28 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

Classified Ads
TD Extra News

Add this Digest to your personal   or  

 
 

Message Digest 
Volume 29 : Issue 54 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told 
 Re: Pay phone nostalgia 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court 
 Re:Does ADSL interfere with cordless phone?
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams 
 Fonts and Editors (was: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court )
 Re: Fonts and Editors (was: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court )
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams 
 Re: US school district spied on students through webcams 
 Cable System Switch Type 


====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and other stuff of interest.
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:42:13 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told Message-ID: <6879f413-30b4-4bd5-adab-ce14e5019938@q21g2000yqm.googlegroups.com> On Feb 21, 1:11 am, Thad Floryan <t...@thadlabs.com> wrote: > 2. Repeating an earlier post in this thread, the action captured by >    the webcam and for which the administrator admonished Robbins was >    eating candy which the administrator thought was (a) drug(s) >    [apparently small white round candies which looked like pills] ... At this point we do not know for certain if the student's description of the conversation is accurate. > 3. why was the webcam-captured picture in the administrator's >    "hands" if the laptop (obviously) wasn't reported stolen or lost? At this point, we do not know for certain what, if any, photograph the administrator was holding. Obviously more details will follow. In the absence of other facts - which I'm sure exist - I'm rather dubious that a school administrator would (1) use the student's laptop for home monitoring, (2) draw a flimsy conclusion that a kid eating candy was doing drugs, and (3) show the student a picture of that. If a kid was being called for doing drugs, his parents would've been called in as well and been present at the discussion. (If the school administrator [did] indeed [take] illegal pictures he ought to go to jail.)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:47:13 -0500 From: Ron <ron@see.below> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told Message-ID: <10g6o5dpo0tc9ormkkjqqatof6tobdqmik@4ax.com> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >In the absence of other facts - which I'm sure exist - I'm rather >dubious that a school administrator would > >(1) use the student's laptop for home monitoring, > >(2) draw a flimsy conclusion that a kid eating candy was doing drugs, > and > >(3) show the student a picture of that. I suppose it's good that you've never encountered a school administrator on a power trip. I don't know whether it's the case in this instance, but I can assure you there exist those who would be thrilled to utilize this spy capability to enhance their god-like sense of omniscience/omnipotence. -- Ron (user telnom.for.plume in domain antichef.com)
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:42:39 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told Message-ID: <f3829502-6838-4256-8a2c-c24881df4d67@j27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com> On Feb 20, 6:41 pm, bon...@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > Note: I think the lawsuit is well-founded.   I don't see how anyone could draw that conclusion as yet. Right now we have a situation of "he said/she said"--the student says he was spied on while the school district denies it. (My gut reaction is to side with the school district in the light of what has been publicized so far). That issue has to be resolved. The next issue is, if the school actually spied on the kid, did it do so illegally? > [A] school district's 'authority' over the behavior of students is > generally limited to 'on school grounds' and "at school-sponsored > activities'. This issue has entered the computer world. Some schools punish students involved in on-line bullying, even if the bullying did not occur on school computers or school accounts. Again, IMHO, if the improper use of computers (for whatever reason--bullying, porn, fraud, etc) didn't involve school computers or accounts in any way, it is not the school's business. > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I'm both surprised and fascinated by the ways that technology changes > society, and especially by the fact that humans seem to have a blind > spot when it comes to seeing change coming. > > The cameras that appeared in cell phones a few years back enabled > teenagers to take X-rated pictures of themselves and to share them > with their friends: in theory, that's no different than the capability > of the earliest Kodak camera, but in practice it cuts out the > middleman - the film developer - and so encourages more abuse. IMHO, the aspect that really encouraged this sort of thing is how easy it is to take a picture (can be done in low light, such as a locker room, without the subject knowing about it.), and how easy it is to distribute the picture widely relatively discretely. > I might make an agreement with my employer that in return for the > wage I'm paid, I allow my boss to examine my emails or monitor my > keystrokes or watch me on a closed-circuit TV. However, the > keystroke logging program can't be used to intercept an email I send > to my attorney, and the TV can't take pictures in the > lavatories. There are some things that a nation simply can't risk > leaving in private hands, and the decision to give up the right of > privacy is one of them. In the above example, I'm pretty sure you as an employee have no power to "allow" or "not allow" your boss to monitor the computer. It's his computer, telephone system, and his office, and as such, the boss can monitor anything and everything done on it, including material you send to your attorney (you're not in prison). He has every right to prohibit you from doing any personal work as well as to ensure your actual work is done the way he wants it. I don't know what the law [is] regarding TV in restrooms, but the boss can certainly monitor when you go and how long you're in there. If you want privacy you must take your communications out of the workplace. Indeed, I think this is a secondary reason for cellphone popularity--people can make personal calls as they wish without being monitoried by their emploers.
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:03:02 -0500 From: Ron <ron@see.below> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court told Message-ID: <mfg6o59hb5mvajkq6ensaj1doj9pifdr5t@4ax.com> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > If you want privacy you must take your communications out of the > workplace. Indeed, I think this is a secondary reason for cellphone > popularity--people can make personal calls as they wish without > being monitoried by their emploers. You are incorrect. There are federal regulations about unlawful interception of Email. There are also laws in some states that classify employer interception of phone calls on company phones as criminal wiretapping. In fact, in at least some two-party states, the employer would need permission of both the employee and the party on the other end of the line to monitor the call in without breaking the law. Currently, the employer is not permitted to monitor or access text messages on a company-provided cell phone (per June 18, 2008 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) without either a search warrant or the employee's permission. -- Ron (user telnom.for.plume in domain antichef.com)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:31:11 -0800 From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Pay phone nostalgia Message-ID: <Pywgn.7133$ND2.1826@newsfe05.iad> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > > Santa Catalina Island, California, was the last Bell System location > to get dial. They shipped then trucked a modular small-sized ESS (No. > 2?) to the site, apparently due to the terrain it was difficult. I > don't know what the last sizable Independent served town to go dial > was. Due to the high labor cost of providing an operator 24/7 > regardless of traffic, many small isolated areas went dial earlier > than larger areas. > #3ESS went to Catalina. It's long gone and they are now a 5ESS remote. I believe the host is 26 miles across the sea at San Pedro.
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:23:14 -0800 From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court Message-ID: <mrwgn.55216$G_2.41751@newsfe15.iad> > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > PLEASE do not paste text from a microsoft editor into email > submissions you are sending to the digest! It leaves proprietary > artifacts in the text which I must edit out by hand. > > Bill Horne > Moderator > More correctly, they can use an MS editor provided they save in plain text mode. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Please don't. Microsoft's plan for world domination includes using "Windows" fonts in every application, and AFAIK that includes their "plain text" editors. When an email arrives with a header that says "charset=us-ascii" (United States - American Standard Code for Information Interchange), I'm entitled to assume that there are no "High ASCII" characters in it, i.e., no bytes with a value above 127 decimal. Here's a sample from the original post: depending on how your computer is set up, and what operating system you are using, you might see a lot of question marks, nothing unusual, or International characters such as "Å". I had to edit them all out. ... their managers did not want them being used, and the only reason the workstationsÅhad them was it was cheaper to bulk purchase them so equipped.ÅÅ The user repeatedly reported the trouble (searching for an IT tech who would just "fix it" anyway), and then was clueless enough to escalate to my Division Manager that they had reported "their PC" as broken 3 times (she had) and it still wasn't "fixed" (it wasn't broken.)ÅÅ Result:Å I documented the times she had reported it, the time my techs had spent checking and looking into the situation to make sure everything that SHOULD be working was working, the email chain she and I had had over the situation, and sent it all to MY Division Manager in response to his inquiry as to why we were not being responsive...and alsoÅto HER Division Manager to document how much $$$ her insistance was costing.Å (Had she taken "you can't do that" with the 1st report it would have all ended there.Å As it was, she lost this argument, big time.)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:14:16 +0000 (UTC) From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re:Does ADSL interfere with cordless phone? Message-ID: <hltht8$29e$2@news.albasani.net> Gene S. Berkowitz <first.last@verizon.net> wrote: >dcstar@myrealbox.com says... >>On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:28:36 -0500, Gene S. Berkowitz wrote: >>>dcstar@myrealbox.com says... >>>> ADSL performance is based on maximum possible S/N ratio at the remote >>>> modem end: allow another digital device to pump even tiny amounts of HF >>>> noise into the line (which "normal" handsets care little about) and you >>>> will find you maximum sync rate far lower than it could be. >>>> Just don't use one filter on a cordless base station, use two. >>> That's just silly. >> Most ADSL filters are designed to be low pass in one direction but >> they do seem to also have low pass characteristics in the other >> direction (these things are invariably built to the lowest cost to do >> the basic job - which does not include filtering in the opposite >> direction). > No, most filters are not directional at all, only the packaging > is (jack on one end, plug on the other, but in performance it > makes no difference). >> The purpose of putting two on a digital handset base station which has >> the potential to put the internally generated digital hash back into >> the phone line it connects to - which is very bad for any ADSL signal >> that is also on that line - is to reduce that potential hash. > I don't think that this is true of any cordless base station made > in the last 10 years. Compliance with EMC guidelines (EN55024) > makes internal filtering on the incoming cable practically > mandatory to avoid conducted interference. The cordless phone in question is older. It doesn't look like [there is] a consensus of opinion as to what I should do... ***** Moderator's Note ***** I suggest doing some binary tests: 1. Measure your DSL upload and download speed as it is now. Do the test at 4 AM so there's a minimum of variance in the speed readings from one test to another. There's a good speed test at http://www.speakeasy.net/ , but there are others. 2. Disconnect ALL telephones from the line, including the cordless one, and note any change in speed, in either direction. Keep notes. 3. Plug the cordless phone back in, and see if your DSL speed changes. Note the change(s). 4. Repeat for your other phones, one at a time. Report the results. HTH. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:09:12 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court Message-ID: <5b5198b9-3764-4cb8-84f0-35ca3b4acfd8@z35g2000yqd.googlegroups.com> On Feb 21, 7:58 pm, prh...@comcast.net wrote: > However, even given all the above,  the school district with the > laptops w/capability to remotely activate built in video cameras was > definately in the "what where they thinking" mode.   Even if there > were agreements spelling out the potential of such use prior to > distributing the laptops, who signed them?  The kids are minors and > not legally able to enter into "contracts".  Parents and legal > guardians are not allowed to sign away their children's "rights", > which I assume would include "rights to privacy". To clarify, it is the school district's firm position that the camera was only to be used to take pictures if the laptop was lost or stolen, not for other uses. They deny it was used for other purposes. The issue is discussed further in today's (Mon 2/22/10)Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20100222_Laptop_camera_snapped_away_in_one_classroom.html
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:13:20 -0800 From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court Message-ID: <siegman-5D50F5.13125022022010@news.stanford.edu> In article <5b5198b9-3764-4cb8-84f0-35ca3b4acfd8@z35g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > To clarify, it is the school district's firm position that the camera > was only to be used to take pictures if the laptop was lost or stolen, > not for other uses. They deny it was used for other purposes. I see. In other words, it's not the "What were they thinking?!?!" situation that an earlier poster referred to. It's more that there's apparently no one in the school district's leadership with a functioning brain to even "think" with . . . ?
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:32:36 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams Message-ID: <3d47f989-6b1d-4ecb-8711-5695dc75cbe2@z11g2000yqz.googlegroups.com> On Feb 21, 10:21 pm, danny burstein <dan...@panix.com> wrote: > > Sorry to nitpick, but I believe education and school policies are > > mandated by state laws, not federal laws. > > Just like there was no federal law mandating a 55 mph speed limit, > and there ain't no federal law requiring an age 21 drinking cut off, > eh? In other words, laddie, the feds have plenty of ways of > applying pressure to local folk. > > You might take a look at, oh, "No Child Left Behind" (Bush Admini- > stration), "Title IX", and a whole big bunch of other funding > shenanigans. You do have a good point--the Feds do use money to force states and localities to follow their policy. (The 21st Amendment explicitly gives states the power to regulate alcoholic beverages, so how can the Feds link highway funding to a state's alcohol policy?) None the less, states still have some leeway over policies, and they may vary quite a bit from state to state. (Some states, like Pennsylvania, sell hard liquor only through state run stores, for example while other states allow liquor to be sold in supermarkets). I suspect education policy still varies a great deal from state to state despite Federal mandates. I know teacher certification requirements vary. Returning to telecom, different states and the Feds have different policies regarding monitoring communications. For example, some states require notification if a telephone call is to be recorded (thus the 15 second beep tone) while most do not. In the school district webcam issue at hand, the newspapers have had numerous discussions on what is and is not permissable monitoring. Several lawyers quoted in the newspaper said the school's policy, while perhaps not the smartest, was still legal. (today's paper URL in a separate post.)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:17:23 -0800 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams Message-ID: <4B82D843.2000800@thadlabs.com> On 2/22/2010 7:32 AM, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > [...] > In the school district webcam issue at hand, the newspapers have had > numerous discussions on what is and is not permissable monitoring. > Several lawyers quoted in the newspaper said the school's policy, > while perhaps not the smartest, was still legal. (today's paper URL > in a separate post.) I, too, feel the policy is legal and the idea of using a webcam to capture a picture of a thief and to also grab a screenshot of what he's doing to be a great idea! But the issue remains: the laptop was not stolen and there is an alleged picture of a student in his home eating candy captured by the webcam and the student was confronted (later) in school with the picture. THAT (the picture taken using a non-stolen laptop's webcam) is what instigated the lawsuit and I don't see how the school is going to weasel out of that. ***** Moderator's Note ***** IANALB some possible defenses come to mind: "Someone else sent us that picture" "You showed that picture to your friends and they turned you in" "We didn't do that and you can't prove we did" "You took the picture, not us, we just got a report from the anti-spyware program" ... etc. This is a very significant legal case, because it cuts to the heart of the problem with computers and the law: it's nearly impossible to prove that a particular person was using a particular computer to perform a particular action when the alleged bad acts occurred. Unless the school is willing to admit that it obtained a photograph without consent of the user and through deliberate use of remote monitoring software, the odds are that the plaintiff will lose. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:07:07 -0800 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Fonts and Editors (was: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court ) Message-ID: <4B82D5DB.8020604@thadlabs.com> On 2/22/2010 6:23 AM, Sam Spade wrote: >> ***** Moderator's Note ***** >> >> PLEASE do not paste text from a microsoft editor into email >> submissions you are sending to the digest! It leaves proprietary >> artifacts in the text which I must edit out by hand. > > More correctly, they can use an MS editor provided they save in > plain text mode. > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > Please don't. Microsoft's plan for world domination includes using > "Windows" fonts in every application, and AFAIK that includes their > "plain text" editors. When an email arrives with a header that says > "charset=us-ascii" (United States - American Standard Code for > Information Interchange), I'm entitled to assume that there are no > "High ASCII" characters in it, i.e., no bytes with a value above 127 > decimal. > [...] Frustration understood. :-) Where I've seen the problem occur frequently is copy'n'pasting from a web page into an editor or even Thunderbird's entry window, with the offending characters mostly being left and right single and double quotes and an em-dash ("---" as a single horizontal line). What I (mostly) do now is copy'n'paste from a web page to an Emacs window, and then I can see and correct the bad characters, then copy'n'paste from the Emacs window to Thunderbird's entry windows and everything's fine. Use of Emacs is also great to keep line length around 75 characters or so via ESC-Q after setting the fill column (^U nnn ^X F). Another choice of editor for Windows users is Textpad, free for personal use and available here: http://www.textpad.com/download/index.html It's probably THE most featureful text editor for a Windows system and yet is extremely easy to use. Among other things it can correct characters and read/save files in Windows and UNIX/Linux formats. Emacs for Windows is available here (can download with a browser): <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/windows> and if you want to make the "Caps Lock" a proper [CTRL] key, the best and most reliable and for Win2K, WinXP, Vista and Win7 is here (writeup first): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897578.aspx http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Ctrl2Cap.zip and, yes, I use it on my Win2K, WinXP, Vista and Win7 systems. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Since this post is a big change of subject, I have "de-threaded" it. I use emacs to edit the Digest, but it's not for the faint-hearted, and I'll warn potential users that there's a big learning curve to climb (Some say the name stands for extend-meta-alt-control-spacebar, due to the way emacs makes extensive use of the Escape, Alt, and control keys). Although emacs offers features - such as "rectangle editing" - which aren't available in most editors, it's a big change from the Windows world. Other editors may be more user-friendly, but the plain truth is that those whom are used to a what-you-see-is-all-you-get environment will find it easiest to stick with what they know already. The "Official" font of the Digest is "ISO-8859-1", which is a compromise between ASCII and Unicode Transformation Format (UTF): at some point, we'll probably have to convert to UTF-8, but for now I'll just ask readers to not cut and paste unless they know that the result doesn't contain proprietary, non - ISO-8859-1 characters. Bill Horne Moderator P.S. There's a wealth of information on this issue, since it's as old as the Internet. Some links I got with a quick search follow: http://ask-leo.com/why_does_my_email_sometimes_show_up_with_funny_characters_like_0d_in_it.html http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070719071212177 http://blogs.boomerang.com/blog/2009/04/14/shady-characters-in-your-html-email/ http://www.netaction.org/training/badtext.html
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:14:18 -0800 From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Fonts and Editors (was: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams, court ) Message-ID: <_RGgn.4755$jB5.3759@newsfe19.iad> Thad Floryan wrote: > On 2/22/2010 6:23 AM, Sam Spade wrote: > > >>>***** Moderator's Note ***** >>> >>>PLEASE do not paste text from a microsoft editor into email >>>submissions you are sending to the digest! It leaves proprietary >>>artifacts in the text which I must edit out by hand. >> >>More correctly, they can use an MS editor provided they save in >>plain text mode. >> >>***** Moderator's Note ***** >> >>Please don't. Microsoft's plan for world domination includes using >>"Windows" fonts in every application, and AFAIK that includes their >>"plain text" editors. When an email arrives with a header that says >>"charset=us-ascii" (United States - American Standard Code for >>Information Interchange), I'm entitled to assume that there are no >>"High ASCII" characters in it, i.e., no bytes with a value above 127 >>decimal. >>[...] > > > Frustration understood. :-) > > Where I've seen the problem occur frequently is copy'n'pasting from a > web page into an editor or even Thunderbird's entry window, with the > offending characters mostly being left and right single and double > quotes and an em-dash ("---" as a single horizontal line). > > What I (mostly) do now is copy'n'paste from a web page to an Emacs > window, and then I can see and correct the bad characters, then > copy'n'paste from the Emacs window to Thunderbird's entry windows and > everything's fine. Use of Emacs is also great to keep line length > around 75 characters or so via ESC-Q after setting the fill column (^U > nnn ^X F). > > Another choice of editor for Windows users is Textpad, free for > personal use and available here: > > http://www.textpad.com/download/index.html > > It's probably THE most featureful text editor for a Windows system > and yet is extremely easy to use. Among other things it can correct > characters and read/save files in Windows and UNIX/Linux formats. > > Emacs for Windows is available here (can download with a browser): > <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/windows> > > and if you want to make the "Caps Lock" a proper [CTRL] key, the best > and most reliable and for Win2K, WinXP, Vista and Win7 is here > (writeup first): > > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897578.aspx > > http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Ctrl2Cap.zip > > and, yes, I use it on my Win2K, WinXP, Vista and Win7 systems. > > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > Since this post is a big change of subject, I have "de-threaded" it. > > I use emacs to edit the Digest, but it's not for the faint-hearted, > and I'll warn potential users that there's a big learning curve to > climb (Some say the name stands for extend-meta-alt-control- > spacebar, due to the way emacs makes extensive use of the Escape, > Alt, and control keys). Although emacs offers features - such as > "rectangle editing" - which aren't available in most editors, it's a > big change from the Windows world. > > Other editors may be more user-friendly, but the plain truth is that > those whom are used to a what-you-see-is-all-you-get environment > will find it easiest to stick with what they know already. The > "Official" font of the Digest is "ISO-8859-1", which is a compromise > between ASCII and Unicode Transformation Format (UTF): at some > point, we'll probably have to convert to UTF-8, but for now I'll > just ask readers to not cut and paste unless they know that the > result doesn't contain proprietary, non - ISO-8859-1 characters. > > Bill Horne > Moderator > > P.S. There's a wealth of information on this issue, since it's as > old as the Internet. Some links I got with a quick search follow: > > http://ask-leo.com/why_does_my_email_sometimes_show_up_with_funny_characters_like_0d_in_it.html > > http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070719071212177 > > http://blogs.boomerang.com/blog/2009/04/14/shady-characters-in-your-html-email/ > > http://www.netaction.org/training/badtext.html > Bill Gates "[Deity] Complex" notwithstanding, his three programs, Notepad, Wordpad, and even his full-blown word processor program indeed can, and will, work at the basic ASCII level. Problem is, too many users do not get it. BTW, Apple was the pioneer at pushing fonts. ;-)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:36:15 -0600 From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams Message-ID: <r6ydnTqGUpzwRh_WnZ2dnUVZ_jydnZ2d@posted.visi> David Kaye wrote: > But if they're going to provide laptops I'm all in favor of spying. After > all, the laptops belong to the district and they have a right to control how > the laptops are used. Period, end of story. How is that different from your LEC (or their friends) listening to everything you say on the phone, because after all, you're using their wires and exchange equipment to do it with? Dave ***** Moderator's Note ***** ... and the thread is dragged, kicking and screaming, back on-topic ...
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:27:36 +1100 From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: US school district spied on students through webcams Message-ID: <pan.2010.02.22.21.27.35.895827@myrealbox.com> On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:36:15 -0600, Dave Garland wrote: > David Kaye wrote: > >> But if they're going to provide laptops I'm all in favor of spying. >> After all, the laptops belong to the district and they have a right to >> control how the laptops are used. Period, end of story. > > How is that different from your LEC (or their friends) listening to > everything you say on the phone, because after all, you're using their > wires and exchange equipment to do it with? > > Dave > > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > ... and the thread is dragged, kicking and screaming, back on-topic ... And since the "Spying" was done (I assume) over Telco infrastructure, aren't their laws in the US against that? -- Regards, David. David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:19:07 -0800 From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Cable System Switch Type Message-ID: <vWGgn.4849$jB5.4667@newsfe19.iad> Anyone have an idea what the end office switch type "NT-5" is? That is what comes up in Local Calling Guide for the switch used in NPA 949 by Cox Communications to provide dial tone services on their Orange County, California cable service. I know, "NT" seems like those folks that make DMS switches. ;-)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom- munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne. Contact information: Bill Horne Telecom Digest 43 Deerfield Road Sharon MA 02067-2301 781-784-7287 bill at horne dot net Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Copyright (C) 2009 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
End of The Telecom digest (16 messages)

Return to Archives ** Older Issues