The Telecom Digest for August 13, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 219 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:11:24 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Do rate centers cross state lines?
Message-ID: <usGdnc-piOeg1_7RnZ2dnUVZ_ridnZ2d@giganews.com>
Steven wrote:
> On 8/9/10 3:30 PM, Sam Spade wrote:
>
>>
>
>>>
>> On the other side of that coin Zerox had a major facility on the east
>> side of Pasadena, California. The main building was in GTE terriotry,
>> formerly CWT territory. GTE built a new C.O. close by hopping to get
>> Zerox to buy their SxS "centrex" system. This was mid-1970s when Pacific
>> Bell, that served most of Pasadena had cut over to 1ESS several office
>> codes, which served a smaller part of Zerox's facility on the west side
>> of the street across from the main building. Zerox subscribed to Pacific
>> Bell Centrex, which terminated in the little building. Zerox then
>> shipped it under the street in a cable vault used for lots of company
>> stuff. GTE took Zerox before the California PUC and lost.
>>
>
> I remember that, I helped build the Hastings Ranch CO which was built
> for Zerox Electrical Optical Systems, it was built to Zerox Specs and
> paid for mostly by them. A few years after that Zerox close the rather
> large office building and now it is a bunch of offices. That was a
> really strange office and had a switch that I had never seen before,
> isle after isle of Centrx switches. I spent almost a year on that
> project. There were condos on the hill above the CO and one real nasty
> old lady keep calling the police because as she put it, there was noise
> 24/7. GTE tried to settle with her, but in the end it went to court and
> GTE took here down to her panties.
>
I didn't know they had bought most of that gear. Perhaps they used it
until the advent of Pasadena Pacific Bell ESS Centrex. I recall that
Pac Bell was fairly conservative in deploying the 1ESS until they had
Centrex working quite well.
BTW, two friend of mine (brothers) built several of those GTE CO
building including Hastings as I recall. I know they built the
replacement building after the Sylmar earthquake.
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:02:35 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Do rate centers cross state lines?
Message-ID: <naidnRbnL48xJf7RnZ2dnUVZ_gKdnZ2d@giganews.com>
jsw wrote:
>>located in Van Nuys, Calif. They wanted a special
>>system and Pacific Telephone would not install it,
>
>
> (Admittedly wandering a bit off topic, but ...)
>
> In the early 1960s, when I was first becoming fascinated
> with 'fone stuph' <bfg>, my aunt worked for a business in
> Pico Rivera, just outside of El-Lay proper.
>
> IIRC, their office and warehouse was RIGHT on the border.
>
> At the time they had a mixture of RAymond lines, local to
> LA and I assume Pac Bell, and OXford lines, local to Pico
> Rivera, and GTE I assume. I was vaguely aware of the
> situation in the area, with gerrymandered service areas
> of Ma Bell and GTE and the Indies.
>
> What fascinated me was that they had a key system in the
> office with buttons for both the RAymond and OXford lines.
> I can't recall, maybe didn't even pay that much attention
> at the time, if the key system was WECO or AE, but there
> was either some degree of cooperation between the two
> telcos, or else some kind of a 'cowboy' arrangement in
> order to get both sets of lines on one key system.
>
Foreign Exchange service was always available. In California a business
could pull dial tone from a contiguous or non-contiguous exchange. A
residential customer was limited to a contiguous exchange. In the 1970s
I lived in GTE's Azusa-Glendora exchange and had residential dial tone
from Pacific Bell's El Monte exchange. (It got me on an early 1ESS
instead of GTE's problem-laden (at least for toll) SxS with its balky
toll mangement device called, I believe, the Call Director.
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:13:13 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Update for iPhone and iPod touch
Message-ID: <p06240804c889952cf2f3@[10.0.1.6]>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
APPLE-SA-2010-08-11-1 iOS 4.0.2 Update for iPhone and iPod touch
iOS 4.0.2 Update for iPhone and iPod touch is now available and
addresses the following:
FreeType
CVE-ID: CVE-2010-1797
Available for: iOS 2.0 through 4.0.1 for iPhone 3G and later,
iOS 2.1 through 4.0 for iPod touch (2nd generation) and later
Impact: Viewing a PDF document with maliciously crafted embedded
fonts may allow arbitrary code execution
Description: A stack buffer overflow exists in FreeType's handling
of CFF opcodes. Viewing a PDF document with maliciously crafted
embedded fonts may allow arbitrary code execution. This issue is
addressed through improved bounds checking.
IOSurface
CVE-ID: CVE-2010-2973
Available for: iOS 2.0 through 4.0.1 for iPhone 3G and later,
iOS 2.1 through 4.0 for iPod touch (2nd generation) and later
Impact: Malicious code running as the user may gain system
privileges
Description: An integer overflow exists in the handling of IOSurface
properties, which may allow malicious code running as the user to
gain system privileges. This issue is addressed through improved
bounds checking.
Installation note:
These updates are only available through iTunes, and will not appear
in your computer's Software Update application, or in the Apple
Downloads site. Make sure you have an Internet connection and have
installed the latest version of iTunes from www.apple.com/itunes/
iTunes will automatically check Apple's update server on its weekly
schedule. When an update is detected, it will download it. When
the iPhone or iPod touch is docked, iTunes will present the user with
the option to install the update. We recommend applying the update
immediately if possible. Selecting Don't Install will present the
option the next time you connect your iPhone or iPod touch.
The automatic update process may take up to a week depending on the
day that iTunes checks for updates. You may manually obtain the
update via the Check for Updates button within iTunes. After doing
this, the update can be applied when your iPhone or iPod touch is
docked to your computer.
To check that the iPhone or iPod touch has been updated:
* Navigate to Settings
* Select General
* Select About. The version after applying this update will be
"4.0 (8A400)" or later.
Information will also be posted to the Apple Security Updates
web site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key,
and details are available at:
https://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/
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Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:25:59 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: TW Cable CEO: Programmers Oppose Smaller Channel Bundles
Message-ID: <4C644AC7.9060707@annsgarden.com>
| By Nat Worden Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
|
| NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) Chief Executive
| Glenn Britt is advocating for the cable industry to offer smaller
| channel bundles at lower prices to customers as the cost of
| programming rises and the U.S. economy struggles, but he says
| television networks oppose the idea.
|
| "We raise the issue in our all our negotiations with programmers,
| but across the board, they're opposed to the idea," Britt said in
| an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
|
| Britt said he isn't calling for a la carte pricing, which would
| allow customers to tailor their own channel lineup and pay for
| just the networks they want. He said such a scheme wouldn't work
| in favor of consumers, but he acknowledged that less affluent
| consumers want lower-priced, smaller channel offerings.
Continued at http://tinyurl.com/2cr7qqm
Obtelecom: None. However, this subject has been discussed here many
times before, so I trust that Bill will accept it as the latest round in
an old thread.
Comment: As many of you know, I'm a retired cable guy so I'm familiar
with this issue. But I'm certainly not here to defend the programmers
-- I was always on the other side of the table. Virtually every license
agreement I ever saw either required carriage on the basic tier, or
specified a substantially higher fee for carriage on any other tier.
See my blog at
http://theoldcatvequipmentmuseum.org/320/321/index.html
Neal McLain
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:52:00 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Smudge Attacks on Smartphone Touch Screens
Message-ID: <p06240808c88a5313548b@[10.0.1.6]>
Smudge Attacks on Smartphone Touch Screens
Adam J. Aviv, Katherine Gibson, Evan Mossop,
Matt Blaze, and Jonathan M. Smith
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Pennsylvania
Abstract
Touch screens are an increasingly common feature on personal
computing devices, especially smartphones, where size and user
interface advantages accrue from consolidating multiple hardware
components (keyboard, number pad, etc.) into a single software
definable user interface. Oily residues, or smudges, on the touch
screen surface, are one side effect of touches from which frequently
used patterns such as a graphical password might be inferred.
In this paper we examine the feasibility of such smudge attacks on
touch screens for smartphones, and focus our analysis on the Android
password pattern. We first investigate the conditions (e.g., lighting
and camera orientation) under which smudges are easily extracted. In
the vast majority of settings, partial or complete patterns are
easily retrieved. We also emulate usage situations that interfere
with pattern identification, and show that pattern smudges continue
to be recognizable. Finally, we provide a preliminary analysis of
applying the information learned in a smudge attack to guessing an
Android password pattern.
...
http://www.usenix.org/events/woot10/tech/full_papers/Aviv.pdf
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:53:54 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: At the DeCordova, smart phone app is real conversation piece
Message-ID: <p0624080bc88a560304bf@[10.0.1.6]>
AUDIO: At the DeCordova, smart phone app is real conversation piece
By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF
GateHouse News Service
Posted Aug 08, 2010 @ 08:54 PM
Last update Aug 10, 2010 @ 10:59 AM
LINCOLN -
Getting an earful can sometimes make you see things more clearly.
That's what makes audio artist Halsey Burgund's new sound
installation at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum such
eye-opening fun.
For people who grew up being shushed in museums, Burgund's ``Scapes''
lets visitors eavesdrop via a smart phone on other visitors'
conversations and hear their reactions to many of the park's outdoor
artworks.
Burgund has custom-built an iPhone application just for the DeCordova
that lets visitors listen to an auditory tapestry of comments,
natural sounds and music recorded by himself and others on their
tours of the 35-acre park.
Museum staffer Susie Stockwell explained that Burgund's free
application can be downloaded from the Apple App store onto any smart
phone. ``You can be part of the installation,'' she said.
Burgund's ``Scapes'' is the third project in DeCordova's PLATFORM
series, which will comprise nine solo exhibits by early and
mid-career artists from New England and across the country. Stockwell
said those artists are encouraged to create work that enhances
visitors' experiences of the park's physical, social and creative
landscape.
Burgund's ``Scapes'' will be available through Nov. 14.
...
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/entertainments/arts/x1179099991/VIDEO-At-the-DeCordova-smart-phone-app-is-real-conversation-piece
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:46:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Model 15 RO Teletype available (OT)
Message-ID: <798bde1a-5155-47e0-ab72-120d8fab72c8@k10g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
On Aug 11, 9:58 am, Wes Leatherock <Wesr...@aol.com> wrote:
> most 5-bell ("Bulletin") material was sent by breaking the tape and
starting
. . .
> ("Flash"), 10 bells or more. This was an extremely rare occurrence.
A question about the bells, if I may.
On the Teletype 33, the bell sounded at the end of a line (just like a
typewriter) or in response to CNTL-G (ASCII)*. However, the bell
wasn't very loud and barely audible over the chugging of the machine.
In school, sometimes for a joke we'd write a program to sound the bell
a few times as if to sound an alarm. But the machine 'chugged' for
every character, printing or not, and so the bell wasn't loud.
I wonder in a room full of Teletypes clacking away (newsrooms usually
had multiple machines) if their bell was equally barely audible. As
mentioned, the bell would send at the end of every line anyway so it
wasn't a unique sound.
* I believe to this day if you write a little BASIC program to PRINT
cntl-G the computer will beep.
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:54:09 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Model 15 RO Teletype available (OT)
Message-ID: <i3vr91$r24$1@reader1.panix.com>
Wes Leatherock <Wesrock@aol.com> writes:
>Only the most extremely urgent mateiral was sent by direct
>keyboarding ("Flash"), 10 bells or more. This was an extremely
>rare occurrence. "Japan surrenders.,"
Perhaps not the best example. While I can't recall if it was VE
or VJ day, a witness in a newspaper office told me that:
a) All the wires; AP & UPI's, Sports, Finance, state, local..
all went silent and stayed that way for several minutes....
b) They all restarted together [They had been patched
together...], and simoutanously printed out the same message....
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
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End of The Telecom Digest (8 messages)
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