton <meltondw@cox.net>
  To: info@equalitykansas.org,Debbie DKTubiolo
  Subject: Fw: alternative news re: Katrina
  Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 16:58:17 -0500

 > Worth reading.  The list of things to be mad about just gets longer and
 > longer every day.
 > Dave & Midori

 > "The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle;
 > pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without
 > character; business without morality; science without humanity; and
 > worship without sacrifice." -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

 ----- Original Message -----

Hi family & friends,

Check out this alternative to the news media re: Katrina. I feel it is
important to balance out the info coming out of the major networks with
this kind of info. Jose is a performance artist who sent this to a friend
of the family who lives in N.O. and evacuated. Feel free to forward.

Peace, Dori

Subject: RE: Jose Torres Tama "Hurricane Katrina and the chaos of New
Orleans in her aftermath"

To all loved ones, friends/amigos, I am safe at Andrei Codrescu's
house and writing from there. Below is an account of how I escaped
through a wormhole in the madness. --Jose

     Hurricane Katrina and the chaos of New Orleans in her aftermath

Amigos, how do I begin to speak a picture of the aftermath that was
an even greater terror than the physical damage that Hurricane
Katrina spawned as some kind of water fury birthing an urban
Kali-like chaos fueled further by the incompetence of local and
state officials? The continuous quantity of misinformation that
local and national media began spewing out
was irresponsible and more than incorrect at times as the resilient and
mythic city of New Orleans was already being pronounced dead and those of
us who voluntarily chose to stay behind in hopes of helping to repair
whatever damage Katrina might inflict were eventually sequestered by bad
news, the ineptitude of local governance and currently the national
disaster relief creating an apocalypse.

I chose to stay because I am devoted to a city I love and was willing
to ride out any natural storm in a metropolis that has survived yellow
fever epidemics and two early fires that cindered the old French
Quarter to the ground so that the Spanish could rebuild it when it was
a capital of its providences -- even before there was a United
States. New Orleans has a history before the imagination of thirteen
colonies dreamed a revolution against the British to proclaim their
independence. This city is African, Latin, Caribbean, French, Spanish,
Irish, Italian, Vietnamese and Honduran and only after the Louisiana
Purchase in 1803 did it have an "American" presence and become part of
the Union that is now denying it its last breath.

So I ask you where is the compassionate conservative regime that seems
politically poised to punish this first multiracial port city in the
hemispheric Americas that recently voted itself the color blue in a
red state? Is a Christian maniacal executive chief whipping New
Orleans into submission like so many African slaves were whipped by
similar bible-toting masters only a century and half ago?

I am offering such a historical timeline and perspective on how the
past effects the present because we are generally uniformed about this
city that is more than Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and the party town of the
Old South. I am pleading for a collective scream from coast to coast
to save this eclectic relic of a city that has been a home for
many -- from one century to another. New Orleans deserves an organized
effort of heart and efficiency. It has survived hurricanes before, but
it is having trouble surviving the official storm masquerading as a
savior. How is it that this great empire of capital and industry
cannot manage to organize its technology to mount a proper rescue for
the most precious pueblo in its possession?

I was able to get out on the Wednesday after Katrina hit when the city
officials ordered the water shut down. The water was cut and it was
time to go. And I had to flee this city that I have lived in for the
past twenty years not via the efforts of authorized personnel but via
a pirate bus, a yellow vehicle with the Jefferson Parish School Board
brand on its side -- a bus that operated the kind of rescue mission only
imagined in a Louisiana Hollywood bayou version of "Hotel Rwanda." I
escaped with my partner Claudia Copeland, my writer friend Jimmy
Nolan, who is a fifth-generation native born in the middle of an
unnamed hurricane, and his neighbor who I only know as Kip. Kip was on
his third day of survival without access to a dialysis machine that
cleans his liver and allows him to live.

We, the ones who stubbornly stay from one hurricane to another that
places us in the "cone of uncertainty," do so because we understand
that our human resilience after the natural storm will help rebuild
and weather whatever mother nature decides to throw at us. We know how
to live with hurricanes and their aftermath, but we were not prepared
for the official sequestering that unleashed an even more furious
storm of urban desperation. Desperation that festered like an
untreated wound in an August summer.

Yes, Katrina was a force to be reckoned with and her damage was more
catastrophic than Hurricane Andrew which hit west of New Orleans in
the early '90's. Yes, there was flooding in East New Orleans, the
ninth ward, the Bywater, the Lakeside area, but it was never reported
that most of the French Quarter and parts of the second historic
neighborhood called the Faubourg Marigny that borders the old city was
mostly above water and actually very dry only hours after the category
five pounding of Katrina.

We were recipients of all the prayers and rituals that keep New
Orleans from total destruction because the Virgin Mary, Yemaya and the
river goddesses always protect us at the last possible minute and even
Katrina did not hit us directly with her unrelenting winds and
water. In this city that knows respect for the ancients, this city of
ghosts and ancestors is ultimately protected by the magic chants,
offerings and incantations of the local voodoo practitioners who are
at work every hurricane season to make their voices heard so that
mother nature veers her force just enough to allow us another year of
life. I have more faith in the voodoo practitioners and their prayers
for the city than the officials of local and state government whose
perplexing decisions began plunging us into greater despair after the
storm.

I live on Dauphine Street in the Marigny neighborhood that extends
down river of the Quarter. We were mostly dry and the camel-back house
that I rent had very little damage with some of the siding blown along
the side yard. I am a pantheist and like other New Orleanians, I have
altars at my house. I am in belief that the one altar to "La Virgen
Maria" inspired the large fig tree to fall towards the spacious yard
and away from the back porch. Had it fallen in the opposite direction,
it would have crushed half of the house. As such, most of the houses
in this area were intact-structurally with one or two houses
compromised by a fallen tree.  Yes, trees lined a variety of parallel
streets with names like Royal and Burgundy. These streets were
impassible, but this was minor as compared to the more eastern
sections of the city that were closer to the eye of the storm. We were
spared Katrina's eye and the Northeastern quadrant that always carries
a greater punch as demonstrated by the destructive remnants seen in
Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.  Overall, this area and the middle
of the French Quarter where I rode out the storm at Jimmy's house was
not flooded in contrast to local and national reports that were
carelessly assessing the Quarter as being "destroyed".

Can you imagine the terror that this bad information evoked in my
mother who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey and had been praying for
me, Claudia and my friends since before Katrina hit on Sunday night? My
mother is a devout Catholic and she prays with heartfelt belief that
God will hear you in times of despair.

But the misinformation and irresponsible reports began at 10pm that
night when the local CBS affiliate Channel 4, which had relocated a
crew to Baton Rouge, began reporting that the weather conditions in
the French Quarter had already deteriorated.  They began sounding off
a false alarm to anyone that had changed their minds at this time of
night and were considering to seek safer shelter.  Their "news" was
that it was too dangerous to walk the streets of the Quarter now in
search of shelter at the Superdome because the weather conditions had
"deteriorated."  This was absolutely untrue -- false, a fabricated
"news" lie by reporters who were 85 miles away at the state capitol.
I was there in the middle of the French Quarter and the conditions
were such that some light rain and wind was all that you could
experience.

In fact, I was on a second floor balcony in the heart of the Vieux
Carre at Dumaine and Royal Street, and certainly if anyone was in
belief of this information, they would have lost a chance to seek
shelter.  Where these reporters were getting their misinformation from
and recycling it out to the local community is unknown to me, but for
a crew safely stowed away in Baton Rouge, they had no right to spew
out this nonsense.  Not only was this more of the sensationalized
rubbish disguising itself as journalism, but these reporters began
selling panic as a consumer item.  Yes, it was beyond being
irresponsible because while they were sitting over-caked in make-up in
a safe makeshift studio, they became an ugly metaphor for the spewing
of misinformation and panic mongering that grew into an apocalyptic
speculation that already had the city under twenty-feet of water even
when Katrina was 100 miles away and moving eastward.

They digressed into a reality TV news show that was now using Katrina
as a measure for high ratings. Be aware that when a hurricane is in
the Gulf the reporters and weather men and women are the stars of the
show.  These were not journalists bringing you information, for they
resembled chattering egos positioning themselves for "glorious
coverage" -- not unlike the city council officials who were also
gloating in the applause for themselves for their "contra-flow"
evacuation strategies that again turned the interstate 10 east and
west into a parking lot of more desperation.  It seemed that very
little had improved from last year's highway experiment that clogged
evacuees for ten hours to move thirty miles outside of the city in
either direction as Hurricane Ivan "the terrible" had us in its "cone
of uncertainty" then.

Come every June, we, as citizens of New Orleans, know that we will be
placed in the "cone of uncertainty" again and again by newly-named
storms and depressions that may organize themselves into hurricanes of
categories from one to five.  We prepare as always by shuddering our
homes, boarding any exposed windows, gathering batteries, canned
foods, candles, flashlights, wine and bottled water.  We are efficient
in such rituals and can make our environments hurricane ready in a few
hours of concentrated energy.  We are not made desperate by the
threats of hurricanes that come into the Gulf of Mexico every year,
but after Katrina hit, we became some kind of social experiment as
water supplies were cut off and rumors that the city may not be
brought back to even the least of working conditions for the next two
to three months spread as much as the other information that had the
French Quarter flooding on Tuesday afternoon because of the levee
breaches and the failure of the national rescue efforts to secure that
damage.

By the afternoon of Wednesday, August 31, on other rumors that private
hotels like the Hotel Monteleone at the Canal St. end of the Quarter
were possibly having buses evacuate their guests to safety, we
purchased the hope of a $45 dollar ticket to Houston, TX on a fleet of
vehicles that were to arrive by 6pm.  The hotel management had
organized a twenty-five thousand dollar rescue mission of chartered
buses escorted by state police to take their trapped guests to safety.
A few hundred residents had learned of this priceless information, and
most notably only a few feet away Allen Toussaint, the legendary
composer and musician, was standing in line with myself, Claudia,
Jimmy, and Kip, the three hundred hotel guests and the other
two-hundred lucky residents holding tickets out of the apocalypse.

By 9pm the buses had not arrived and the hotel management was as
confused us all of us waiting as to why we were still standing there
at this time of night with the city police escort they had also hired
just in case their missing buses were rushed by people without the
proper tickets to board.  When the yellow pirate school bus cut the
dark like some night creature on the street pointing its blinding
headlight eyes to the waiting hundreds some cheers broke the
whisperings, and we finally thought our hired fleet of heroic rescue
vehicles had arrived.  The bus only arrived with the information that
the fleet had been commandeered-confiscated -- stolen by local police
officials acting on martial law.

All along, I had placed myself in waiting close to the hotel
management at the corner of Royal and Iberville to be in proximity to
hear any information on what was unfolding.  Only then did I speak to
one of the yellow bus crew of two that told me there were no buses
coming and that they were there relaying this difficult news while
offering passage to Baton Rouge at fifty dollars a head.  Imagine how
this conversation was taking place in the flashlight lit dark of night
on a French Quarter street corner where the sounds of madness were
audible a block away on the infamous Bourbon Street that normally
hosts an all-night party for Puritans and yahoos that come to unwind,
drink, and throw up from all parts of the country because they cannot
have that much fun in their own cities of social convention and
Christian repression.

Certainly, we made an offer to the bus driver for the four of us that
was quite below their asking rate, and like any other transaction
under the table in this city, it was accepted.  We got on the bus as
the Monteleone management was trying to figure out what to do and if
to relay the bad news to the five-hundred people that were losing hope
as the night grew more ominous. We handed over our collection of
dollars to the bus driver and sat on the cold steel floor, with Allen
Toussaint already having been the first to mount this pirate bus when
it pulled up to the street.  He sat among a small group of folks that
were already on board -- occupying one of the coveted seats. I was
ecstatic to be on any vehicle ready to drive me out of town and would
have sat on the roof if I had to.

If the Monteleone could privately engineer a rescue effort to bring in
ten buses, then how is it possible that the city and state could not
organize a fleet of 100 buses to rescue all the people left behind?
These officials could have used the stealth training of the pirate bus
crew that seemed to come in and out of town through back roads that
were quite dry as opposed to news accounts that water compromised all
land rescue efforts.  We, the citizens of New Orleans who have managed
to escape, are willing to mount our own pirate and private efforts to
come and rescue our friends and family members who are still trapped
by the infinite and mounting incompetence of those in command.

I ask you to mount a collective scream of outrage and wolf howls into
the airwaves, radio and TV stations, so that we can come in to do what
we have always done in times of disaster and that is to lend a genuine
human effort that is tribal community oriented and truly
compassionate.  We are being played as a reality TV show for political
sadists who have the audacity to publicly say we are not worthy of
governmental support because we are an old city.  Just yesterday, I
heard that a Republican politician spewed some vitriol to that
effect. Yes, we are an old city in these young United States, and we
have survived a few bad governments, slavery, and tropical
plagues. Right now we are bearing witness to the social plague of
heartlessness and racism, political inefficiency and it is denying
life to this gumbo city of African, Caribbean, Spanish, French, Irish,
and Italian influences.  We are being denied the opportunity to rise
into the future of this century. We are being denied the opportunity
to return to the city we love and rebuild it as only we can-re-shape
it into the grand dame that it has been from one century to another.

       Jose Torres Tama
       Baton Rouge, LA
       Saturday, September 3, 2005

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:44:27 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Investors Get Behind Podcasting; Will the Listeners?


By Scott Kirsner  |  September 5, 2005

It was a milestone of some sort last month, when venture capitalists
made the first two serious investments in podcasting start-ups. But
did the milestone signify that podcasting is on the verge of
dethroning radio -- or that the buzziest technology trend of 2005 had
just jumped the shark?

In early August, PodShow raised $8.85 million from a group of West
Coast investors that included Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and
Ram Shriram, an early supporter of Google and a member of the search
site's board.

A few days later, Odeo cofounder Evan Williams announced on his blog
that his company had raised money from Charles River Ventures of
Waltham. Before starting Odeo in December, Williams had helped build
Blogger, an early blog-creation and hosting site Google eventually
acquired.

Odeo didn't say how much it had raised, but the Charles River partner 
who made the investment, George Zachary, told me it is ''in the same 
order of magnitude as the PodShow amount."

The entrepreneurs at PodShow and Odeo harbor big dreams for podcasting.


http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/investors_get_behind_podcasting_but_will_the_listeners/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:49:46 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: How Smart is Your Cellphone?


Wider broadband service, upgraded networks spurring phone makers to 
produce ever more powerful devices

By Keith Reed, Globe Staff  |  September 5, 2005

Is a cellphone 'smart' if it can listen to a song on the radio and
identify it for you? How about one that let's you surf the Web, check
e-mail,or maybe catch a little news fromCNN while you ride the subway
to work?

Just what makes a cellphone a 'smartphone,' anyway?

Since the term became a buzzwordamong cellphone makers and service
pro-viders, prevailing wisdom has held that it refers primarily to the
slim but blocky PDA-style phones that include keyboards and PC-style
operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Mobile edition. Those
devices not only allow users to make phone calls, but to take
advantage of 'smart' data services and do things like access
corporate e-mail, send text messages, and even manipulate spreadsheets
or run many popular business software applications.

But lately, the defining characteristics of smart phones have shifted,
driven by the broader availability of broadband wireless networks that
can accommodate audio, video, and other services more popular among
everyday users than mobile professionals. Handset makers are building
more powerful phones aimed at everyday users, while service providers
are spending billions to upgrade their networks, anticipating a surge
in demand for services other than voice in the near future.

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/09/05/how_smart_is_your_cellphone/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:53:32 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: You Can't Foil These Parking Meters/Technology Makes it Easier


Technology makes it easier to nail offending drivers

By Associated Press  |  September 5, 2005

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. -- In this seaside town, parking meters don't
grant those magical few minutes on someone else's dime. Each time a
car pulls away from a space, the meter automatically resets to zero.

Little is left to chance in the brave new world of parking technology:
Meters are triggered by remote sensors, customers pay for street time
by cellphone, and solar-powered vending machines create customized
parking plans for the motorist.

Oh, and forget about rubbing the traffic officer's chalk mark off your
tires on the streets of cities where short-term parking is free but
overstays are punished by fines.

If you're in Monterey, Calif., or Chicago, you're apt to be foiled by
parking officials who drive minicarts outfitted with GPS-enabled
cameras that scan your license plate and know how long a car has
occupied the given space.

Major metropolises like New York and Toronto have been phasing out
coin-operated, single-spaced meters for years. But smaller cities
including Aspen, Colo., and Savannah, Ga., have started ditching them,
too.

Advanced parking technologies can lower a city's operating costs,
reduce staffing needs, and increase ticketing accuracy, resulting in
fewer challenges in traffic court. Bill Francis, a vice president at
the Los Angeles-based Walker Parking Consultants, says technology can
also help local officials more smoothly collect on outstanding
tickets, which for several cities he's familiar with added up to $4
million in just five years.

Pacific Grove, a coastal resort town where visitors to the nearby
Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pebble Beach golf course compete with locals
for the few oceanside spaces, went for the gold when it went digital
last year.

It installed meters that increase parking fees over time, so that
quick errands remain relatively inexpensive but long stays become more
costly.

A wire grid under the pavement triggers a sensor whenever a car pulls
in. The information can be sent wirelessly via radio signals to
traffic enforcers so they'd know when time runs out on any parking
spot in town. The meter resets itself as soon as the car pulls away,
so the next car has to pay the full fee.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/you_cant_foil_these_parking_meters/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:00:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: More Parents Going High-Tech to Track Kids


By Martha Irvine, AP National Writer  |  September 5, 2005

CHICAGO --In this case, it isn't Big Brother who's watching -- it's
Big Mother (or Father). Increasingly, parents are using high-tech
methods to track everything from where their children are and how far
they are driving to what they buy, what they eat and whether they've
shown up for class.

Often, the gadget involved is a simple cell phone that transmits
location data. The details get delivered by e-mail, cell phone text
message or the Web.

Other times, the tech tool is a debit-like card used at a school lunch
counter, or a device that lets parents know not only how far and fast
the car is going, but also whether their child has been braking too
hard or making jackrabbit starts.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/more_parents_going_high_tech_to_track_kids/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:03:01 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Big Bucks Back Next Mobile Frontier: Broadcast TV


By Antony Bruno  |  September 5, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - Want to watch TV on your mobile phone?
The wireless industry is betting billions that you do.

And they're not talking about just downloading or streaming on-demand
videoclips to your phone. Efforts are afoot to broadcast TV
programming nationwide to a new generation of mobile phones that can
tune in, just like an at-home TV.

Despite the billions of dollars U.S. wireless operators have spent
upgrading their networks to offer such multimedia content as videos
and music, they are insufficient for the job.

The problem is that they are designed for two-way, on-demand access.
To broadcast programming on such networks would require that each show
be sent to each subscriber separately -- an impossibly time-consuming
and expensive proposition.

"It's very difficult to offer high-definition TV on a handset through
existing networks," says Andrew Cole, an analyst with A.T. Kearney.
"You have to offload that through a separate network."

Several initiatives are under way to achieve just that, a separate
wireless network built specifically for one-way multimedia
broadcasting.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/big_bucks_back_next_mobile_frontier_broadcast_tv/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:28:57 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: These Online Ads Rely on Telephones Using Pay-per-Call


These online ads rely on telephones Pay-per-call is finding its niche

By Associated Press  |  September 5, 2005

DALLAS -- Personal-injury lawyer Frank Frasier wants the world to know
about his business but didn't think much of the search-based Internet
advertising that's all the rage. Potential clients wouldn't learn much
about him through it, he figured, and he really can't tell if they
have a case without speaking with them.

But Frasier's opinion of Internet search advertising changed with the
recent arrival of pay-per-call, which prompts Web surfers looking for
lawyers in his hometown of Tulsa, Okla., to pick up the phone instead
of clicking an ad or sending e-mail.

''We've gotten about a dozen calls and half turned into cases,"
Frasier said. ''I'm a believer."

Pay-per-call could be especially powerful for businesses that ignored
the Internet, advocates say.

Most search advertising now takes a pay-per-click approach.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/these_online_ads_rely_on_telephones/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:31:29 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Coming for Cellphones: 411


Directory service can be crucial for small businesses

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff  |  September 5, 2005

Once, you had to pay the telephone company an extra fee if you wanted
an unlisted number. These days, you can get one without even trying.

Just get a cellular telephone, or one of those new Voice over Internet
Protocol (VOIP) phone services. In most cases, directory assistance
operators won't be able to find you. That's because cellphone and
Internet phone providers have not plugged their customers' numbers
into the big national phone number databases.

That's good news for millions of consumers sick of harassment from
telemarketers. But millions of others -- especially small-business
people and the self-employed -- want their numbers listed. The absence
of directory listings might persuade them to keep their traditional
phones.

But times are changing. Starting next year, millions of cellphone
users will be available through the same 411 service that lists
standard phone numbers. And there are moves afoot to include VOIP
telephone numbers in phone directories, as well.

Most of the nation's biggest wireless carriers have teamed up with
Qsent Inc. of Portland, Ore., to produce a national databse of
wireless phone numbers. "Our plan is to roll it out to all the major
411 providers in the country," said Greg Keene, Qsent's chief privacy
officer. "For those of us that really want to be reached  ... it'll
be available."

Directory assistance services are provided either by the phone
companies themselves, or by independent firms like Infonxx Inc. of
Bethlehem, Pa. When the Qsent database opens for business, these
directory assistance providers will be able to connect to it and
search for listed cellphone numbers.

Cellphone users who don't want their numbers listed need not worry. 
This will be an 'opt-in' database. A user won't be listed unless he 
requests it, and can get delisted whenever he changes his mind. 
Numbers won't be printed in a phone book or sold to telemarketers. 
They will be available only by dialing directory assistance.

Cingular, T-Mobile, Nextel, Alltel, and Sprint plan to participate in
the system. But Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone
carrier, with 47 million subscribers, wants no part of it.

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/09/05/coming_for_cellphones_411/

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

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:37:34 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Game's Over For These Software Innovators


By Hiawatha Bray  |  September 5, 2005

It's all fun and games, till somebody loses a lawsuit. That's what has
happened to the creators of a piece of gaming software called BnetD,
and their defeat suggests hard times ahead for well-meaning technology
innovators who go too far.

But Blizzard is different. The company runs its own private network,
called Battle.net, with strict rules against cheating and vulgar
behavior. Above all, there's an absolute ban on the use of illegally
copied Blizzard games. The Battle.net system can spot a pirated copy
of Diablo II a thousand miles away, and lock it out.

Seems reasonable -- but not to a handful of gamers who want to run
their own game networks, just as they could with other titles. These
guys bought some Blizzard games, 'reverse-engineered' them to master
their secrets, and wrote their own compatible server code, called
BnetD. They weren't out to make a fast buck; BnetD was given away so
that anybody could set up a private server for playing Blizzard games.

Good clean fun? Blizzard didn't think so. BnetD servers work just fine
with pirated copies of their games. BnetD's creators didn't intend to
encourage software piracy; they even offered to include Blizzard's
antipiracy code, if the company would hand it over. Fat chance, said
Blizzard's chief operating officer, Paul Sams. "We would not, under
any circumstances, provide something that is so critical to our
business to anyone outside of the company," he said.

Instead, Blizzard went after the BnetD programmers in federal court,
demanding they stop distributing their product. The company argued
that the license inside every Blizzard game forbids the customer from
reverse-engineering the code. Blizzard also cited the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, a controversial federal law designed to
stamp out piracy. They said BnetD violated the act by deliberately
enabling crooks to play illegal copies of Blizzard games.

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/09/05/games_over_for_these_software_innovators/

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

Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 17:15:23 +0400
From: Editor (PRN)<editor@pressreleasenetwork.com>
Subject: Skylink Group Launches Interactive Wireless Security System


ew automation and alert product alleviates the stress of intruders whether
you are home or away.

Toronto, ON - Sep 6, 2005 (PRN): The Skylink Group, a leader in
wireless technology, today announced the launch of AAA+ (Alarm,
Alert, Automation and Communicator), the first of its kind in the
world. The AAA+ is an automated alarm system which can be monitored
while you are away from your home and can also act as an alert
mechanism for when the homeowner is inside their dwelling.

"We're excited about our newest wireless security, alert and
automation product. This is the first product on the market that can
provide homeowners with a total security package that is expandable
and can easily be customized. It allows the homeowner to monitor the
security of their home regardless of whether they are home or away,
said Philip Tsui, CEO of Skylink.

The AAA+ wireless alarm system provides travelling homeowners with the
ability to monitor their home via telephone or cell phone by simply
calling the automated control panel and entering a password. Once
dialled into the control panel, the homeowner is able to monitor the
sensors placed on doors and windows and turn on/off a wireless device
simply by the push of a button. When sensors detect an intrusion, the
voice dialler connected to the control panel can be set to either call
the homeowner immediately and/or dial a monitoring station, which will
alert the homeowner as to which sensor has been triggered. Up to five
call-back numbers can be programmed into the system control panel.

The AAA+ will also notify the homeowners as to activity that is taking
place outside of the house. If an intruder(s) is approaching the house
or if the homeowner forgets to close the garage door, front door,
window or even if there is flooding, the AAA+ unit's sensor will
activate.

Tsui went on to say, "The AAA+ monitoring system alleviates the stress
of leaving your home unattended for any period of time. With the AAA+
monitoring system installed in your home, you no longer have to be
concerned about your valuables while on vacation or simply away for
the night.

The AAA+ system is available at select independent retailers across
Canada and US or online at www.skylinkhome.com. The system retails for
$169.99 (U.S.) or $219.99 (CDN).

About Skylink

Skylink understands the needs and concerns of the homeowner in
providing a safe haven and comfortable environment for their
family. Established in 1990, Skylink has offices in Brampton, Ontario,
Canada; Ontario City, California, US and Hong Kong. RF Design,
electronic design, software design, mechanical design and graphic
design departments for new and existing product lines are housed in
the Hong Kong offices.

For more information, contact:

Stephen Murdoch
Consultant
OEB International
Phone: (905) 682-7203
Email: smurdoch@oeb.com

Philip Tsui
CEO
Skylink
Phone: (800) 304-1187
Email: philipt@skylinkhome.com

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

From: jmeissen@aracnet.com
Subject: Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criticism?
Date: 5 Sep 2005 23:51:23 GMT
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com


In article <telecom24.403.9@telecom-digest.org>,
John L. Shelton  <john@jshelton.com> wrote:

> It will be very hard to convince me that 100k people in New Orleans
> were incapable of leaving in advance. Many poor people have cars, or
> have friends/families with cars. There were enough cars in NO to
> evacuate everyone.

Interestingly, the prophetic series by the Times-Picayune back in 2002
predicted exactly that:

  http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf?/washingaway/leftbehind_1.html

"...And 100,000 people without transportation will be especially
 threatened.
 
 ....
 
A large population of low-income residents do not own cars and would
have to depend on an untested emergency public transportation system
to evacuate them."

The entire series is available here:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/


John Meissen                              jmeissen@aracnet.com

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

From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
Subject: Re: Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:54:57 -0000
Organization: Widgets, Inc.


In article <telecom24.405.12@telecom-digest.org>,
Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote:

> In article <telecom24.404.4@telecom-digest.org>, latimes@telecom-
> digest.org says:

> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-levee4sep04,0,6360838,full.story

>> By Richard A. Serrano and Nicole Gaouette LA Times Writers
>> KATRINA'S AFTERMATH

>> Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects. To cut
>> spending, officials gambled that the worst-case scenario would not
>> come to be.

>> September 4, 2005

>> WASHINGTON - For years, Washington had been warned that doom lurked
>> just beyond the levees. And for years, the White House and Congress
>> had dickered over how much money to put into shoring up century-old
>> dikes and carrying out newer flood control projects to protect the
>> city of New Orleans.
>
>> As recently as three months ago, the alarms were sounding -- and being
>> brushed aside.

> Why don't we cast the blame where it belongs? I love how media is now 
> trying to spin this as Clinton's fault, etc. 

> You have to remember that during most of Clinton's term he had to 
> contend with a Republican controlled congress. And now we've got 
> Republican control in all three branches. 

> So tell me what the real problem is. 

Yeah, do tell.  *WHY* is such an issue the Federal Government's
problem in the first place?

Protecting New Orleans from the inevitable acts of nature is
_NEW_ORLEANS'_ problem.  Why wasn't New Orleans city government,
and/or Parish government, and/or Louisiana state government
*doing*something*??  Why were they burying their head in the sand, and
waiting for the Feds to 'solve' *their* problem?

Didn't the _locals_ *know* the risks when they moved or built there?

Didn't they *know* they were living in the floodwater basin?

Who's fault is it that _4_out_of_5_ residents/businesses in that KNOWN
TO BE VULNERABLE TO FLOODING area do *NOT* have flood insurance?  (it
was published somewhere recently that only approximately 21% of the
properties in the flooded areas were covered by flood insurance).

That _Federally_sponsored_ program has been in place for nearly *40*
years.

Bush isn't to blame.
Clinton isn't to blame.
Congress isn't to blame.

The fools who live there and _didn't_buy_insurance_ against a KNOWN
hazard, are reaping the "benefits" of their bad judgement.

*THEY* didn't buy flood insurance.

*THEY* didn't fund (*locally*) the upgrading of the protection for
_their_ property.


Yes, what has happened *is* a disaster.

Yes, government, including the Feds, should pitch in to:
    1) save lives;
    2) evacuate (*forcibly*, if necessary) everyone from the 'un-liveable'
       areas;
    3) alleviate the public health hazards posed by dead bodies (whether
       human or animal);
    4) work on restoring 'essential services'.

That is a *big* job.  A VERY VERY big job.  To put it in perspective, the 
area of devastation is somewhat larger than _all_ of Great Britain.

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


TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm-
unications 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.

Contact information:    Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest
                        Post Office Box 50
                        Independence, KS 67301
                        Phone: 620-402-0134
                        Fax 1: 775-255-9970
                        Fax 2: 530-309-7234
                        Fax 3: 208-692-5145         
                        Email: editor@telecom-digest.org

Subscribe:  telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org
Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org

This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then.  Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!

URL information:        http://telecom-digest.org

Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
  (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives)

RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
  For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308
    and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from                  *
*   Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate  *
*   800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting.         *
*   http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com                    *
*   Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing      *
*   views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc.                             *
*************************************************************************

ICB Toll Free News.  Contact information is not sold, rented or leased.

One click a day feeds a person a meal.  Go to http://www.thehungersite.com

Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.

              ************************

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO
YOUR CREDIT CARD!  REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST
AND EASY411.COM   SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest !

              ************************

Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your
career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
(MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35
credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the
skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including
data, video, and voice networks.

The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the
College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has
state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning.

Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

              ************************

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

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of TELECOM Digest V24 #406
******************************