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TELECOM Digest     Thu, 29 Sep 2005 13:52:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 444

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Conditions Primitive in Texas After Rita (Pam Easton)
    Life Beyond Earth (Peter N. Spotts)
    We Swim in an Ocean of Media (Gregory Lamb)
    Cellular-News for Thursday 29th September 2005 (Cellular-News)
    Vonage Chooses Banks for IPO (United States Telecom Daily Lead)
    Change MAC Address can Change IP Address of a Machine? (jrefactors@hotmail)
    Electric Powerlines to be Used for Broadband (Lisa Hancock)
    WEP Cracking Tools (apngss@yahoo.com)
    Skype Signals Online Video Plan (Monty Solomon)
    Re: Why is VOIP Getting Hot Now? (harold@hallikainen.com)
    Re: Can't Trust Spyware Protection? (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Stealing Your ID Can be as Easy as ABC (Lisa Hancock)

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: Pam Easton <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Conditions Primitive in Texas After Rita
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:21:47 -0500


By PAM EASTON, Associated Press Writer

Five days after Hurricane Rita came ashore, conditions remained
primitive in parts of Texas, where some residents were taking baths
and brushing their teeth using water from the Neches River and others
were sleeping in tents.

The plywood sign outside the home in East Texas where eight Beaumont
families had sought refuge from Hurricane Rita carried a simple
message: "Help Needed. Ice and Water. 43 People."

The evacuees had no electricity, no phones and little water or food
after the storm. As temperatures neared triple-digits, adults used
paper towels dampened with bottled water to keep children from
overheating. A campfire was built to keep mosquitoes away.

"The only thing we could think of to survive was to put out that
sign," said Tiffany Moten, 24, who was staying at the home near
Livingston. "Luckily, we were blessed, and we have a lot of friendly
people who came up and brought us water and ice and things like
that. We are trying to make it."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered ice, water and
packaged meals Wednesday to residents who rode out the storm, but some
officials in hard-hit areas criticized the agency's response, with one
calling for a commission to examine the emergency response.

In Houston, FEMA closed a disaster relief center just hours after its
doors opened when some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line
began fainting in the heat. FEMA officials said they were caught
off-guard by the roughly 1,500 people who showed up, but said it would
reopen the center Thursday morning.

Local officials, including Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz and Jefferson
County Judge Carl Griffith, said FEMA's response has been inadequate.

Griffith said he has asked Gov. Rick Perry to set up a commission to
study the emergency response to Rita. Congress is holding hearings
this week on the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA spokesman Ross Fredenburg said communications between Austin and
rural East Texas have been troubled, in part because of power problems.
But he said FEMA had set up distribution points in 27 southeastern
Texas cities.

"I don't know what could have been done better since the materials
were in place before the hurricane," Fredenburg said. "We're doing
everything we can to get water and ice to whomever remains."

Meanwhile, local officials and volunteers were trying to help
residents and evacuees any way they could. In Woodville, Dam-B
Volunteer Fire Department Chief Thomas Eller tried to coax elderly
residents to leave their homes Wednesday.

"A lot of them don't want to leave, but I don't want to give them a
choice," Eller said. "I would rather move them out of here kicking and
screaming then have to put them in a (body) bag."

Eller had persuaded Joseph Robinson, 90, and his 75-year-old wife,
Wanda, to ride out the storm at the firehouse but they wanted to go
home after the storm passed.

"There ain't no place like home," said Joseph Robinson, who has
emphysema.  "We got winter coming on. We'll have cool weather. We'll
be all right."

Farther east in Jasper, Jeff Sargent, vice president of an Arizona-
based ambulance company that helped evacuate a Texas nursing home,
helped run a makeshift triage center out of a church.

He said it was difficult for many residents, trapped behind miles of
downed trees, to get medical care, food or water. So far the triage
center has seen about 300 patients and treated everything from heart
problems to heat-related illnesses, he said.

Some rural residents said they felt forgotten after the storm.

"They are still stuck on Katrina, and Rita's done some hellacious
damage up in these woods," said Sharon Lakey, a 49-year-old Farrsville
resident who sat in a long line of vehicles waiting to get gas in
Jasper.

Associated Press writers Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Liz Austin in
Austin and Abe Levy in Port Arthur contributed to this report.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

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

From: Peter N. Spotts <spotts@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Life Beyond Earth
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:29:47 -0500


http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p02s01-stss.html

By Peter N. Spotts, Staff Writer, Christian Science Monitor

Life beyond Earth? Potential habitats in the solar system keep popping
up.  'Munchkin' moon of Saturn is the latest spot that has researchers
buzzing.  

It's an ice-encrusted munchkin of a moon, only 314 miles in diameter.
Its face is so smooth and nearly crater-free that it probably got a
facelift. It's a satellite of Saturn, called Enceladus, and the latest
hot spot in the quest to answer one of astronomy's most intriguing
questions: Is there life in the solar system beyond Earth?

Where once scientists set their sights on Mars as the most likely
place to hunt for such evidence, their list of potential habitats now
includes at least five others: three moons of Jupiter and now Saturn's
Titan and Enceladus.

This expanding list is due, in part, to more data coming from
spacecraft scouting Earth's extended neighborhood. It also stems from
a better understanding of how life can exist in extreme environments.

To be sure, any inhabitants scientists find would most likely be
microbes, not little green men. And the case for such biological
havens is far from ironclad.

"There's always a big caveat," says David Grinspoon, a planetary
geologist at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo. "We're
profoundly ignorant about what makes a good habitat, since we only know of
one place for life" -- Earth.

Still, researchers have learned a great deal about the weird
environments harboring life on Earth. Thus, "when we explore in depth
with an orbiter and really hang out and get to know the place, we find
pockets in the system that might be promising for life," Dr. Grinspoon
adds. "The Saturn system is turning out to be surprisingly fecund."

The list of potential habitats began to expand with the Galileo
mission to Jupiter in the 1990s. That mission added three Jovian moons
to the list: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Now, the US-European
Cassini mission to Saturn has added the moons Titan and Enceladus.

For astrobiologists, the Cassini mission's biggest surprise yet is
Enceladus. Researchers had already inferred from Voyager 2's flyby in
1981 that its smooth surface meant it had gotten a facelift, perhaps
100 million years ago. Fresh material from beneath its icy crust
welled up and spread across the moon. But that in turn implied heat to
generate slush or liquid water -- and no one could figure out its
source.

Fast forward to 2005, when Cassini stunned researchers with infrared
images of a hot spot on the surface at the moon's south pole. Hot, in
this case, is still frigid: minus 183 degrees Celsius (minus 297
degrees F.). But that's 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding
area. The polar area also is scarred with cracks that release water
vapor and tiny ice crystals.  Researchers estimate that some of the
formations are only 10 to 1,000 years old. Changes on the surface of
the Jovian moons, by contrast, look far older, perhaps 100 million
years or more.

And Cassini scientists have uncovered simple organic molecules in the
cracks of Enceladus. To this day, the heat source remains an enigma,
says John Spencer, an SwRI scientist whom colleagues credit with
discovering the hot spot. What's generating the heat? "That's what
we're all scratching our heads over," he replies.

No matter. Enceladus apparently has the fundamental chemical recipe
for life, says University of Arizona planetary scientist Robert Brown,
who heads the team using Cassini's mapping spectrometer. The moon has
simple organic molecules, such as methane, ethane, and ethylene.
Scientists see tantalizing hints of nitrogen. It hosts liquid water
below the surface.

"Add a pinch of phosphorous," Dr. Brown says, and you have all you
need to make DNA - or perhaps some other DNA-like molecule capable of
carrying information. At Enceladus, this stew would have had plenty of
time to simmer for 4.5 billion years and "form some of the most basic
building blocks of life," he adds.

It's not clear that's happened at Enceladus, he says. "But if we're
going to run all over the solar system looking at places where those
constituents have been for the past 4.5 billion years and where the
cocktail might have cooked into something interesting, then Enceladus
has to be part of that mix."

As does Titan, adds Grinspoon. Until the Cassini mission and the
successful touchdown of the European-built Huygens probe, many
researchers held that the hydrocarbon-rich moon was a chilled
look-alike for Earth before life emerged. The quest was for clues to
the origins of life, not a search for life itself.

That view is changing, at least for Grinspoon. "What do you need for
life? You need an energy source, liquid reservoirs, and you need some
basis for complex chemistry," he says. "Does Titan have what it takes?
The answer is: yes."


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.

To read CS Monitor and New York Times on line each day, please go to
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: Gregory M. Lamb <lamb@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: We Swim in an Ocean of Media
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:36:06 -0500


http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0928/p13s01-lihc.html

By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

      The media "ecosystem" surrounding Americans -- not just TV,
radio, and newspapers but also the Web, PDAs, MP3 players, cellphones,
video games, and more -- keeps getting more widespread, personal, and
diverse.

      The world is seeing "a Cambrian explosion" of media usage, says
Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future, a think tank
in Palo Alto, Calif.

      A new study bears that out, providing data to back up the
feeling many have that they're immersed in some form of media nearly
every waking moment.  That's close to true, says a report from the
Center for Media Design at Ball State University in Muncie,
Ind. Researchers watched the behavior of 394 ordinary Midwesterners
for more than 5,000 hours, following them 12 hours a day and recording
their use of media every 15 seconds on a hand-held device.

      About 30 percent of their waking hours were found to be spent
using media exclusively, while another 39 percent involved using media
while also doing another activity, such as watching TV while preparing
food or listening to the radio while at work. Altogether, more than
two-thirds of people's waking moments involved some kind of media
usage.

Using more than one medium at once

      "The extent that we saw that was quite remarkable," says Michael
Bloxham, a Ball State researcher who helped prepare the report, which
was released Monday at a media convention in New York.

      What's more, of the time spent using media, nearly one-third was
spent consuming two or more forms at once, such as watching TV and
surfing the Internet, or listening to music while playing a video
game.

      One theory the study lays to rest, Mr. Bloxham says, is that
this media multitasking, which the researchers call Concurrent Media
Exposure, "is the province of only the young or the tech savvy." All
age groups multitask, he says, though the pairings may differ. Those
over 50, for example, were more likely to combine TV viewing with
newspaper reading.  Younger people might listen to music while sending
instant messages.

      Watching television remains by far the most popular
media-related activity. More than 90 percent of those studied viewed
TV, for an average of about four hours per day. About three-quarters
used a computer, for a little more than two hours per day.

      While much has been written about how computer use may be eating
into TV watching, the report suggests that the reverse may be true as
well. "As, over time, the computer becomes a vehicle for more rich
media content (often related to TV programming), the line between the
two media is likely to blur further, calling into question the
TV-centric mindset," it says.

      Surprisingly, 18-to-24-year- olds were found to spend less time
online than older age groups, perhaps because many older people go
online as part of their workday, as well as during free time.

      "The overall amount of time spent in a day with media is enormous,"
says Jane Clarke, a vice president for Time Warner Global Marketing, who
attended a presentation on the study. The study, she says, represents "the
best approach I've seen for measuring all combinations of concurrent media
usage."

      Observing how people use media isn't new, Ms. Clarke says, "but
quantifying observed media behavior - in 15-second intervals - for a large
sample is a breakthrough."

      The lesson for advertisers: You'll need a "holistic" view of
media.  "If you're advertising in one medium, you can complement the
message by combining it with another medium," Clarke says. "The
findings suggest creative ways to combine and package media for
advertisers to get their messages to consumers."

      Advertisers might want to look more closely at less-conventional
forms, such as computer software and mobile phones, as new advertising
media, Bloxham says. Overall, the study concludes, "From an
advertising perspective, there is good news and bad -- both an array of
new media outlets along with the challenge of more outlets competing
for attention."

      Defining media broadly, including mobile phones, was definitely
the right approach for the study, Mr. Saffo says. "A cellphone is no
longer just a communication device, it's a media device," he says, one
on which people enjoy music, share photographs, and even view video
clips, suggesting that the new industry might be called "Cellu-wood."

Still in the midst of a revolution

      "I think what we're in now is still every bit a media revolution
 ...  but it's a personal media revolution," Saffo adds. Media are
becoming more intimate and two-way, he says. "We can answer back if we
want."

      Despite all the competition, today's leading medium, television,
won't go away, Saffo predicts (though he admits to being a fan of
watching AP news video clips online, which he finds most easily at a
Japanese website).  Movies didn't disappear when television
arrived. And radio adapted when TV came along. "Radio, which had been
the centerpiece of American living rooms, reinvented itself as audio
wallpaper," he says.

      The report, "Observing Consumers and Their Interactions With
Media," is the second on media usage produced by the four-year-old
Center for Media Design at Ball State. It follows in the tradition of
the "Middletown Studies" of the early 20th century, in which
sociologists observed the inhabitants of Muncie, Ind., which they
considered to be a typical American community.

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.

To read CS Monitor headlines and stories each day along with headlines
and stories from New York Times, please go to:
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

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

Subject: Cellular-News for Thursday 29th September 2005
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 07:28:02 -0500
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com>


Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com

  GSM Arrives on the Falkland Islands
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14231.php

Cable & Wireless is spending US$1.5 million to bring a GSM network to
the Falklands Islands (also known as Islas Malvinas), in the South
Atlantic. The company has contracted with Alvarion to deliver a
compact GSM system,...

  Component Order for Chinese Handset Vendor
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14232.php

Comtech Group has expanded its relationship with China's ZTE for the
supply of LCD module interfaces for ZTE's handsets. The ZTE order from
China Unicom will be for approximately one million CDMA
units. Comtech's dollar ...

  German Operators Start Blocking Adult Content
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14233.php

Germany's mobile phone networks have published a Code of Conduct
designed to prevent access to adult content by children. The code of
conduct describes uniform standards for mobile operators to ensure
that such content g...

  Local Search on Mobiles Not That Popular - report
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14234.php

JupiterResearch says that consumer demand for paid wireless
information services remains low. With just 20% of consumers willing
to pay for directory enquiries information and only 7% willing to pay
for local search on t...

  Orange Offers Best Music Download Portal - report
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14235.php

Strategy Analytics has released a new report which concludes that
Orange has the Best in Class Full Music Track Download service in the
UK, with a 15-plus point performance gap over O2 and Vodafone. These
results are bas...

  One in Five Wireless Phone Users Subscribe to Data Packages
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14236.php

Telephia reports that wireless data package adoption among the top
five of the USA's service providers showed a 22% penetration rate for
the first half of 2005. According to Customer Value Metrics,
Telephia's new wireles...

  GSMA Hosts Interoperability Testing
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14237.php

The GSM Association (GSMA) and its partners have successfully
completed a series of interoperability trials in both Europe and Asia
 -- a major step towards ensuring that the next generation of multimedia
services, based o...

  China Tops Cellular Subscriber Top 15 Ranking
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14238.php

The worldwide number of cellular subscribers will surpass 2 billion in
2005, up from 11 million in 1990 and 750 million in 2000. China is the
clear leader in cellular subscribers and will reach nearly 400 million
at year-...

  Asia Pacific Will Represent 45% of WiMAX Market by 2009
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14239.php

Though WiMAX faces several key challenges in the Asia Pacific market,
its subscriber base will grow from more than 80,000 in 2005 to more
than 3.8 million by 2009, reports In-Stat. In 2009, Asia Pacific WiMAX
subscribers ...

  Toshiba Launches 3G Handset
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14240.php

Toshiba has launched the Toshiba 803, Vodafone exclusive mobile phone,
its first combined 3G phone and music player. The Toshiba 803 features
an external music player, allowing users easy access to music on the
move. The...

  Vodafone Closing UK Call Center
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14241.php

Vodafone is closing one of its UK call centers with the possible loss
of up to 650 jobs. The call center, based in Birmingham will close
next February when its fuctions will be absorbed by cell centers in
Warrington and ...

  Tunisie Telecom Shortlist Delayed A Few Days -Source
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14227.php

The Tunisian government is likely to delay the selection of candidates
for a 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom in order to get more detailed
offers from some bidders, a person familiar with the sale process told
Dow Jones New...

  Telefonica Moviles Mexico To Issue MXN5.5 Billion In Local Notes
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14228.php

The Mexican unit of Spanish mobile phone operator Telefonica Moviles
SA (TEM) plans to sell up to 5.5 billion pesos ($1=MXN10.8955)
Wednesday in medium-term notes on the Mexican market. ...

  Mexico's Telmex: Open To Other Investments In Colombia
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14229.php

Mexican phone giant Telefonos de Mexico SA (TMX) said Wednesday it is
open to new investment opportunities in Colombia, but unsure whether
it will bid again for Colombia Telecommunicaciones (CTMC.YY) after the
state comp...

  RealNetworks Unveils New Wireless Media Push
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14230.php

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) - Stepping up its long-running competition
with Microsoft, RealNetworks unveiled a new partnership Wednesday
designed to boost its presence in the growing market for mobile
phone-based...

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

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:41:31 EDT
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Vonage Chooses Banks For IPO


USTelecom dailyLead
September 29, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/uQkIatagCqlDyVApjk

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* Vonage chooses banks for IPO
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* RIM Q2 profits up 57%
* Verizon inks carriage deals with four cable networks
* Report: Cable to maintain broadband lead
* Samsung execs see mobile WiMAX U.S. launch in 2006
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Reserve your TELECOM '05 room now!
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* RealNetworks CEO sees huge opportunity in mobile content
* Skype launches Windows update
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Advocacy groups to challenge CALEA expansion

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/uQkIatagCqlDyVApjk

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

From: jrefactors@hotmail.com
Subject: Change MAC Address Can Change IP Address of a Machine?
Date: 29 Sep 2005 08:10:37 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Is there any way to change the MAC address of a machine? IP address is
assigned by ISP. My understanding is that IP address is based on the
MAC address of a machine, is that correct concept?

Please advise. Thanks!!

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband
Date: 29 Sep 2005 08:44:17 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Recently this newsgroup debated the barriers for entry for new
communications carriers.

Well, now they are working to use power lines to bring in broadband
service, so consumers will eventually have a third independent choice
of communications providers.

The ability of power lines to carry comm signals has been known since
the 1930s.  Apparently some practical ways to utilize that have been
developed and there have been several pieces in the press about it.

One such article is at:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BROADBAND_SOCKET?SITE=KYWAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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

From: apngss@yahoo.com
Subject: WEP Cracking Tools
Date: 28 Sep 2005 23:25:40 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Many people say WEP is not secure in wireless networking, and easy to
crack the WEP key.

Are there any tools out there to do the WEP cracking?

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

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:30:58 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Skype Signals Online Video Plan


By Rhys Blakely

Skype, the internet telecoms company owned by eBay, today moved closer
to becoming a major platform for digital content and hinted it could
soon offer online video services.

Underscoring how rapidly the media landscape is shifting, the news
came the day after BT revealed that it will move into television next
summer. The telecoms group will launch a set-top box that will enable
users to download programmes over broadband internet lines.

Skype's foray into content distribution starts today with the launch
of Personalise Skype, a feature that means that callers can receive
and send pictures, sounds and ringtones over the Skype network.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-1803303,00.html

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

From: harold@hallikainen.com <harold@hallikainen.com>
Subject: Re: Why is VOIP Getting Hot Now?
Date: 29 Sep 2005 07:53:55 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


> In my case it was $88 a month to Verizon vs. $27 a month to
> Vonage. Big difference. It's the only thing that hasn't inflated in
> the last year or two.

Of course, Vonage does not have to pay for the local loop, so there's
some savings there. How much are you paying for "last mile"
connectivity (cable modem or DSL or whatever)? I'm currently paying
Verizon about $25 per month for local dialtone. I'm paying about $3
per month in long distance to another company (about 5 cents per
minute, probably much of that is compensation to the terminating
carrier). I'm paying $70 per month to cyberonic.com for DSL (6Mbps per
second AND they let me run my own servers). I pay $0 per month to
http://www.sipphone.com . I also pay about 1 or 2 cents a minute to
them for calls into the PSTN. SIP calls (within siphone, to FWD,
Google, etc.) are free. I use http://www.ipkall.com to get a POTS
number on SIP for free (though the number is in Washington).

There certainly are LOTS of options. 

Harold

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Can't Trust Spyware Protection?
Date: 29 Sep 2005 08:02:41 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Andrew Brandt wrote:

> Claria and WhenU are making the case that their adware programs don't
> resort to illegal tactics, such as exploiting security holes, to
> install themselves. And though this software can be annoying, adware
> developers argue that merely being listed in an anti-spyware scanner's
> database tarnishes a company's reputation by linking its relatively
> benign adware application with far more harmful and intrusive spyware
> programs.

Those companies claiming their spyware is "benign" ought to be shut
down and its management thrown in prison.

No one should have any right whatsoever to go onto our computers
without our expressed (not implied or default) consent.  "Annoying" is
NOT "benign"; annoying is harassment.

The analogy would be demanding the right to sneak into your living
room and claiming it's ok because they'll just sit there and not steal
or touch anything.  They'll still in your living room.

Can anyone defend these companies?

Why can't the operating systems be set up to block them out?

> According to Avi Naider of WhenU, though some other adware companies
> will track your Web meanderings and sell that data, WhenU's privacy
> policy doesn't permit it to track the search queries that users type
> or the Web pages that they browse.

So this guy is peaking in my window, and promising he won't share the
pictures of me naked?  I'm supposed to feel better about that?

> It's unfair to permanently blacklist a company based on its past
> behavior ...

Why is that so unfair?  If an individual committed a crime, that crime
remains on their record for life and will blacklist them from a great
many jobs places to live for life.  Why should a company not suffer
the same consequences for sleazyness?  (And companies don't go to
jail.)

> Delisting is rare because, Edelman says, anti-spyware firms "stand up
> to strongly worded demand letters."

We need computer privacy laws so that such 'demand letters' would be
laughed at.


[public replies, please]

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Stealing Your ID Can be as Easy as ABC
Date: 29 Sep 2005 08:21:26 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Tony P. wrote:

> What this means is all the data held by the credit bureaus is
> bunk. They can't even tell if identity theft has happened or not until
> it's far too late.

Although they wield a tremendous amount of power of us, they have
virtually no regulation.  They can do as they please.  Since it isn't
their problem if you get whacked, they don't care.  Until very
recently, you had to PAY THEM to see your OWN information!

> Of course as I've said before, banks are notoriously insecure. But
> they spend an awful lot of money making sure you or I never see news
> that they have serious flaws in our banking and financial systems.

About 10-20 years ago, before the big bank mega-mergers, many modest
sized banks (ie 10 branch offices) balanced their books to the penny
every day.  Every bad transaction was chased down and researched.  But
when these small banks were bought out into the huge ones, they
stopped getting down to that level of accuracy.  Once you do that, the
opportunity for fraud, either against the bank or a customer becomes
much greater, esp if the thief is smart enough to keep it below the
radar threshold (and many thieves do just that).

> Best option is to just use real cash for everything. Of course it
> makes it inconvenient to buy online, etc. Oh, and never, ever, write a
> check.

I was recently on a day trip and spent about $200 in buy stuff.  Most
I put on my credit card.  I didn't really want to (per the above), but
I didn't have that much free cash on me.  One transaction was only $4
for subway but the cash machine wasn't working so I had to use a card
to get in.

If one goes into a bank to check on intermediate transactions they
will CHARGE you a service fee; even though you're saving them from
fraud charges.

Banking deregulation, which was passed in 1979 under the Carter Adm,
was the dumbest thing.  More recent law relaxations, such as the end
of Glass-Stegal will hurt things even more.

The Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980s pretty much passed over most
of us because, unlike New Orleans, there were no tearful mayors crying
"help us! help us!" on camera.  The liberals ignored it since they're
clueless about money and business issues and their pet groups weren't
involved.  The conservatives ignored since they didn't want prying
eyes into their world.

In the 1930s, the business community utterly despised Franklin
Roosevelt for his numerous reform laws.  Yet it was FDR who SAVED the
business community from ruin since it couldn't regulate itself and the
control was ripe for a revolution that would've destroyed everything.

I just wish today's liberals and unions* would stop fighting the
battles of the 1930s and recognize the issues of the modern day.
Memoirs by Eleanor Roosevelt and aides of LaGuardia clearly show the
mistakes liberals made in the 1930s and 1940s, but today's activists
completely ignore that experience.

*A union activist came to our worksite to organize and talked to us --
office workers -- as if we were coal miners of the 1800s.  She didn't
realize the days of the Molly Maguires were gone and we already had
things like a steady salary, many fringe benefits, air conditioning,
breaks, flex time, etc., and didn't have mining tunnels collapsing on
us.

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


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