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TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:40:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 571
Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson
NYC Transit Strike Midst Cold Weather and Christmas (Desmond Butler)
New IM Phishing Attack Launched on Yahoo Messenger (Spam Daily News)
U.S. Says All Porn is Child Porn Unless Proven Otherwise (Spam Daily News)
Computer Worm Catches Child Porn Offender in Germany (Reuters News Wire)
Live Animals Banned on eBay (Asociated Press News Wire)
Transition to Digital Gets Closer (Monty Solomon)
Missing ABN Tape With Two Million Names Found (Monty Solomon)
Palm Reports Q2 FY6 Results (Monty Solomon)
Dumb Question About 'Do Not Call' (Randall)
Spam Daily News (Patrick Townson)
Cellular-News for Tuesday 20th December 2005 (Cellular-News)
EU Regulators Approve Ericsson-Marconi Deal (USTelecom dailyLead)
Re: Spam (was FTC Do Not Call List) (David Wolff)
Re: Congress: Merry Christmas! We're Turning Off Your Analog Outs (nospam)
Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis (Neal McLain)
Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis (Barry Margolin)
World Aids Day (Patrick Townson)
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: Desmond Butler <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: NYC Transit Strike Midst Cold Weather and Christmas
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:45:56 -0600
NYC Commuters Coping With Transit Strike
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer
Subways and buses ground to a halt Tuesday morning as transit workers
walked off the job at the height of the holiday shopping and tourist
season, forcing millions of riders to find new ways to get around.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had said the strike would cost the city
as much as $400 million a day, joined the throngs of people crossing
the Brooklyn Bridge as he walked from a Brooklyn emergency
headquarters to City Hall.
"It's a form of terrorism, if you ask me," said Maria Negron, who
walked across the bridge. "I hope they go back to work."
Other New Yorkers car-pooled or rode bicycles in the cold;
early-morning temperatures were in the 20s.
With traffic rules in place to prevent gridlock, the city survived the
morning rush without the feared chaos. Manhattan streets were
unusually quiet; some commuters just stayed home. People who were
going holiday shopping went the best way they could.
Officials said they would seek quick court action, and about eight
hours after the strike began, a closed-door meeting about the walkout
was under way in a Brooklyn courtroom. It is illegal for mass transit
workers to strike in New York, and the 33,000 employees could face
fines of two days' pay for each day on strike.
It was New York's first citywide transit walkout since an 11-day
strike in 1980. Pay raises and pension and health benefits for new
hires were main sticking points.
"I'm not happy about this," said Yvette Vigo, whose teeth were
chattering after she walked a couple of miles to pick up a company-run
shuttle bus at Wall Street. "It's too cold to walk this far."
Authorities began locking turnstiles and shuttering subway entrances
shortly after the Transport Workers Union ordered the strike. The
nation's largest mass transit system counts each fare as a rider,
giving it more than 7 million riders each day -- although many
customers take a daily round trip.
At one subway booth, a handwritten sign read "Strike in
Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!"
Huge lines formed at ticket booths for the commuter railroads that
stayed in operation, and Manhattan-bound traffic backed up at many
bridges and tunnels as police turned away cars with fewer than four
people. All the while, transit workers took to the picket lines with
signs that read: "We Move NY. Respect Us!"
"I think they all should get fired," said Eddie Goncalves, a doorman
trying to get home after his overnight shift. He said he expected to
spend an extra $30 per day in cab and train fares.
Commuters lined up for cabs and gathered in clusters on designated
spots throughout the city for company vans and buses to shuttle them
to their offices.
"There were hundreds of people waiting for cabs, pulling doors left
and right," said taxi driver Angel Aponte, who left his meter off and
charged $10 per person.
"It doesn't seem right to tie up the cultural and investment center of
the world," said Larry Scarinzi, 72, a retired engineer from Whippany,
N.J., waiting for a cab outside Penn Station. "They're breaking the
law. They're tearing the heart out of the nation's economy."
Bloomberg, who had predicted "gridlock that will tie the record for
all gridlocks," put into effect a sweeping emergency plan, including
the requirement that cars coming into Manhattan below 96th Street have
at least four occupants. As he walked across the bridge, he smiled,
admired the view and called the strike "outrageous."
The union called the strike around 3 a.m. after a late round of
negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke down
Monday night. Union President Roger Toussaint said the union board
voted overwhelmingly to call the strike.
"This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that
is very alien to the MTA," Toussaint said. "Transit workers are tired
of being underappreciated and disrespected."
MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow called the strike "a slap in the face" to
all New Yorkers, and Gov. George Pataki said the workers were
"recklessly endangering the health and safety of each and every New
Yorker."
The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3
percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent; the previous proposal included 3
percent raises each year. MTA workers typically earn from $35,000 as a
starting salary to about $55,000 annually.
Toussaint said the union wanted a better offer from the MTA,
especially when the agency has a $1 billion surplus this year.
"With a $1 billion surplus, this contract between the MTA and the
Transport Workers Union should have been a no-brainer," Toussaint
said. "Sadly, that has not been the case."
A key issue was the MTA's proposal to raise the age at which new
employees become eligible for a full pension from 55 to 62, which the
union says is unfair. The MTA later agreed to allow pension
eligibility at 55 for new employees, but they would be asked to pay
more out of their salaries.
The contract expired Friday at midnight, but the two sides agreed to
keep talking through the weekend and the union set a new deadline for
Tuesday. The citywide strike was preceded by a walkout Monday by two
private bus lines in Queens.
Commuter frustration was evident both before the strike and after it
was called.
"Enough is enough," said Craig DeRosa, who relies on the subway to get
to work. "Their benefits are as rich as you see anywhere in this
country and they are still complaining. I don't get it."
Associated Press writers David B. Caruso, Verena Dobnik, Samantha Gross and
Sara Kugler contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Metropolitan Transportation Authority: http://www.mta.info/
Transport Workers Union: http://www.twulocal100.org
City contingency plans: http://www.nyc.gov/html/transitinfo/html/home.shtml
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. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html
For more news from Associated Press please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/AP.html
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This strike is only against the law in
NYC because the city of New York passed a law claiming it was
'wrong'. I suggest that the city is condoning indentured slavery. No
one can be _forced_ to work at a job they do not want to work at. If
the city feels public transportation is so important, the way to
demonstate that is by treating the employees who are doing that work
in a respectful way, not by being even more oppressive with laws which
require your work and fine or imprison you for failing to work, as is
the case in Bloomberg's administation.
I recall when several years ago, the staff at Cook County Hospital in
Chicago went on strike after Cook County tried to change their working
conditions in an unfair way. A judge (get this! yuk yuk!) ordered them
to go back to work or get fined, etc. Their representative told the
court, "we will not accept any punishment from this court! I will
simply suggest to all employees that they resign their jobs effective
immediatly. Then you won't have any healthcare workers at all and see
where that gets you!" The judge replied, "you will all be in contempt
in that case." The judge was told "slavery in the United States was
long ago abolished. You cannot _force_ people to go to certain jobs."
The judge agreed that was the case (slavery no longer allowed) and
that the county would have to replace all the employees (if that was
at all practical or possible). The worker's representative said "you
can do that, alright, but eventually this strike will end and all our
workers will have to 'reapply' for new jobs, and of course in your
desire to get hospital functions up and running again, whom do you
suppose would be the ones to get hired?"
I think Mayor Bloomberg (and he is not _my_ mayor, I do not live there)
made a fatal mistake by going to court Tuesday morning to force
workers back on the job with threats of fines and jail. He has caused
so much ill-will things will never get back to normal, if they ever
were. PAT]
------------------------------
From: Spam Daily News <spam@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: New IM Phishing Attack Unleashed on Yahoo Messenger
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:54:13 -0600
From Spam Daily News
IMlogic Threat Center reports new instant messaging phishing attack
which sends IM users a message telling them their account will be
blocked unless they respond to a terms of service violation.
This attack sends users a message that appears to be from the Yahoo
"abuse department" and informs the user that they are in violation of
the Yahoo Terms of Service Agreement and they must respond to this
complaint to prevent their account from being deactivated. The message
includes a URL to a malicious site that appears to be the Yahoo! login
page.
The phishing attack is propagating from a buddy named
'ychat_complaint_dept_6b'. It will likely mutate with other variations
of the screen name as it progresses. The Yahoo! messenger will ask for
permission to add this buddy to your buddy list and then delivers the
message.
This form of social engineering has been particularly effective
especially with the message focused on a loss of the service, says
IMlogic.
SOURCE: IMlogic, Inc.
------------------------------
From: Spam Daily News <spam@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: U.S. Now Says All Porn is Child Porn Unless Proven Otherwise
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:17:11 -0600
From Spam Daily News
All pornography in the US is now effectively classified as child
pornography, unless providers can prove the ages of everyone taking
part.
The law, which requires porn producers to hold copies of all actors'
photo ID for seven years, has been in place for some time, but as of
23 June, the rule was extended to cover online pornography as
well. This includes online forums, adult personals sites and any other
place where adult material may be published.
At issue is the government's right to make sure that anyone seen in an
explicit pose on a U.S.-based website is legally an adult.
Previously, the government only targeted people who actually produce
sexually explicit content. That's why the boxes containing porn videos
feature notes in fine print confirming that performers are of legal
age.
But the new interpretation allows investigators to go after so-called
"secondary producers," including webmasters who buy or steal content
from someone else. Critics claim that the government could even target
online museum exhibits or news coverage of the pictures from the Abu
Ghraib scandal.
Lawrence Walters, an adult industry attorney, said the revised federal
regulations impact all Web sites that allow sexually explicit images
such as penetration, masturbation and S&M -- including gay male
cruising sites.
Cruising for a sex partner and posting a nude image doesn't
necessarily fall under the federal regulations, but the images can be
posted on commercial Web sites that sell ads and are in the public
domain, he said.
For instance, a man posting his nude picture on a Web site might have
to prove to site owners that he is 18 or older, and documentation must
be on file with the Web site that includes government-issued
identification cards, Social Security number, name and address.
In response, a number of sites have voluntarily taken themselves
offline, to avoid breaking the newly applied rules.
According to BoingBoing, Rotten.com has taken down ratemyboner.com and
gapingmaw.com, which contained the occasional explicit image, although
it is/was not a porn site, as such. RateMyBoobies.com and Fleshbot.com
took down photos, as did some featuring celebrity nudity. Even
non-porn online publishers like PlanetOut.com, a gay website,
temporarily removed all photos from its personal ads, even though it
bans pictures with adult content.
In a statement on the site, gapingmaw.com's administrators call the
law a "side-handed attack on the pornography industry", and says that
it would be impossible for it to meet the requirements of the
regulations.
While the law is designed to protect minors, and prevent exploitation,
some free speech campaigners argue that the law gives authorities an
awful lot of power to close down sites they don't approve of, even if
that was not its original goal.
Violations of the requirements are criminal offenses punishable by
imprisonment for up to five years for a first offense and up to 10 years for
subsequent offenses, according to the DOJ.
SOURCE: The Register; Wired; Washington Blade
Copyright 2005 Spam Daily
------------------------------
From: Reuter News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Computer Worm Traps Child Porn Offender in Germany
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:48:56 -0600
A child porn offender in Germany turned himself in to the police after
mistaking an email he received from a computer worm for an official
warning that he was under investigation, authorities said on Tuesday.
"It just goes to show that computer worms aren't always destructive,"
said a spokesman for police in the western city of Paderborn. "Here it
helped us to uncover a crime which would otherwise probably have gone
undetected."
The 20-year-old was caught out by a version of the "Sober" worm, a
prolific Internet virus which can invade computers and then send out
messages from a host of fabricated addresses.
The trap was set when the man got an email saying "an investigation is
underway," that listed the sender as Germany's Federal Criminal Police
Office (BKA). Police charged him after finding pornographic images of
children on his home computer.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html
For more news headlines from Reuters, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html
------------------------------
From: Associated Press News Wire <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Live Animals Banned on eBay
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:50:30 -0600
EBay Scraps Plans to Offer Live Pets
Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. has canceled plans to allow live pets to
be sold on its Web site after receiving thousands of angry letters
from users.
The San Jose-based company has long banned the sale of live animals
except fish and snails, and officials said Monday they were scrapping
plans to create a separate classifieds category that would feature
free ads from animal shelters and paid ads from breeders.
Over the weekend, an eBay manager revealed in a posting to an online
message board that the company was considering lifting the ban,
prompting letters from more than 2,000 users, most of whom urged that
the ban remain, said company spokesman Hani Durzy.
Users were worried the listings would encourage puppy mills, where
animals are sometimes bred in unsanitary conditions, and that it would
be difficult to differentiate between legitimate animal shelters and
unsavory sources.
"The feedback was pretty overwhelming," Durzy said. "Farms and
for-profit commercial breeders wasn't something that they wanted to
see."
Booming sales of pet supplies -- and the possibility that users may
want a pet listing service -- had prompted the company to reconsider
its ban on the sale of live animals, Durzy said.
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle
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. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think it was horrible that eBay would
have even considered the sale of animals through its web site to start
with. Most buyer/sellers do business over a long distance using the
mail or a delivery service. How is a dog or cat or other animal
supposed to feel if it gets shoved into a box, sealed up inside, very
possibly with no food or water, very possibly freezing cold weather,
and delivered thousands of miles away and a couple days later to some
total stranger it has never seen before? PAT]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:59:53 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Transition to Digital Gets Closer
By STEPHEN LABATON
The New York Times
December 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - The House of Representatives moved early Monday
to provide millions of households with coupons to buy equipment to
keep their television sets working after broadcasters switch from
analog to digital signals. But consumer groups warned that the new law
would still impose significant costs on viewers.
The House measure, including a mandate to complete the transition to
digital television by early 2009, was included in budget legislation
approved shortly before sunrise by a vote of 212 to 206. The
provisions, awaiting Senate approval, are of enormous importance to
the television, cable and wireless telephone industries.
As part of the transition, the legislation would provide each
household with up to two coupons worth $40 each for converter boxes to
attach to analog television sets so they are not obsolete once
broadcasters surrender their analog licenses on Feb. 17, 2009, as the
new law would require. Not coincidentally, the date was selected to
fall two weeks after the Super Bowl and a month before the widely
watched National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball
tournament.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/technology/20digital.html?ex=1292734800&en=151d18cc078ce36e&ei=5090
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:59:44 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Missing ABN Amro Tape With Two Million Names Found
Update: Missing ABN Amro tape with 2 million names found. The tape was
lost while DHL was transporting it to a credit reporting service
News Story by Lucas Mearian
DECEMBER 20, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - ABN Amro Mortgage Group said today
it has located a tape containing personal data on about 2 million
residential mortgage customers that had been lost Nov. 18 while being
transported to a credit reporting company.
On Friday, ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc. told its customers that the
tape was lost while being transported by DHL delivery service.
The tape was being moved from a data center run by a subsidiary of
LaSalle Bank Corp. in Chicago to an Experian credit bureau facility in
Allen, Texas. The tape contained the names, account information,
payment histories and social security numbers for residential mortgage
customers, according to the letter ABN Amro sent customers on last
week.
http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,107230,00.html
ABN Amro eyes electronic data transfers after tape loss incident
A tape containing information on 2M customers was lost for a month
News Story by Lucas Mearian
DECEMBER 20, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc. has
decided it will no longer send data tapes to its credit reporting
bureaus after one of those tapes -- with the private information of
more than 2 million customers on it -- went missing a month ago (see
"Update: Missing ABN Amro tape with 2 million names found").
http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,107239,00.html
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:32:12 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Palm Reports Q2 FY06 Results
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2005--
Quarterly Revenue $444.6 M; Up 18% Year-over-year;
Company Achieves 36% U.S. Converged Device Market Share
Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today reported revenue of $444.6 million in
its second quarter of fiscal year 2006, ended Dec. 2, up 18 percent
from the year-ago period.
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=54116038
------------------------------
Subject: Dumb Question About "Do Not Call"
From: Randall <rvh40@insightbb.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:10:59 -0500
Three times a day, every day, the phone rings and a female robot voice
says "Hello, this is not a sales call. This is about an important
business matter. Again, this is /not/ a sales call, this is an
Important Business Matter!"
Then the damn thing hangs up.
There is no CLID info with the calls -- they come through as "Unknown"
or "Unavailable" -- despite the fact that this line is /supposed/ to
reject anonymous calls.
Been going on for three weeks or so.
Three calls, every day.
If I'm here when it rings and I see "Unknown" or "Anonymous", I just
pick the receiver up and set it back down. They'll call back.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is no such thing as a dumb
question around here, Randall. Just ask many of our users. With
my tin-foil hat and diseased brain, I am likely to say almost
anything as I bring discredit and shame to the entire net.
The 'reject anonymous calls' condition only applies if the caller
_deliberatly_ inserted *67 to withhold his number. That condition will
not work if the failure to deliver ID is due to a telco shortcoming,
such as the type of switch used by the sending telco, etc. The 'reject
anonymous' condition relies on the sending telco specifically saying
'do not say who is calling'. In your case the sending telco is not
saying that, it just does not know who the caller is or else the
details somehow got lost in the switching matrix on the way. But it
did not _deny_ or _hide_ anything at the caller's request.
You still have a way around it however. Subscribe through your telco
to *60 (I think that is called 'reject these callers' in many places).
*60 answers you and says 'enter the number to be rejected' or words to
that effect and from that point on _that_ caller gets a message saying
you are not taking calls at this time.
Now I heard your next question already: if you do not know _who_ is
calling, how are you supposed to block them? Good question. The *60
recording also tells you 'to reject the last call you received,
whether or not you know the number, press (some) key.' I think around
here it is '01' or something. You press whatever you were told, and
the Operator-Bot responds, "Thank you! That number is a _private_
entry." But none the less it has been blocked. Your telco has a 'local
cache' of the last call you placed/received and it uses that entry to
do the blocking. If your telco offers 'return last call' service (*68
I think) then you can also use that service to return the last call
and find out what the 'important business matter' is all about. Both
'return last call' and 'reject this caller' service are sold by most
telcos these days. PAT]
------------------------------
From: Patrick Townson <ptownson@cableone.net>
Subject: New Regular Feature: Spam Daily News
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:33:09 -0600
You may have noticed a couple articles in the Digest today from a new
daily feature available here: 'Spam Daily News'. It appears that ICANN
does not intend to start anytime soon a new top-level domain called
'.spam' where serious reports on this topic could go, along with, of
course, I suppose, contributions from spammers/scammers/phishers, etc.
So I will provide news reports on this topic through an RSS feed,
which can be seen on our web site http://telecom-digest.org in the
latest-issue.html area each day.
If you wish to carry the news feed on your own site, please add this
bit of html code somewhere:
<a href="http://www.spamdailynews.com/publish/index.asp"><img
src="http://pics.spamdailynews.com/images/spam_daily.gif" border="0"
width="80" height="15"/></a>
The other thing I will do now is fix a delicious dinner each day for
spam-bots, you know, those things which go around to web sites looking
for names and email addresses to be spammed. You will see 'Spam Poison'
in my autoack message from now on and also on the front page of our
web site. If the spam bot sees his dinner there, he goes to get it and
winds up in a virtual endless loop forever gobbling up totally worthless
email addresses, rendering him totally useless to his owner when he
returns from his duties. I think they are called 'pharmers'. The code
to put on your own web site if you wish to use it is this:
<a href="http://english-53419149537.spampoison.com"><img
src="http://pics3.inxhost.com/images/sticker.gif" border="0" width="80"
height="15"/></a>
<a href="http://english-53419621865.spampoison.com">Fight spam!Click
Here!</a>
And finally, I am going to begin using the spam poison address for
those users who ask to have their email names/addresses withheld here
on account of spam problems. I had been using my other domain which is
'norchur.biz' to just drop those rodents directly into a black hole, but
it occurred to me it would be better to put out some tasty food for
them to find. Feel free to use the above however you feel best in your
own circumstances.
PAT
------------------------------
Subject: Cellular-News for Tuesday 20th December 2005
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:31:36 -0600
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news-mail.com>
Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com
[[ 3G ]]
Telenor Buys 3G License In Denmark
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15300.php
Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor ASA (TELN) Monday said
its Sonofon unit has received the fourth Danish UMTS, or
third-generation, license by The Danish National Information
Technology and Telecom Agency at a price of DKK533 million. ...
US-Ukrainian ITC starts building first 3G EvDO network
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15304.php
U.S.-Ukrainian CDMA operator International Telecommunication Company
(ITC) has started building Ukraine's first EvDO, or Evolution Data
Only, 3G high-speed network, Vsevolod Valovik, the company's marketing
director told Prime-Tass Monday. ...
[[ Financial ]]
Brazil's Brasil Telecom To Boost Investments In 2006
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15302.php
Brazil's third-largest phone company, Brasil Telecom Participacoes,
plans to invest a total of 2.5 billion Brazilian reals ($1.05 billion)
in its operations in 2006, the company said in a statement Monday. ...
Argentina Telephone Union To Strike Over Hours, Wages
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15303.php
Workers at Telecom Argentina and Telefonica de Argentina, the
country's two fixed-line operators, are planning an afternoon strike
Monday to demand a shorter workday and higher salaries, renewing a
labor dispute that has been latent for the last year...
Slow Cellphone Sales Hits RadioShack
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15316.php
The USA based retailer, RadioShack has warned that it is unlikely to
achieve its fiscal year 2005 earnings. Despite the projected earnings
shortfall, the company reiterated previous free cash flow guidance of
US$80 million to US$100 million for the f...
[[ Handsets ]]
ZTE Signs 3G Handset Deal With Hutchison
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15310.php
China's ZTE has signed a 3G handsets supply agreement with Hutchison
3G. The first batch of ZTE and 3 co-branded WCDMA handsets has been
shipped to the UK, and has been launched into the market for
Christmas. Hutchison 3G operates 3G services in nine...
IC Content in Cellular Phones to Surge
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15311.php
In 2009, 80% of cellular phone unit sales are forecast to be
replacement sales. IC Insights believes that, although some new
cellular subscribers may be inclined to buy basic inexpensive phones,
replacement handsets will tend to be "full-featured" an...
LG Launches 'Time Machine DMB Phone'
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15312.php
LG Electronics has announced the launch of the world's first 'Time
Machine satellite DMB handset, LG-SB130/KB1300. The 'Time Machine TV
Phone' is equipped with the 'Time Machine' function so that users can
continue watching TV without pausing even wh...
[[ Legal ]]
MTS, Alliance Capital say do not recognize Bitel management
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15305.php
Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS),
Kazakhstan's Alliance Capital and Daniyar Omurzakov, who is
the general director of Kyrgyz mobile operator Bitel appointed by MTS,
refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of Bitel's manage...
Shenandoah Telecom Extends Talks With Sprint
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15308.php
Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. and Sprint Nextel Corp. agreed to
extend their discussion of a management agreement until Feb. 15,
2006. ...
[[ Mobile Content ]]
Partnership to Offer Bill Payment Services via Cell Phones
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15309.php
Cell phone users without bank accounts will now be able to pay over
3,000 bills directly from their handsets thanks to a new partnership
between SVC Financial Services and Ameracash Solutions. SVC, a
provider of secure mobile transaction technologies...
Sluggish Asia Wireless Location Services Market on Verge of Taking Off
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15313.php
Location-based services (LBS) may finally realize its potential in the
Asia/Pacific region in the upcoming five years, reports In-Stat. LBS
has been labelled "the next big thing," and has been the subject of
aggressive revenue projections by industry...
[[ Network Operators ]]
Belarus 3rd GSM operator to launch its network on Wednesday
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15307.php
A third Belarusian GSM mobile operator plans to launch its network
into commercial operation Wednesday, the company's representative said
Monday. ...
M1 Offers Roaming Deal With Vodafone
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15315.php
Singapore's M1 is offering savings of up to 60% savings on data
charges and will pay local data rates when roaming on Vodafone
networks. These savings can be enjoyed in 8 countries where Vodafone
operates and in over 30 countries by early next year. ...
[[ Regulatory ]]
Russian telecom assoc says worried about caller-pays principle bill
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15306.php
Russia's Association of Regional Mobile Operators and GSM Association
are concerned about a bill seeking to introduce the Calling Party Pays
(CPP) principle in the country, the Association of Regional Mobile
Operators said in a press release Monday...
[[ Statistics ]]
MegaFon user base in Russia's Far East up to 900,000 users
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15301.php
The subscriber base of Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon
in the Far East Federal District soared to 900,000 users since the
beginning of the year, the press service of Mobikom-Khabarovsk said
Monday. ...
[[ Technology ]]
3.2 MegaPixel Camera Phone Sensor Launched
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15314.php
MagnaChip Semiconductor has announced the launch of a 3.2 megapixel
CMOS image sensor for the camera phone application market. The 2.57u
pixel of the MC532MA allows for excellent low-light performance in a
small module size, which has typically been ...
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:23:57 EST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: EU Regulators Approve Ericsson-Marconi Deal
USTelecom dailyLead
December 20, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/AtkIatagCCeIBJWUgr
TODAY'S HEADLINES
NEWS OF THE DAY
* EU regulators approve Ericsson-Marconi deal
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* RIM: BlackBerry service will not shut down
* Vivato ends operations
* Report: Big changes on horizon for IP set-top market
* Huawei sees strong growth in Malaysia's hot telecom sector
* Motorola executive: 2006 won't be 3G's breakthrough year
* Icahn expresses doubt about AOL-Google deal
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Fixed Mobile Convergence and IMS now available on demand
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Coaxsys to show off ultrafast home-networking technology
* Faster Internet services offered by telecoms, cable
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* India moves forward on IPv6
* House drops plan to add more H1-B visas
Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/AtkIatagCCeIBJWUgr
------------------------------
From: dwolffxx@panix.com (David Wolff)
Subject: Re: Spam (was FTC Do Not Call List)
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 05:49:45 UTC
Organization: Public Access Networks Corp.
In article <telecom24.570.8@telecom-digest.org>, Seth Breidbart
<sethb@panix.com> wrote:
> In article <telecom24.563.14@telecom-digest.org>,
> Jim Haynes <jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu> wrote:
>> One scheme that seemed to me to have some promise was to detect spam
>> in the SMTP receiving program and deliberately delay its responses
>> to the sending program. So that the transaction of sending a message
>> is stretched out far longer than normal.
> That's called tarpitting. It would work against spammers who use
> their own resources to send. Those who use armies of zombies wouldn't
> care.
I would think that at least it cuts down on the amount of spam, if
enough of the zombies get stuck in tarpits.
Thanks --
David
(Remove "xx" to reply.)
------------------------------
From: nospam4me@mytrashmail.com
Subject: Re: Congress: "Merry Christmas! We're Turning Off Your Analog Outs"
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 13:05:03 UTC
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the first part of your
> statement on paying royalties what about classical music stations,
> where a great deal of the music itself is in the public domain, owing
> to the age of the compositions, etc? PAT]
It is my understanding that unlike 'pop' stations classical radio
stations must purchase the recordings. IANAL, but I think some ASCAP
and BMI money may go indirectly to performers; BMI was founded I think
in the wake of a musician's union strike which led to a several year
recording embargo.
Then too many classical recordings on the market are made by Eastern
European orchestras which wouldn't be in the ASCAP/BMI loop.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Herb Oxley
From: address IS Valid.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:44:04 -0600
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis
Thor Lancelot Simon (tls@panix.com) wrote:
> Well, it's generally frowned upon to cite it (or similar works) in
> scholarly writing at anything but the most elementary level. The
> same kind of scorn should be applied to writers who cite Wikipedia;
> unfortunately, sometimes it is not.
Well, then I guess my writings must be at that most elementary level.
As I noted in my previous post on this subject, I find that Wikipedia
articles (at least the technical ones I'm likely to cite) are accurate
and well written. Of course, I review every cited article before I
cite it, and I always cite the permanent link.
Wikipedia offers an advantage that few other websites offer: link
stability. By citing the permanent link, I can be confident that the
article I'm citing won't be changed, and that it won't disappear (I've
learned the hard way that I can't trust the stability of websites
maintained by such presumably stable institutions as NASA, the
Illinois Commerce Commission, the Mount Wilson Observatory, or the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department).
John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net> wrote:
> Wikipedia has more vulnerabilities than a traditional edited
> collection like Britannica, but it contains a rather amazing amount
> of information. Of course, no secondary source should be trusted
> very far.
That's undeniably true, but there are many situations where a set of
facts is so well established and/or so lost in history that it's
impossible even to identify, much less cite, the primary source.
What, for example, it the primary source for parabola? Sonata?
Empanada?
Or consider the example I mentioned in my previous post: the concept
of the geostationary orbit. Who or what is the primary source?
Arthur C. Clarke first published the idea [1], but even he disclaimed
originality [2]. The FCC rules include a legal definition [3] which
is based Federal Standard 1037C [4] which is based on the ITU Radio
Regulations [5] (which costs 252 Swiss Franks to download). I suppose
the ITU is the ultimate authority, but it's certainly not a primary
source.
For my purposes, Wikipedia's definition [6], though certainly not
primary, works: it's accurate, comprehensive, permanent, and free.
----------- Citations (mostly not Wikipedia) --------------
[1] Arthur C. Clarke. "Extra-Terrestrial Relays." Wireless World,
October, 1945, 305-308. Reprinted in "Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific
Autobiography." New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984, 60-63.
[2] Arthur C. Clarke. "The Space Station: Its Radio Applications."
"Ascent to Orbit," 53.
[3] National Archives and Records Administration. United States Code of
Federal Regulations. 47 CFR 2.1. http://tinyurl.com/devel
[4] National Communications System Technology & Standards Division.
"Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, Federal
Standard 1037C." http://tinyurl.com/9gzzw
[5] International Telecommunications Union. General Secretariat and
Telecom Radiocommunication (ITU-R). Radio Regulations, edition of 2004.
http://tinyurl.com/a62du
[6] Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Geostationary orbit." 19 Dec
2005, 08:48 UTC. 20 Dec 2005, 13:04 http://tinyurl.com/dz2sw
Neal McLain
------------------------------
From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis
Organization: Symantec
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:16:49 -0500
In article <telecom24.570.11@telecom-digest.org>,
sethb@panix.com (Seth Breidbart) wrote:
> In article <telecom24.568.6@telecom-digest.org>, Robert Bonomi
> <bonomi@host122.r-bonomni.com> wrote:
>> In article <telecom24.566.10@telecom-digest.org>, Thor Lancelot Simon
>> <tls@rek.tjls.com> wrote:
>>> In article <telecom24.565.7@telecom-digest.org>, Dave Garland
>>> <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:
>>>> The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but
>>>> among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not
>>>> particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained
>>>> around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three ...
>>> I'm astonished that a 25% difference is considered "not particularly
>>> great".
>> I'm astonished that something that can be explained by "jitter" of
>> "plus/minus one count" in 'ordinal' numeric data, would be considered
>> anything _other_ than "not particularly great". Well, unless they do
>> not really understand statistical analysis, that is.
>> 3 vs 4 is jitter.
> 126 vs. 168 is a bigger difference, though it's the same 25%.
> (Unless you believe that there are a lot of off-by-one errors, _all_
> in the same direction.)
Except that these numbers were averages, not actual counts. But then
they rounded them off for the article. It's possible that around four
is 3.7, and about 3 is 3.4, so they're actually much closer; but they
could also be 2.8 and 4.3, a 35% difference.
But what they also didn't include in the article was information about
the distribution, standard deviation, etc. If most of the articles in
Wikipedia have 3-5 innacuracies, while most of the Brittanica articles
have 2-4, that's a significant overlap. On the other hand, if 2/3 of
Wikipedia articles have no errors, and the other third have 10-14,
while Brittanica is 90% clean with the other 10% having around 30
errors, that's quite different.
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
------------------------------
From: Patrick Townson <ptownson@cableone.net>
Subject: World Aids Day
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:33:37 -0600
Some way or another, I failed to mention back on December 1 that the
date is refered to as 'World Aids Day', otherwise I would have given
you these 'virtual red ribbons' that day.
<a href="http://www.worldaidsday.org/default.asp" title="Link to the
official World AIDS Day website"><img
src="http://www.worldaidsday.org/images/virtualribbon.gif" width="120"
height="40" border="0" alt="Support World AIDS Day" /></a>
------------------------------
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