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TELECOM Digest Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:22:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 427 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Broadband to Rule the TV Waves (Monty Solomon) Verizon's Fios Service Moves US Internet Beyond Snail's Pace (M Solomon) Music-Playing Cellphones Hit a Flat Note (Monty Solomon) Hollywood Gets a Hand (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News for Monday 19th September 2005 (Cellular-News) Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? (Arthur Kamlet) Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? Lisa Hancock) Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? (Steven Lichter) Re: BellSouth/AT&T New Orleans "Main" at Baronne & Poydras (Isaiah Beard) Re: You Need a New Computer (Tony P.) Re: Record Labels Sue Baidu for Copyright Infringement (Tony P.) Re: Roaming Charges (Lisa Hancock) Re: When it Rains, it Pours .... (William Warren) Motorola Bag Phone (Steven Lichter) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 17:10:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Broadband to Rule the TV waves By Jo Twist BBC News technology reporter TV delivered into living rooms over broadband connections will completely change TV as well as the internet as we know it, concludes a major report. IPTV (internet protocol TV), as it is known, is a budding area that is exciting telecoms and media companies. Within a decade, says the report from Lovelace Consulting and informitv, TV delivered to sets over the net will be an established way to receive content. TV will be much more web-like, with millions of shows to download. Within five years, the authors predict, many households will have their TV piped through a satellite dish, rooftop aerial or cable network, and through a broadband phone line. TVs will be hooked up to set-top boxes which are in turn hooked up to the broadband pipe too. The broadcast and on-demand programmes it will be able to receive will be in standard as well as high-definition formats. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4230662.stm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:07:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Verizon's Fios Service Moves U.S. Internet Beyond a Snail's Pace By WALTER S. MOSSBERG High-speed Internet connections have finally gone mainstream in the U.S. But there's a problem: What passes for high speed in this country is pathetically slow compared with Internet service in some other countries. For instance, Verizon's entry-level DSL service, at 768 kilobits per second for downloads and 128 kilobits per second for uploads, is considered high-speed here. But in Japan and Korea, families can buy moderately priced Internet service measured in the tens of megabits per second. They get a race car, while Americans are stuck with a bicycle. A megabit per second (mbps) connection moves about 1,000 times as much data every second as a kilobit per second (kbps) connection. A service running at 10 megabits per second is more than 13 times as fast as Verizon's base DSL service. All such services have two modes: downstream, for downloading Web pages, email and files; and upstream, for uploading email or files. Generally, Internet providers offer much faster downstream speeds than upstream speeds. Even the faster common U.S. broadband offerings, like Comcast's $42.95 a month basic cable-modem service, which delivers 6 mbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream, are ridiculously slow compared with the Asian offerings. But now, Verizon is offering Americans in certain parts of the country a new, much faster Internet service for only a little more than Comcast charges for its basic service. This new product, called Fios, offers 15 mbps downstream and 2 mbps upstream for $50 a month, or $45 a month if you use Verizon for your telephone service. There are also two other Fios plans: 5 mbps downstream and 2 mbps upstream for $40 a month; and 30 mbps downstream and 5 mbps upstream for $200 a month. Both also are discounted if you also use Verizon phone service. I had Fios installed in my house in July, and I've been comparing it with Comcast's basic cable-modem service. I have been pleased with Fios's speed and reliability, which are true to Verizon's claims. On some tasks, it is markedly faster than Comcast. And on my laptops connected via a Wi-Fi wireless network, which tends to degrade Internet speeds, the speed increase has been especially noticeable. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050915.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:10:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Music-Playing Cellphones Hit a Flat Note By WALTER S. MOSSBERG After months of anticipation, Apple Computer last week finally unveiled the first cellphone that combines elements of its hot-selling iPod music players. The $250 phone, called the ROKR, was designed and made by Motorola; is being sold by Cingular; and contains special iPod-like music-playback software created by Apple. But Apple is strangely unenthusiastic about it. Apple's heavily trafficked Web home page relegated the new phone to a small box underneath a giant photo touting its newest music player, the iPod nano. By contrast, the Motorola and Cingular home pages were dominated by the new music phone. After a week or so of testing the ROKR, along with a couple of competing music phones, my assistant Katie Boehret and I share Apple's indifference. As a music player, the Motorola ROKR is OK, as are the two other music phones we tested. But none of them approaches either the style or the functionality of the iPod, and none lives up to the full potential of what a combined cellphone and music player could be. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20050914.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 17:15:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Hollywood Gets a Hand The beleaguered movie studios find an unlikely ally in the PlayStation Portable-and a new format takes off. By N'Gai Croal Newsweek Sept. 26, 2005 issue http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9379116/site/newsweek/ ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Monday 19th September 2005 Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 08:04:01 -0500 From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com> Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Two Operators Sold To New Venture http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14087.php Blackfoot Communications of Missoula has sold its mobile wireless communications businesses to MTPCS. MTPCS, headquartered in Great Falls, will maintain a significant operations center in Montana, and has extensive plans ... Cingular Wireless Eases 3G Activation for Consumers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14088.php Cingular Wireless says that it will use SmartTrust's Over-The-Air technology (OTA) to help simplify the 3G activation process for its customers when it launches its next generation wireless services later this year. The ... EDGE for Iceland http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14089.php Iceland Telecom says that it is planning to deploy EDGE technology over the next few months. Data transport via mobile telephones has increased steadily, and more and more people use Iceland Telecom's GPRS services. The ... Worlds Largest WiMAX Trial http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14090.php Marconi says that it has been selected to support the largest public WiMAX trial to date, providing WiMAX connectivity in Italy's Piedmont and Sicily regions. The selection was made by a working party that included repre ... Mobile TV and Video Services Could Overload 3G Networks http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14091.php Mobile TV and video services -- viewed by operators as a means to drive 3G take-up and increase average revenue per user (ARPU) -- could overwhelm 3G networks in the next two years, according to the new Sound Partners repo ... SMS Used to Send Death Threats http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14092.php Reporters Without Borders has condemned the death threats and intimidation targeted in the past few days and weeks against two journalists working in the northeastern Amazonian departments of Loreto and Ucayali, Julia Sa ... Eurotel details WCDMA Launch Plans http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14093.php The Czech republic based Eurotel Praha has announced its plans to launch its WCDMA/UMTS network. More than one year ahead of time the company will meet the commitment associated with the purchase of the UMTS network oper ... Vodafone Plans to Outsource Dutch Network Management http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14094.php Vodafone Netherlands and Ericsson Netherlands have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to outsource parts of its network activities, namely the roll out, the running and the maintenance of the radio network of Vod ... Providing Transport for 3G Wireless Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14095.php White Rock Networks has announced that PPL Telcom has selected its Transport and Multi-service Optical Access products to provide backhaul capabilities to cell sites in the Northeast United States for one of the nation's ... Mobile Music Downloads to reach $1.8 billion in Europe by 2010 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14096.php According to a new report by the research provider, Generator, Europeans will spend US$640 million in 2010 downloading full-track songs to their mobile phones. With expenditure on real music ringtones forecast to be an a ... Most Australians Are Still Clueless about 3G Mobile Technology http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14097.php IDC's latest research into the Australian consumer mobile market reveals that, in light of the looming nationwide introduction of 3G services, the vast majority of Australians still have no clear idea about 3G mobile tec ... Portuguese PrePay Usage Rises while Contracts Continue Falling http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14098.php Portugal's telecoms regulator has reported that by the end of the second quarter of 2005 there were 10.7 million mobile telephone subscribers in the country, a growth in the total number of mobile subscribers of 0.7% on ... Moves Towards Number Portability in Canada http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14099.php The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has submitted its plans for wireless number portability to the Canadian government, following submissions to industry partners. The 64-page report, completed by ... VoIP Subscriber Rush Spurs Equipment Boom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14100.php The ranks of residential Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) users are expected to explode during the next few years, causing market revenue for wireline VOIP equipment to more than triple between 2004 and 2010, iSuppli ... A Military Use for 3G Networks http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14101.php You can now get a portable 3G network in a box after 3Way Networks chose London's bi-annual DSEi (Defence Systems & Equipment International) trade fair for military types to launch of a hand-portable UMTS network capable ... Vodafone Planning 15 New 3G handsets http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14102.php Vodafone has announced an extensive range of phones to bring 3G services to the mass market. The range of phones will be marketed in the run up to Christmas and will be the best yet, offering smaller and lighter phones, ... Lebanon's Investcom Mobile Co Plans IPOs In Dubai, London http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14086.php Investcom said Saturday it intends to carry out two initial public offerings by listing shares on exchanges in Dubai and London. ... New Zealand Watchdog To Probe Telecom Services For Extended Regulation http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14077.php The Commerce Commission Friday said there are grounds to investigate several services of Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. (NZT) to ascertain whether the period of regulation should be extended. ... Samsung, Sprint Nextel In Wireless Broadband Equip Pact http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14078.php Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) said Friday it has signed an agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) of the U.S. to provide testing equipment for wireless broadband services. ... FCC To Provide $211 Million For Telecom In Gulf Coast http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14079.php The Federal Communications Commission will make available $211 million from the universal service subsidy fund to help restore communications in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursda ... Deutsche Telekom Confirms Keeping T-Mobile USA Unit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14080.php Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) Friday confirmed it has decided to keep its U.S. wireless arm, T-Mobile USA Inc. ... India's Space Agency:Boeing Ends Satellite Collaboration http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14081.php BANGALORE, India (AP)--India's space agency said Friday that a subsidiary of Boeing Co. (BA) has canceled an agreement to help produce communication satellites. ... New German Discount Mobile Operator Pressures Peers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14082.php FRANKFURT (AP)--New discount mobile operator Blau.de is challenging its rivals by offering significantly discounted rates on text messages and calls to German networks, according to an announcement on the compa ... Rogers,Bell Cda In JV To Build Wireless Broadband Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14083.php Rogers Communications Inc. (RG) and Bell Canada have agreed to build and manage a Canada-wide wireless broadband network and will jointly and equally fund the initial network deployment costs, estimated at C$200 million ... Denmark To Remove Mobile Telecom Regulation In Access Market http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14084.php Denmark's National IT and Telecom Agency Friday said regulation in the country's mobile access market can be removed, as competition is working well in the market. ... Vodafone Not Involved In Afghan Mobile Licence Bid http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14085.php Vodafone Group PLC (VOD), the U.K.-based mobile telecommunications company, Friday said it wasn't involved in bidding for a license to offer mobile telecoms services in Afghanistan. ... ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:31:04 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: ArtKamlet@aol.REMOVE.com In article <telecom24.426.4@telecom-digest.org>, Allen Newman <anewmanagn@excite.com> wrote: > Trademarks must remain in use to remain legally protected, so I'm > curious where and how Qwest ("my" Baby Bell) uses the Bell logo, if at > all. In most cases Qwest has eliminated it since merging with US > West. You can still make out the shadow of a Bell logo removed from > the wall of a Qwest building in Ankeny, Iowa, for example. > Last night on the way to a wedding reception I saw a Bell logo that > Qwest hasn't gotten rid of: a wooden pay phone kiosk inside the south > entrance of the Sioux Falls VFW Lounge still has a Bell sign on top, > with the blue Bell logo to the left of the word "phone". Except for > Qwest signs tacked to the sides of the kiosk it looked a couple > decades old. Does Qwest affixing new signs without taking down the > Bell sign count as current use for trademark purposes? It seems > better than the example Qwest filed with the USPTO in 2003, which was > a couple photos of a US West payphone kiosk, which didn't even have > the Qwest identity. > Even without the logo, Qwest does try to connect less obviously to the > Bell identity. Its Dex phone book is still blue and gold, the Qwest > logotype is in the Gill Sans font which has also been the corporate > font of AT&T (although the Bell System used Helvetica), and their > current slogan is "Spirit of Service", a long-time Bell System motto. > Arguably, Qwest's blue swoosh logo echos the circular blue Bell logo > -- or would, at least, clash with it if the Bell logo were also > present. > Has anyone ever seen an example of Qwest intentionally adding the Bell > logo to anything anywhere? I wonder what they'll come up with when > their next trademark filing is due. > The other RBOCs have filed their own claims of Bell logo usage: > In 2002, SBC submitted a photo of a white service truck with blue and > gold stripes and Southwestern Bell Telephone markings. Do their > trucks still look like that? It's about as convincing as Qwest's US > West phone booth. It'll be interesting to learn what SBC does with > branding after their purchase of AT&T. > Also in 2002, Verizon submitted photos of new Verizon service trucks > and pay phones featuring the Bell logo. IMO Verizon has cleverly > dealt with the Bell logo "problem", that is, keeping it alive and > meaningful but not letting it compete with their own created identity. > Finally, both of the Baby Bells that don't use the Bell logo > themselves license Bell names and logos to equipment manufacturers. > Qwest licenses Northwestern Bell to Unical and SBC licenses > Southwestern Bell to Conair. This despite Northwestern Bell and > Southwestern Bell no longer being names Qwest or SBC use themselves, > and the fact that while Qwest and SBC sell phone equipment on their > websites, it's not their licensed Bell-branded equipment. > Bell logo trademark registrations can be found by searching for design > code 220324 260101 at the USPTO. My recollection is that the 23 BOCs (Bell Operating Companies) that merged into Seven RBOCs (Regional bell Operating Companies) on Jan 1 1984 retained the right to use the Bell System Logo, and AT&T lost that right, and thus was born the present day - for a while longer - or more if SBC adopts the AT&T name and perhaps logo, at least -- AT&T deathstar. But AT&T retained the right to use the Bell name, not logo, for Bell Labs. And the Telcordia company that was formed and jointly owned by the 7 RBOCs was allowed to retain the symbol and was named Bellcore. Those 7 RBOCs morphed into the present 4, and Quest took over the USWest rights to use the Bell Logo. USWest retained Mountain Bell, Pacific Northwest Bell. I don't recall what the minority-owned Bells were allowed to do with the logo, tough I assume they retainled that right. But since SBC bought out SNET so that's moot, and Cincinnati Bell was/is the only remaining minority Bell. Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? Date: 19 Sep 2005 06:57:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Verizon extensively uses its new colors and logo, but has the Bell logo on the side of pay phone mounting. On its bill advertising inserts, it has "Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania" in fine print at the bottom." Even Bell in its last days abbreaviated that to "Bell of Pennsylvania" In the railroad world, hobbyists use logos on model trains and in books. Most railroad companies make a tiny effort to preserve legacy logo rights even though they don't use them in practice anymore. They don't charge model makers, souvenir makers, or publishers royalty fees for use. However, the successor owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR keystone logo) apparently let it lapse and a private entity snatched it up. This entity then began to demand royalties from all model makers and publishers. Since the Pennsy was a big well known railroad, there are a great many books and models about it all using the logo. Somehow the successor owner was able to get the rights back. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com> Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Use of Bell Logo: Qwest? SBC? Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:00:26 GMT Allen Newman wrote: > Trademarks must remain in use to remain legally protected, so I'm > curious where and how Qwest ("my" Baby Bell) uses the Bell logo, if at > all. In most cases Qwest has eliminated it since merging with US > West. You can still make out the shadow of a Bell logo removed from > the wall of a Qwest building in Ankeny, Iowa, for example. > Last night on the way to a wedding reception I saw a Bell logo that > Qwest hasn't gotten rid of: a wooden pay phone kiosk inside the south > entrance of the Sioux Falls VFW Lounge still has a Bell sign on top, > with the blue Bell logo to the left of the word "phone". Except for > Qwest signs tacked to the sides of the kiosk it looked a couple > decades old. Does Qwest affixing new signs without taking down the > Bell sign count as current use for trademark purposes? It seems > better than the example Qwest filed with the USPTO in 2003, which was > a couple photos of a US West payphone kiosk, which didn't even have > the Qwest identity. > Even without the logo, Qwest does try to connect less obviously to the > Bell identity. Its Dex phone book is still blue and gold, the Qwest > logotype is in the Gill Sans font which has also been the corporate > font of AT&T (although the Bell System used Helvetica), and their > current slogan is "Spirit of Service", a long-time Bell System motto. > Arguably, Qwest's blue swoosh logo echos the circular blue Bell logo > -- or would, at least, clash with it if the Bell logo were also > present. > Has anyone ever seen an example of Qwest intentionally adding the Bell > logo to anything anywhere? I wonder what they'll come up with when > their next trademark filing is due. > The other RBOCs have filed their own claims of Bell logo usage: > In 2002, SBC submitted a photo of a white service truck with blue and > gold stripes and Southwestern Bell Telephone markings. Do their > trucks still look like that? It's about as convincing as Qwest's US > West phone booth. It'll be interesting to learn what SBC does with > branding after their purchase of AT&T. > Also in 2002, Verizon submitted photos of new Verizon service trucks > and pay phones featuring the Bell logo. IMO Verizon has cleverly > dealt with the Bell logo "problem", that is, keeping it alive and > meaningful but not letting it compete with their own created identity. > Finally, both of the Baby Bells that don't use the Bell logo > themselves license Bell names and logos to equipment manufacturers. > Qwest licenses Northwestern Bell to Unical and SBC licenses > Southwestern Bell to Conair. This despite Northwestern Bell and > Southwestern Bell no longer being names Qwest or SBC use themselves, > and the fact that while Qwest and SBC sell phone equipment on their > websites, it's not their licensed Bell-branded equipment. > Bell logo trademark registrations can be found by searching for design > code 220324 260101 at the USPTO. I believe that all their old names such as Northwestern Bell Telephone are still registered with the states in which they served as well as the US Copyright office. I know that GTE is in California is still listed. And that was a non-Bell before the merger. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard <sacredpoet@sacredpoet.com> Subject: Re: BellSouth/AT&T New Orleans "Main" at Baronne & Poydras Streets Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 18:59:40 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Paul Coxwell wrote: > Off on a tangent somewhat, but is there any sort of numbering system > applied to these modern ID numbers or is it more or less random > allocation? It's more or less random, and depends on the particular carrier's prefernce for numebring schemes. For example, MCI/Worldcom has a different numbering schme for its major switches than AT&T or Sprint. > I'm familiar with the old-style IDs such as "914-1" for White Plains > etc., but I've never been able to figure out how the current system is > supposed to work. It doesn't work, really, and is actually becoming less and less relevant as the network topology flattens. The New Orleans 4ESS is probably among the last of its breed, and I remember hearing that AT&T removed a lot fo them from service long ago as they shifted towards a decentralized network. > For example, dialing into the NANP from the U.K. using an unallocated > prefix within a valid area code often results in a "Your call cannot > be completed as dialed" recording with an ID of "two" followed by two > letters, e.g. 2BM. Are these class 2 tandem offices? No, those are MCI offices, and their equivalent of class 4 switches. (MCIWorldcom uses/used the NAA labeling system for their class 4 switches, i.e. "2BM" "2CU" "2CX" etc.) MCI is probably the last major carrier to have a hierarchical structure in place, as it's widely known that during the big telecom bubble that they helped create and then burst, they were too busy cooking their books to actually invest in restructuring and upgrading their network, and instead merely spent only the money they needed to keep it running at a semi-decent level. That practice continues to this day, pending the buyout of MCI by Verizon, at which time it becomes Verizon's headache. > Does the network even still use the same class designations as in > the past? Only in vestigial references. The Number 5 ESS is still around and its reference is still used when operated as a class 5 end office, but then you'll find lots of 5ESS (the model number, but not acting as the class) performing tasks that resemble what a class 4 switch would do. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: You Need a New Computer Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:29:43 -0400 In article <telecom24.426.10@telecom-digest.org>, messere@oswego.edu says... > Pat: > The explorer thing has been going on for some time. > Time to look at a MAC ... better operating system and more fun too. > Fritz Messere > Communication Studies Department > Chair and Professor of Broadcasting and Telecommunications > State University of New York at Oswego > (office) 315.312.2357 (fax) 315.312.5658 > http://www.oswego.edu/~messere > > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If anyone has an older Apple MACintosh, > I'd not mind giving that a try and see where I could get with it. The > other thing I have considered -- but have not yet been brave enough to > try is to go with Linux on the laptop. You see, on my larger desktop > computer I have Red Hat Linux (version 7 something) on a partition; > when I boot the larger machine, it defaults to Linux _unless_ I tell > it to go to Win 2000 instead. I'd not mind going entirely with Linux > if I were assured I could get some of my software working correctly. I > do NOT need chat windows and all that; but I do need to have X-Windows > working correctly. Ditto with any MAC, which would also be a new > experience for me. I'd like to be able to get a couple cameras working > with no hassles, something similar to to XWindows, and the network > configurations correct, etc. And I have seen a couple commercials on > television for Dell, with desktop prices of around $499, but I know > those would most likely be Win XP, which is okay, I suppose. But with > Dell, the new laptops seem to cost more. Good ideas, in any case. If > anyone wants to contribute to a 'computer fund' please remember the > PayPal account: editor@telecom-digest.org , or if you have some > older machine you no longer want donations will also be gratefully > accepted. PAT] Not to make this a Mac vs. PC thing but here's a little story. Had to price out new machines including laptops. High end Latitude with 1.5GB of RAM and 100GB HD - $1,599. Apple 12" Powerbook G4 with a gig of RAM, 60GB HD - $1,899 That's with goverment's discounts btw. Instead -- get a PC and download Firefox 1.06 (Deer Park). Then go and find the following extensions: adblock bugmenot popupsdie You'd be surprise how much more a pleasure it is to surf the web less pop-up's. AdBlock dialog comes up and asks you if you want to block the ad you just right clicked on. It also supports wildcards for the more egregious of ad servers. Put it this way, I don't see ad's on Projo.com anymore because between AdBlock and me pointing Belo's adserver to 0.0.0.0 it eliminates every last one of the suckers. ButMeNot is also a pretty handy tool. When you run across a news site that requires registration just right click the username field and select BugMeNot. It reaches out to a BugMeNot server, looks for a username/password combo for that web address and pastes it in. Some sites lock out pasting into their username/password fields. Example of that is Belo owned papers like Projo.com Popupsdie turns on the options for very restrictive pop-ups thought some sites such as the New York Times have figured out how to get around this. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: Record Labels Sue Baidu for Copyright Infringement Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:30:55 -0400 In article <telecom24.426.3@telecom-digest.org>, reuters@telecom- digest.org says: > The four largest record companies have sued Baidu.com Inc. for > copyright infringement, alleging the Chinese Internet search engine > has been illegally providing links to free digital music downloads, > according to a trade group the represents the music industry. I wonder what part of the fact that U.S. law doesn't apply in China thee folks aren't getting. The overreaching by the RIAA is astounding. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Roaming Charges Date: 19 Sep 2005 07:14:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Ken Abrams wrote: > Won't happen. The call would be dropped. AFAIK, a change from "home" > to "roam" means you are changing carriers. Calls in progress are NOT > passed or handed-off from one company to another. (It appears that > they usually can't even pass from one tower to another within a > company.) In earlier days of cell phones, I don't think it was so much going to another carrier, but rather going out of your personal defined service territory with your calling plan. In other words, it wasn't a technical or physical boundary, but an adminstrative or billing one. For instance, I have Verizon (nee Bell Atlantic-Nynex). Even under Bell Atlantic there was a huge service territory of several states, but phones were limited to a specific metropolitan area. Size of that area varied by your calling plan (as did the cost of roaming). So, in most cases it wasn't a matter of leaving your carrier, but rather leaving your home area. They had some $15/month plans that were limited to about a single county. Since roaming for me was so expensive, I was careful not to roam, so I don't know how the plan handled split calls. If I attempted a call on roaming, a yellow light would blink on my phone. I found that near the border of my roaming area I have to be careful. For example, at a particular rest stop on the turnpike, sometimes I'll roam (and pay) and sometimes not. This is because even from a fixed physical spot, multiple antennas in different places could handle your call. Even on calls from my front stoop the bill shows three different antennas at different times. Obviously a disadvantage of my cheap plan ($19.95/mon) is limited roaming and expensive fees ($1/min) if I do. Today's $40/mon plans have much bigger roaming areas, but you're paying for that in the monthly fee. For an occassional user like myself, my plan works best for me and I'll pay the $1/min in the very rare times I have to. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 17:10:53 -0400 From: William Warren <william_warren_nonoise@comcast.net> Subject: Re: When it Rains, it Pours .... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On the older Think Pads (models 770 > or 770x at least) F1 at time of booting brings up a BIOS menu and a > choice of options i.e. boot from CD, from hard drive, from floppy > (and other choices I do not understand, such as from 'network', from > 'PCMCIA card' and other places. Exactly how one boots from 'network' > or from 'PCMCIA card' when those devices do not come to life until > Windows turns them on confuses me. [snip] PAT] Pat, It's asking if you want to start a bootp request from your Ethernet card, which would broadcast for a "boot" server to provide the operating system for you over the network. In other words, it's giving you the option that's used for "Diskless Workstations", which don't have a hard disk, to download your OS from another network node and start it in memory. It's the same process your BIOS performs during boot, except that the image that's loaded into your machine's ram comes from another computer on your LAN, not from your hard drive. Bootp is one of the core protocols from the early days of the internet, when disk drives were too expensive to be installed in every workstation, and they had to be able to leverage the common disk drive storage available on a central server just to get their operating system started. Believe it or not, it's gaining in popularity again, but this time for public-access or school computers that are prone to misuse. With BOOTP machines, curing a virus or adware or whatever is as simple as turning the machine off and back on, and the clients I've set up this way always swear they'll never go back. HTH. William (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I still do not understand _how_ the network card, or PCMCIA or whatever is able to do that job without first itself getting installed by (for example) Windows or whatever OS is in the terminal/workstation. I mean, that would be great if I could just turn on the laptop and have its OS installed by the desktop Win 2000. But how? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com> Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Motorola Bag phone Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:05:59 GMT I have one of these. Don't use it at all; it is not digital. Pretty good condition, no battery with it, just pugs in to lighter in a car. It was on BellSouth Mobility, but with you try to use it it says it is not registered with Verizon. If someone wants to pay me to pack it up and ship it to them, let me know, I can send pictures if you like. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I certainly have the required power supply even though I do not have a car/cigarette lighter. I wonder how it would work on Cingular Wireless here in Kansas? PAT] ------------------------------ 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'. 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