TELECOM Digest     Sun, 23 Oct 2005 18:48:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 482

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Publishers to Build Own Online Book Network (Georgina Prodhan)
    Useful and Free Tools Abound on the Net (Andrew Kantor)
    New Web Software a Challenge to Microsoft (Anick Desjanun)
    Re: San Francisco and Oakland Exchange Numbering (Mark Roberts)
    Re: What is Area Code 113? (Mark Roberts)
    Multi-SIM Cards in One Phone Solution (phd)

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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

From: Georgina Prodhan <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Publishers to Build Own Online Book Network
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 17:28:52 -0500


By Georgina Prodhan

German publishers, keen to defend their copyrights as Internet search
engines seek to put the world's literature online, aim to set up their
own web-based database allowing readers to browse, borrow or buy
books.

Search engine Google has angered publishers with proposals to scan
copyrighted works without permission to make them searchable online.
Critics fear the digital repository of books it would build up would
give it a monopoly on culture.

The German association of book publishers is planning to build a
network by next year that will allow the full texts of their books to
be searched online by search engines but will not hand the texts over
to these companies.

Google currently has agreements with publishers whereby it scans their
books to allow readers to search the full texts online. The search
results display only limited extracts.

In the longer term, the German association wants to build its own
search engine to offer services which could rival those offered by
Google, Yahoo or Lycos, and even offer readers the chance to borrow
books online.

"We don't want Google to hold the texts in its servers; we want the
publishers to keep them," Matthias Ulmer, who is leading the project,
told Reuters in an interview at this week's Frankfurt Book Fair.

Ulmer believes the German project will create the first nationwide
network of its kind.

In the German model, publishers would scan their books into their own
servers. The publishers' association would build a network that would
allow Google or other companies to search those servers without being
able to see their full content.

Ulmer said the association was talking to various search engines and
he was confident of reaching a deal with Google.

LESSONS

Ulmer said publishers should learn lessons from the music industry,
where revenues have plunged in recent years, partly due to people
downloading music from the Internet for free. "We mustn't make the
same mistake and live in the past," he said.

But, he said, it was hard to convince publishers of the importance of
the plan because many were not interested in online projects. "They
like the feel, the smell, of books and paper," he said.

However, he said he already had around 100 publishers on board for his
project, the initial stage of which should be up and running by April,
including around half of the top 100 publishing houses which make up
the vast majority of book sales.

He estimated it would cost each publisher around 3,000 euros per year
for the server, plus 10 euros for each title in its backlist.

Ulmer admitted there would always be a danger of hackers accessing
whole books online, but said the problem of copyright was centuries
old, and called for a legal framework to redress any fallout from
copyright breaches.

"We need a constitution, we need rules, but we don't need a wall," he
said. "Even Goethe got angry that people copied his books," he added.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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

From: Andrew Kantor <usatoday@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Useful and Free Tools Abound on the Net 
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:10:38 -0500


Andrew Kantor, USA TODAY

My office just completed a pretty big upgrade, trading in old Macs for
spanking-new Windows PCs. And there was much rejoicing.

I've been running a PC at work for sometime, though, often getting
requests to open such-and-such a file, or to go to a website that
couldn't be viewed on the other reporters' computers. I've also
accumulated several useful pieces of software that I've mentioned to
colleagues, usually when explaining how I did something they couldn't
do on their home PCs.

Now that everyone is running Windows, people have come to me and asked
about those things I mentioned; they can run the programs now.

The Firefox Web browser tops the list (along with extensions for it
such as Tabbrowser Extensions, Sage, IE View, and Forecastfox), but
there were a few other programs I pointed them to as well.

Which got me thinking about the gobs of open-source and freeware
programs I have, and how useful some of those things are. I thought
I'd share my favorites.

But I didn't want to do Yet Another List of Free Software. There are
plenty. I wanted to avoid the obvious products such as Firefox and
Google Earth.

I also wanted to avoid programs that mimic the functions of software
that comes with your computer. So, although OpenOffice is a great
product, most people have Microsoft Office already installed.

And I didn't want to list products that do things that are, well,
mundane. So, although both ALWIL software's Avast 4 Home Edition (if
you can download it) and Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus are great and free
anti-virus tools, they didn't make the main list. Ditto for Spybot
Search and Destroy, my free anti-spyware program of choice.

I want, instead, for you to say, hopefully more than once, "Neat. I
didn't know I could do that."

There might be commercial software that does the same thing as some of
these freebies, and it might even do it better. But all of these cost
nothing and do a good job.

Microsoft Tweak UI for Windows XP

I'm one of those people who likes things just so. I like to tweak the
little stuff -- to personalize them. My Microsoft Office toolbar, for
example, is completely customized. Who needs buttons for cut and
paste?

So I love Tweak UI; It allows you to change all sorts of little things
on your system: The speed of your menus, the name of your "My
Documents" folder, whether shortcuts have those little arrows on them
(and whether they're preceded by the words "Shortcut to"), and many,
many other things. (There's also a version for Windows 95 through
2000.)

Note: Depending on the version, Tweak UI may appear as an application
under Start/Programs, or it may be in your Control Panel.

Sector7G's PDFCreator

Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) has become the standard for
sharing rich documents - documents that maintain the exact look and
feel you designed for them. They're how many articles and brochures
are circulated, in part because they can't be edited the way a Word
Document or Web page can.

You might think that creating PDFs is tough, or that you need to buy
one of the full versions of Adobe Acrobat. Nope. PDFCreator installs
itself as a print driver -- it can turn into a PDF anything that you
can print out. That simple.

Granted, it doesn't offer some of the advanced functionality that
Adobe provides, but if you simply want to take a document and make it
into a PDF, this is terrific stuff.

ToniArts' EasyCleaner

If you install and uninstall software, you probably know that even
things you removed often leave traces in the Windows registry.

The problem is that your registry can get clogged with outdated or
broken entries. That makes your system slow down. EasyCleaner finds
those unneeded entries and gets rid of them.

But wait, there's more. Like TweakUI, EasyCleaner lets you change
other settings: What programs start when Windows starts, what's in
your "Add/Remove Programs" list, and other such customizations.

Heidi Computers' Eraser

You probably know this: When you delete a file from your computer,
even when it's removed from the Recycle Bin, it's not actually
deleted. Your computer simply marks that space on your hard drive as
"available."  Eventually it will be overwritten, but someone with the
right tool could easily recover it.

Enter Eraser. It wipes the file completely so it's gone -- to
Department of Defense standards, no less. It can wipe individual files
(right-click them and choose "Erase") or all the unused space on your
hard drive.

Microsoft PhotoStory 3

This is an incredible way to make your still photos into a video that
will dazzle your friends and family. You point the program to all the
images you want in your "story" (JPEG, TIFF, or GIF) and it makes them
into a video -- a slideshow.

But it' s not just picture, blink, picture, blink, like a traditional
slide show. Instead, it uses the "Ken Burns Effect," gently zooming or
panning over each image.

You can also add background music -- any MP3 or WAV files you have --
and even a voiceover. My favorite is "Linus and Lucy" from "A Charlie
Brown Christmas."

Even better, you can choose to "Create Music" using a variety of
settings such as genre (Classical, Rock, Soundtrack, etc.), style
(e.g., "Soundtrack: Adventure" or "Pop: Motor City"), the instruments,
the mood ("Bittersweet," "Cheerful," "Upbeat," etc.), and more.

You can save the result as lower quality for e-mail, or DVD quality
for burning to a disk. (You need DVD-creation software for that, or
you can buy a $20 plug-in for it.)

Just using the defaults gets you an amazing video; play around a bit
and you might leave your family in tears.

Audacity

Audacity is a full-featured, well-designed audio editor -- a handy
tool for recording WAV files, editing MP3s, and messing with music.

Things I've used it for: Saving recordings made on a tape recorder to
WAV or MP3 format so I can play them on my PC. Trimming some sound
files (audiobooks, actually) so they fit on a single CD. Removing
noise on old recordings. Playing music backwards just for the heck of
it. Changing the pitch of songs to make the singer sound like a member
of the Chipmunks, which amuses my three year old.

Audacity is one of those very powerful programs that have more
features than most people will use. But if you like to play with
sounds, it's a great product.

Cerebral Synergy's Batch File Renamer

If you take a lot of digital photos, this can come in quite
handy. Like the name says, it's a batch renamer; you can point it to a
directory and rename the files lots of ways - from scratch using
sequential numbers, replacing text, changing the case of the extension
(.JPG to .jpg), and more.

I use it when I have 50 photos named "IMG_1282" through "IMG_1331."
I'll replace "IMG_" with the date - "05-1021" for example. Then those
50 images at least have vaguely useful names.

It's not perfect software. It doesn't remember the last directory I
used, but it does remember the last replacement. I wish it was the
other way around. And the authors sacrificed simplicity for power;
there's a bit of a learning curve, although it's pretty
straightforward once you get used to it.

4t Niagara Software's 4t Tray Minimizer

There's some software that I always leave running -- Gaim, my instant
messenger application (see below), for example. But only a few will
minimize themselves to the system tray -- that group of icons next to
the clock on your taskbar.

Instead, they clog up my taskbar even though I only want them in the
background. It's especially annoying if I'm "Alt-Tabbing" through my
windows.

Image courtesy of authorMinimize anything. Besides the hardware
removal tool, you can see icons for Word, Windows Media Player, and
Firefox, thanks to 4t Tray Minimizer.  4t Tray Minimizer lets you
minimize any application to the system tray -- from your MP3 player to
Outlook. I have it set so a simple right-click on the minimize button
does the trick. It's great for reducing clutter, and if you've got
something on your screen you want to hide quickly.

There are plenty more I could probably name -- CDex for ripping your
CDs to MP3s, Gaim as the single instant-messaging program for all your
accounts, PixVue, whose praises I sang in a column a couple of weeks
ago, and so on.

But I think you've got enough to play with for a while.

Andrew Kantor is a technology writer, pundit, and know-it-all who covers
technology for the Roanoke Times. He's also a former editor for PC
Magazine and Internet World. Read more of his work at kantor.com. His
column appears Fridays on USATODAY.com.

Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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

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

From: Anick Jesdanun <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: New Web Software a Challenge to Microsoft
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:10:59 -0500


By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer

A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile
software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock
prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant
Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to
worry about installing software or moving data when they switch
computers.

And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office
suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other
applications.

The threat comes in large part from Ajax, a set of Web development
tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as
needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over.

"It definitely supports a Microsoft exit strategy," said Alexei White,
a product manager at Ajax developer eBusiness Applications Ltd. "I
don't think it can be a full replacement, but you could provide
scaled-down alternatives to most Office products that will be
sufficient for some users."

Ironically, Microsoft invented Ajax in the late 90s and has used it
for years to power an online version of its popular Outlook e-mail
program.

Ajax's resurgence in recent months is thanks partly to its innovative
use by Google Inc. to fundamentally change online mapping. Before,
maps were static: Click on a left arrow, wait a few seconds as the Web
page reloads and see the map shift slightly to the
left. Repeat. Repeat again.

"It's slow. It's frustrating," said frequent map user Fred Wagner, a
petroleum engineer in Houston. "We're all getting spoiled with wanting
things to happen."

So he sticks with Google Maps these days. There, he can drag the map
over any which way and watch new areas fill in instantly. He can zoom
in quickly using an Ajax slider.

No more World Wide Wait.

"Everybody went, 'Ooooh, how did they do that?'" said Steve Yen, who
runs a company developing an Ajax spreadsheet called Num Sum. "It
turns out the technology's been there for awhile."

Jesse James Garrett, an Adaptive Path LLC usability strategist who
publicly coined the term `Ajax' 10 days after Google Maps launched in
February, said such examples "convinced a lot of Web designers to take
another look at something they may have previously dismissed as
experimental."

Also contributing are faster Internet connections, more powerful
computers and better browsers able to handle Ajax, which is short for
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.

Consider e-mail.

Until recently, Web mail meant sending forms back and forth online.
Check an item to delete and hit a button. A remote mail server
receives instructions and responds with an entirely new page, which is
missing only the one deleted item.

Enter Yahoo Inc. and an interface it is testing using technology from
an Ajax pioneer it bought, Oddpost. Delete an item this time, and Ajax
reconfigures the page immediately without waiting for a response.

Open a message to read, and the browser fetches only the message's body
 -- it already has the subject line and other header information and
doesn't have to waste time duplicating that data.

Yahoo also is developing an Ajax tool that instantly updates flight
options as travelers narrow their choices of airports, airlines and
travel times.

This summer, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc. started using Ajax
to let users rearrange, display and switch photo albums with fewer
clicks.

And last week, Dow Jones & Co.'s MarketWatch began embedding news
articles with stock quotes updated several times a second, blinking
green and red as prices fluctuate.

"A Web page takes longer to load than that," said Jamie Thingelstad,
MarketWatch's chief technology officer. "Your computer would just be
hung."

Microsoft, which uses Ajax in a new map offering and an upcoming Hotmail
upgrade, is even starting to build new tools to promote Ajax development
 -- even as it pushes a next-generation alternative.

The alternative technology, known as XAML, will permit even richer
applications over browsers. Alas, unlike Ajax, it will run only on
Microsoft's Windows computers -- no Macs, no Linux.

Startups, meantime, are embracing Ajax for Office-like tools. Such
applications won't replace Office but could find a niche -- parents
collaborating in a soccer league could jointly update a Num Sum
spreadsheet with scores, while users too poor to buy Office or
students always on the go could compose a letter from anywhere using
Writely word processor.

Scott Guthrie, who oversees the Microsoft Ajax tools called Atlas,
believes Ajax has a future but not one at odds with Microsoft's.

"Ultimately when you want to write a word processing document or
manage a large spreadsheet, you are going to want the capabilities
 ... that are very difficult to provide on the Web today," Guthrie
said.

Computer-intensive applications like Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop
image editor and high-end games won't come to browsers anytime soon.

Even Google had to create desktop mapping software, called Google
Earth and requiring a download, to permit 3-D and advanced features.

"Ajax cannot do everything," said Bret Taylor, who oversees Google's
mapping products. "Web applications have a way to go."

Other limitations are intentional. For security reasons, a browser
cannot seamlessly access files or other programs on a computer. And,
of course, Web applications require a persistent Internet connection
 -- making work difficult on airplanes.

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen also worries that loss of productivity
 -- a minute here, a minute there, multiplied by thousands of employees
 -- will offset any savings in installation costs.

"When you do a lot of transactions, you want something that's
optimized for the transaction, not something optimized for information
browsing," he said.

Among other criticisms, developer tools for Ajax aren't as mature as
those for one of its chief rivals, Macromedia Inc.'s Flash. And many
Ajax programs don't work well beyond Microsoft's Internet Explorer and
Mozilla's Firefox browsers.

Yet Web-based applications are increasingly appealing at a time
separate computers for home, work and travel are common and people get
used to sharing calendars and other data with friends and relatives.

Ajax can make those experiences richer.

"There's a lot of power sitting on that Web browser ... that people
are just tapping into," said White of eBusiness Applications. Web
developers "are beginning to push its limits in terms of creative uses
and new applications."

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
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articles daily.

For more headlines and stories from Associated Press, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

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

From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts)
Subject: Re: San Francisco and Oakland Exchange Numbering
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 01:02:21 -0000
Organization: 1.94 meters


I know this post is a bit old, but I thought there might be some
interest in what a quick hour of research was able to dig up in the
Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library ...

Anthony Bellanga <anthonybellanga@gonetoearth.com> had written:

> Regarding Lisa Hancock's post on Oakland and San Francisco and
> 2L-4N numbering ...
 <...> 
> San Francisco and Oakland were 2L-4N thru at least the end of WW-II
> (i.e., mid-1940s). I don't know if the entire area was flash-cut to
> 2L-5N or if it were phased, and if it were phased over, how long it
> would have taken.

I have been able to nail it down, for the East Bay at least, to
sometime between 1946 and 1948. I can't get any closer because the
telephone directory for 1947 was not available.

For those of you who are interested, here are some of my notes. I
originally did this to research some oddities we have here with
respect to rate center-switch combinations. Note especially the
strange appearance of the "530" prefix in 1965 and the "911" service
code in brief use after WWII.

 ---begin----

Directories available - 1935, 1944, 1946, 1948-53, 1958-66. 

The 1954-57 gap is a key gap. This appears to be when dial service
was fully implemented.

 From 1960 or 1961, the list of exchange names and rate centers, 
all of which are extant today unless indicated otherwise:

Main-Piedmont [need to get third digit]:
 -------------
CRestview
GLencourt
HIghgate
OLympic
TEmplebar
TWinoaks

Alameda
 ---------
LAkehurst

Berkeley
 --------
AShberry (gone)
CEdar (gone)
LAndscape
THornwall

Fruitvale
 ---------
ANdover
KEllog (yes, one g)

Trinidad (includes San Leandro)
 --------
ELgin
LOckhaven
NEptune
SWeetwood
TRinidad

Contra Costa County exchanges that were local calls:
Orinda - CLifford
Lafayette - ATlantic
Walnut Creek - YEllowstone
Moraga - DRake
Concord - MUlberry

Contra Costa phones appeared not to be dial into 1953 according to
instructions in the local calling guide.

Montclair phone numbers:

Phone numbers in the hills changed between May 1964 and June 1965
directory. This must have been when OKLDCA13 was built. Main-Piedmont
rate center (e.g. most of Montclair business district) changed from
OLympic numbers to 339. Fruitvale rate center (Montclair Methodist
Church, areas S of Snake Road/ Shepherd Canyon Road, i.e. the old ROW
for the Sacramento Northern railway) changed from ANdover or KEllog
numbers to 531.  I should have checked to see if there were similar
changes in the Glenview, Oakmore, Dimond, or Laurel Districts.

Probably so. Imagine the huge effort it took to cut phones over to a
different switch!

=> In the 1965 directory, *two* new prefixes were listed in the
local calling pages for the Fruitvale rate center: 531 **and** 530!

In the 1966 directory, only 531 was listed. I did not see any phone
numbers with 530 listed in the 1965 directory. Years later, of
course, 530 was added to the Fruitvale-OLKDCA13 rate center-switch
combination.

Did someone at Pac Bell jump the gun? This is the earliest I have
ever seen a prefix of the form xx0.

Dial service and numbering schemes:

Phone numbers were six digits (2L-4N) in 1935. There is no clear
indication as to which numbers were dial and which were not other than
"J" or "W" suffixes. Interestingly enough, 211, 411, and 611 service
codes were already established for dial phones. No DDD, of
course. One-page, bare-bones introduction. Opening a 70-year-old phone
directory is a great way of generating sneezing fits. The Bell Gothic
typeface was not in use at this time.

The 1935 directory also included just about *every* Bay Area
community. Oakland-Piedmont-Berkeley-Alameda were listed first, then
the business directory, then San Francisco, then San Mateo and San
Jose.

By 1944, there was mixed 2L-4N and 2L-5N numbering. Unclear, but it
appears that 2L-5N phones were always dial phones. Occasionally 2L-4N
numbers appear with "J" or "W" suffixes. Bell Gothic typeface in use.

In 1946, "911" was used as a service code for dial phones to reach
Hayward telephone numbers.

The 1947 directory is missing. By 1948, all phones were 2L-5N. "J"
and "W" suffixes were retained. Most notably, this was for the
"BErkeley" exchange (BErkeley 7, would have been "237" had it
survived) and "PIedmont" (PIedmont 5, would have been "745" had it
survived).

Also by 1948, "911" disappeared as a dialing code for Hayward but
instead was a dialing code for LAndscape numbers (Berkeley) to reach
Richmond numbers.

By 1948, apparently BErkeley, AShberry (3), PIedmont, and HUmboldt (3)
were operator-assisted exchanges. Montclair phones in Main-Piedmont
rate center were mostly PIedmont numbers. But it may have been a mixed
dial-operator area, because there were a few OLympic 2 or OLympic 3
numbers by then. Montclair phones in the Fruitvale rate center were
dial.

By 1958, PIedmont, AShberry, BErkeley all were gone as exchanges.
(N.B. There's a key gap here because the 1954-57 directories are
missing or not available.)

The last year that 2L-5N numbers were used exclusively was 1960.
Local dialing guide shows one 7N prefix in 1961 (849), but individual
listings still were shown. Oddly, some listings showed only the letter
prefix (OL) while others showed the full name (OLympic). Users were
advised to look up the full prefix name on a page in the front. Was
this due to production limitations (after all, we're talking hot metal
typesetting here!)?

A few more 7N numbers (3N prefixes) showed up in 1962. Where
applicable, though, individual listings showed the 2L prefix, either
in the short form or as full name.

The May 1963 directory was the first to list all numbers in the 7N
form. The local calling guide still listed prefix names where
applicable.

The May 1964 directory listed only the 2L prefix abbreviation, and
not the full prefix name in the local calling guide. 

The June 1965 directory is the first one to show the realigned numbers
in the hills.

The local calling guide is missing from the June 1966 directory, but
approximately half the list of rate centers and message unit charges
still is extant.

Long Distance

There's an odd statement in May 1964 directory in the area code
listings, "To make a direct Distance call, just dial the Area Code and
then the telephone number". Does that mean no "1" or "211" was used?

The 1960 directory gives "211" as the Long Distance number but some
(not all) locations could be direct dialed.
  
> Bell System journals of the early 1950s which dealt with Area Codes,
> DDD, etc. always referred to JUST 415 if there was a map included in
> the article. The use of 318 was only for instructions for Englewood NJ
> customers. But again, the use of 318 *AND* 415 for this situation was
> *NOT* because of any potential duplication of c.o.codes/names/letters
> ... since both sides of the Bay could already "locally" dial each
> other on a "pure" 2L-5N basis (and quite possibly a "pure" 2L-4N basis
> prior to the mid/late 1940s).

It appears that they could dial each other 2L-4N in 1935, as indicated
above.

Mark Roberts | "A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity,Oakland, Cal.| but rather by touching both at once."
NO HTML MAIL |               -- Blaise Pascal

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

From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts)
Subject: Re: What is Area Code 113?
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 04:18:39 -0000
Organization: 1.94 meters


Justa Lurker <JustaLurker@att.net> had written:

> Fred Atkinson wrote:

>> I seem to remember that years ago, 113 was the number for directory
>> assistance down in Florida.  But that doesn't give a clue as to why
>> it showed up on your caller ID.

> Must've been GTE territory (well, back then, it was the General System).

> In Erie PA [GTE before becoming Bell Atlantic and now Verizon of
> course] during the 1960s (possibly earlier than that), information
> was also 113 ... repair was 114 ... the fire department was 1171
> ... and you dialed 112 before the area code and number when placing
> a DDD [direct-distance dialing] long distance call.  I want to say
> that the test board was 116 but it's been a long time.  Not sure if
> there was a speed-dial code (if you will) for the business office.

In Columbia, Mo., GTE/General territory since the late 1950s, the
codes were:

112 for Long Distance access
113 for directory information
114 for repair service
115 for mobile operator
118 for time and temperature
119 for party-line ringback 

112 was replaced with "1" around 1971. However, "0" access
(assisted long distance) was not available until 1986.

118 was replaced with 655 in the mid-1970s. 655 in turn was
replaced by 449-0655 (that's GIbson 9-0655) around 1986.

> For some reason, I think a lot of this went away when the GTD EAX 
> replaced the old step-by-step equipment sometime in the late 60s or 
> early 70s (?).

Columbia had *both* operating in parallel from 1971 to 1986 (in
different switching offices), when GTE brought in some Nortel switches
(would they have been DMS-100s by then?) and swept the old mess
out. No more progress tone just to call across town!

Mark Roberts | "A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity,Oakland, Cal.| but rather by touching both at once."
NO HTML MAIL |               -- Blaise Pascal
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From: phd <abc@ghj.com>
Subject: Multi-SIM Cards in One Phone Solution
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 02:34:58 +0800


http://www.nowgsm.com/
 SUPER SIM 16 in 1

Globally innovative GSM phone number copy technology from Taiwan
that enables 16 GSM sim card numbers to copy into one card. 250 phone
numbers and 40 SMS can also be stored.

Any of the preset SIM card numbers can be set as the default when
powering on, and can be shifted online; while the original card is able
to be used with the original information preserved.

New and old cards can standby at the same time.

   a.. Latest technology of its kind, supports 16 numbers

   b.. Super fast SIM reader use 7.14Mhz resonator to achieves high
speed cracking (192000bps) which can makes 3 times faster than similar
products available on the market!

   c.. Manage/set up/unlocked password of the card (PIN)

   d.. Built-in ring editor

   e.. Applied to all GSM phones, no restriction on phone brands or models

   f.. Re-writable to any number of with the original card

   g.. Super large phone book capacity with 250 numbers and 40 SMS

   h.. Switch mobile number on line without powering off and on handset

   i.. All back-up information in compliance with the American
Ministry of  National Defence standard, and encrypted and securely
certified using DES programming 20.

3rd Gen. Universal Twin Sim

   a.. Compatible with all of GSM SIM cards, 2 numbers in one phone.

   b.. Switching on-line without turning on-off, default selection
       function.

   c.. No data loss for some mobile phones when switching 2 numbers 
       or turning on-off.

   d.. Both of numbers on-line at any time. (When this function is
       enabled, It actually switching numbers automatically in every
       2 minutes to simulate both numbers online)

   e.. Ultra slim design with special General Double SIM Card IC
       for stable quality.

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


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