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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 104 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Electronic health records raise doubt / Google service's inaccuracies may hold wide lesson
Re: Sabotage attacks knock out phone service
Recommended brand for a new cell phone handset?
Re: Recommended brand for a new cell phone handset?
Re: Sabotage attacks knock out phone service
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Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:27:15 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Electronic health records raise doubt / Google service's inaccuracies may hold wide lesson
Message-ID: <TLhFl.52987$hw1.26313@newsfe16.iad>
> http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/04/13/electronic_health_records_raise_doubt/
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> Sigh. The thing you were scared of at lunchtime is now twice as scary; film at eleven.
>
> Seriously, this sounds like the classic case of GIGO: Garbage In,
> Gospel Out(tm). Google's IT crew, knowing everything there is to know
> about information science and nothing about
> how-to-get-paid-more-from-health-insurance science, assumed that the
> billing codes represented the truth. Unfortunately, they're going to
> find out the hard way that nurses no longer take blood-pressure
> readings; they provide followup care for hypertension treatment, etc.,
> ad nauseum.
That should be apparent on its face to medical professionals. Billing
codes mostly mean the procedure was performed, and that's it. I guess
some are rough diagnosis, but not even close to the report an an
angiogram or brain scan MRI, as examples.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:42:47 +0000 (UTC)
From: ranck@vt.edu
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Sabotage attacks knock out phone service
Message-ID: <gs4v9n$8vj$1@solaris.cc.vt.edu>
Michael Grigoni <michael.grigoni@cybertheque.org> wrote:
> ranck@vt.edu wrote:
> > Yeah, and I bet the perps were really annoyed when they saw
> > there wasn't any copper in those cables . . .
> > How much does anyone want to bet it was something stupid
> > like that more than intentional DOS?
> Some days ago I received an email from a resident of Santa Cruz with
> considerable experience in the business who suggests the work was
> an inside job, likely the result of CWA union contract expiration.
Yes, union contract issues could certainly be a root cause. Or just
general vandalism by someone with a bit of knowledge. It's hard
to tell.
About 25 years ago I used to maintain and install IBM 3270 terminals.
These were located in several buildings around the campus and connected
via coax cable running in the steam tunnels. We frequently had to
get out a TDR and guesstimate the number of feet along some tunnel
to where a cable had gone bad. The hot environment was not kind
to coax, but it would not fail too often. One incident we went
into the tunnel to find about 20 feet of cable and been cut out.
Our speculation at the time was that some student had been "exploring"
the tunnels, a fairly normal passtime on college campuses, and
decided he needed a piece of coax for his cable TV hookup. Now,
3270s used RG58 coax that is 50ohm instead of the RG56 75ohm for cable,
but it looked very similar and would probably work OK for a short jumper.
I guess what I'm saying is that I would not be surprised to hear
that the fiber incident was just random bad luck and stupidity
rather than specific bad intent. On the other hand, intentional
sabotage would not really surprise me either. Union problems or
just an ex-employee with a grudge is entirely possible, or even
a knowlegable customer with a grudge. I tend to believe the mundane
explanations first. The old saying, "never attribute to malice
that which can be adequately explained by stupidity" holds up
fairly well in my experience.
Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:55:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Recommended brand for a new cell phone handset?
Message-ID: <1df2578a-f9c7-4f6e-8e0a-68bdbceb8b54@o30g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>
The battery on my existing cell phone gives only about 60-75 minutes
of talk time (with very little standby time). I've learned I'm
entitled to a new handset.
I plan to get a free one, in the flip style. The only feature I'd
like is a better built-in camera, though most seem to have that.
(What is a "VGA" camera?)
Any recommendation for brand of basic-model flip-type cellphone? This
is for Verizon.
Thanks!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:53:34 GMT
From: "Tony Toews \[MVP\]" <ttoews@telusplanet.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Recommended brand for a new cell phone handset?
Message-ID: <j1lcu4ppp9h5pa9ltm4j8b0oka9rjndihq@4ax.com>
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>The battery on my existing cell phone gives only about 60-75 minutes
>of talk time (with very little standby time). I've learned I'm
>entitled to a new handset.
>
>I plan to get a free one, in the flip style. The only feature I'd
>like is a better built-in camera, though most seem to have that.
>(What is a "VGA" camera?)
VGA camera is almost certainly 640x480 which is 300k pixels. Go for the 1.2M pixel
cameras.
Once I decided on my required feature set, such as 1.2M pixel camera, and rate plan,
I decided on my phone based on various reviews found on websites such as
http://www.cellphones.ca. You're always going to have negative reviews so it was a
matter of reviewing which had the most positive and fewest negative reviews. And
deciding if the negative reviews sounded like the person was ranting. <smile>
I prefer to not use my cell phone. Indeed I'm happy if I get less than one call per
week. I decided to go with Virgin Mobile in Canada as, for $100 prepaid, I don't
have to throw in money for another year. I will very likely have money left over.
In addition the cell phone they had for $80 had the same features as competitors cell
phones for $280.
A nice bonus is that the battery is a rectangular battery inside the plastic case.
The back case was the battery on my previous six year old cell phone so those
batteries can be found on Ebay for $52. These batteries can be had for $10 or $15.
Tony
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:19:04 -0700
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Sabotage attacks knock out phone service
Message-ID: <u6mcu4d86bnrnho9t6lrhp14h4reja223o@4ax.com>
On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:54:47 -0400 (EDT), David Clayton
<dcstar@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>How many "geeks" these days know what a SWR is let alone what to do about
>it?
I do. But then again, I'm a balding grey-haired 72-year-old "geek."
When I worked for Bell Labs designing broad-band microwave systems, we
used return loss rather than SWR, because the numbers made it easier
to visualize what was happening. We had to keep each individual echo
to about 70 dB below the signal. This translated to a 35 dB
return-loss requirement for each component. In SWR terms, that was
1.035. One day, we visited a manufacturer of waveguide parts: bends,
transitions, etc. They were used to SWR's of 1.2, and couldn't
believe that we were serious about 35 dB retun losses. But that's
what it took to transmit 1860 multiplexed voice circuits with low
intermod noise, and later 3 DS-3's using 64QAM modulation with
adequate fade margin, over a 30-MHz wide 6 GHz channel 3000 miles from
coast to coast.
Dick Grady, AC7EL
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End of The Telecom digest (5 messages)
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