The Telecom Digest for January 13, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 12 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:41:16 -0800
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Against Headphones
Message-ID: <d_adnaPnNL4GVrDQnZ2dnUVZ_h2dnZ2d@giganews.com>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> When I worked at Back Bay in Boston, the 50KW Turbine generator would
> start up every week for tests. It was as loud as an aircraft jet
> engine - which it was - and my partnet and I refused to work in the
> area on those nights.
>
> In a way, we were pioneers: hearing loss wasn't something ordinary
> people knew of or worried about in those years. It was only because I
> had been in Vietnam, and stationed on a flight line where I had been
> trained about the dangers of jet noise, that I was aware we were at
> risk.
>
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
>
The majority of airline pilots suffer significant hearing loss as they
approach age 70. I was with two others for lunch yesterday, ages mid
70s and we all have the same problem.
It's not from being outside around jet engines but the thousands of
hours in the cockpit of an airliner. Persumably, a passenger who flew
as much as we did would suffer the same problem. However, almost no one
rides around that much over the years.
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:55:06 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Against Headphones
Message-ID: <pan.2011.01.12.01.55.02.225834@myrealbox.com>
On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:07:45 -0800, Richard wrote:
.........
> My cousin played in a rock band during college. He said that he and his
> band mates wore earplugs during performances to protect their hearing.
> The could still hear enough of the music though the earplugs to stay
> synchronized with each other. A pity that their audience member didn't
> wear earplugs.
>
One of the big reasons the sound at a lot of smaller rock gigs is (used to
be?) so bad is that the people doing the PA mix have been in the industry
for so long that their own hearing is shot, so they adjust the sound to
what is ok to their battered hearing which means it usually sounds
terrible to people with normal hearing!
Many an emerging band has been crippled by hearing damaged sound mixers
until they become famous enough to employ people with good ears.
> Obtelecom: One of my coworkers at Bell Labs worked on TJ and TM
> short-haul microvave radio. Each unit had a DC-to-DC inverter which
> operates at 2 kHz, with a loud sound. He developed a hole in his
> hearing frequency response at 2 kHz. All other audio frequencies were
> OK.
>
Yep, the physiology of the ear has specific areas sensitive to specific
frequencies, so hammering them essentially wears them out prematurely and
you can end up with significant notches in your own bandwidth.
>
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> When I worked at Back Bay in Boston, the 50KW Turbine generator would
> start up every week for tests. It was as loud as an aircraft jet engine
> - which it was - and my partner and I refused to work in the area on
> those nights.
>
> In a way, we were pioneers: hearing loss wasn't something ordinary
> people knew of or worried about in those years. It was only because I
> had been in Vietnam, and stationed on a flight line where I had been
> trained about the dangers of jet noise, that I was aware we were at risk.
>
Compared to 20+ years ago the health and safety protection in the
workplace to protect hearing is very good now, it is perverse that we now
have other new technologies to cause damage after we have recognised the
hazards in the workplace!
Oh well, I suppose the market for "Bionic" hearing aids will increase
exponentially and one day someone will build a phone into them.
--
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: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:07:26 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Somerville woman says she lost job because of iPhone glitch
Message-ID: <p0624086bc953ba3af161@[10.0.1.2]>
Somerville woman says she lost job because of iPhone glitch
By Katherine Landergan, Globe Correspondent
January 6, 2011
A Somerville woman says she lost her job as a server at a restaurant
because of an iPhone glitch on New Year's Day-- and she's sent her
complaint all the way to the top.
Lindsay Garvey, 28, wrote a letter to Apple Inc. chief executive
Steve Jobs, complaining that her smartphone's alarm didn't go off on
New Year's morning, making her late for work at Foundry on Elm, a
restaurant in Somerville.
"Upon my termination, I was told that I was wonderful, but that my
tardiness was unfair to the other employees," she wrote. "So, Mr.
Jobs, I'd like to let you know that you have officially, directly
contributed to unemployment in 2011."
Garvey said she worked until 4 a.m. on New Year's, and was scheduled
for a noon shift later that same day. She had no reason to think the
alarm would fail to go off, as it never has since she bought the
phone in September 2009. It was not until Sunday morning when her
alarm didn't work a second time, that Garvey thought there might be a
glitch.
She then sent the e-mail to Jobs, which Garvey said was just a way
for her to vent.
...
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2011/01/somerville_woman_says_she_lost.html
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:41:40 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Telcos fight to keep phone services operating
Message-ID: <pan.2011.01.12.22.41.39.776924@myrealbox.com>
http://www.theage.com.au/business/telcos-fight-to-keep-phone-services-operating-20110112-19o9p.html
Telcos fight to keep phone services operating Lucy Battersby
January 13, 2011
HELICOPTERS and sandbags are being used to keep generators running and
underground networks dry as telephone operators scramble to maintain
services and minimise damage in Queensland's flooded areas.
But mobile phone coverage will drop out where electricity has been cut if
technicians cannot access facilities to replace back-up batteries.
Networks are also struggling to cope with the volume of communication.
Carriers say it is too early to calculate the cost of repairs, but it is
likely to run into tens of millions of dollars.
Telstra shares were down 1¢ at $2.85 yesterday and shares in Optus parent
SingTel rose 2¢ to $2.42.
Optus and Telstra are not charging to divert calls from customers'
fixed-line phones to their mobiles. Optus will deliver 1500 handsets with
$1000 credit to the Red Cross and Telstra will hand out 200 handsets and
thousands of phone cards through Anglicare, on top of free payphones in
evacuation centres.
Telstra and Optus staff yesterday used helicopters to deliver diesel
generators to regional facilities unreachable by road, while Vodafone
staff swiftly sandbagged a transmission tower threatened by floodwaters in
Brisbane's east.
''Tens of thousands of people are without services,'' a Telstra
spokeswoman said, adding that fault reports had quadrupled in Queensland.
''As power is restored and access enabled to exchanges and affected
properties, this should come down substantially. There will likely be
significant delays because of the sheer volume [of problems].''
An extra 130 technical staff have been sent to the state to help reconnect
services once waters recede.
Telstra hitched a ride on one of the Defence Force's Black Hawk
helicopters to deliver a generator to Theodore, 550 kilometres north-west
of Brisbane, and has tried to protect exchanges with sandbags and plastic
coverings.
The Bribie Island exchange was knocked out by lightning on Tuesday night,
but services were restored yesterday. Only three Telstra exchanges were
without power yesterday afternoon, the spokeswoman said.
Fixed broadband and pay television services are also affected.
Optus's director of fixed engineering, Noel Jarrett, said workers were
trying to seal pits and ducts to prevent water entering the underground
network. About 40 Optus mobile towers were at risk of losing power, he
said.
Vodafone restored its Brisbane services within hours on Tuesday, while
Australia Post said it was unable to deliver mail to many affected
regions.
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:59:29 -0500
From: tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: T-Mobile versus AT&T Mobility 3G questions
Message-ID: <op.vo6ahfb0itl47o@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:35:32 -0500, John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
> Some friends and I were discussing unlocked phones and this came up.
>
> I own a quad-band GSM phone that I got through AT&T. I chose a
> quad-band phone for when I'm overseas. I get 3G speeds in Malaysia
> with it. Just for grins I popped my wife's T-Mobile SIM in and also
> got 3G.
>
> My wife's T-Mobile phone is not quad-band. I put in my AT&T SIM and
> only had EDGE.
>
> In my mind this makes sense if these things work like I think they
> work in the United States. But someone disagreed with me. He said it
> was impossible for me to have seen 3G speeds with anything other than
> an AT&T SIM. Who is correct?
T-Mobile's 3G in the USA uses 1700 MHz; AT&T's 3G in the USA, and
pretty much every other 3G carrier elsewhere in the known GSM
universe, uses 1900 MHz. So your at&t 3G-capable phone (using 1900
MHz) will see 3G speeds pretty much everywhere (using any SIM that is
recognized locally as an active roaming partner's), while your
T-Mobile 3G-capable phone (using 1700 MHz) will see 3G speeds only in
the USA on the US T-Mobile 1700 MHz 3G network (using any SIM that is
recognized by T-Mobile USA as an active roaming partner's).
In short: it's the radio in the phone, not the issuer of the SIM, that
determines whether that phone will be able to exploit the local 3G
service. At&t uses the same 1900 most of the rest of the world uses;
T-Mo USA uses 1700 instead.
HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:24:08 -0500
From: tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Very interesting product
Message-ID: <op.vo6xuixkitl47o@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:07:01 -0500, John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
> ... I finally decided on Android and
> bought a Huawei Ideos 7" tablet.
>
> ... The box said it was 3G.
> ... I inserted a SIM and ... I had 3G speeds and was able to
> talk and SMS from the tablet.
John, would that be 3G of the 1700 MHz "T-Mobile USA" variety, or 3G
of the 1900 MHz "at&t & nearly everybody else" variety? And, any idea
if the GSM for voice uses a world-wide 4-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900
MHz) radio?
> I have never seen a new unlocked Android anything anywhere close to this price.
Interesting find :-) . Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:53:47 +0000 (UTC)
From: Lee Choquette <leec@xmission.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: ZIP Codes and barcodes
Message-ID: <igl7tb$ot6$1@news.xmission.com>
In article <eb91522a-0f5a-4043-bfb7-0a212fcfb8fb@32g2000yqz.googlegroups.com>,
Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>Our post office once had separate "local (within zip code)" and "out
>of town" boxes but these have been removed. They told me all mail,
>even stuff within the zip code, is sent to the major post office for
>processing in the city 35 miles away.
>
>We are also at the state border. It would make sense to have a box
>for the other state's mail per above but they don't. Mail going inter-
>state usually takes an extra day even if the air-line distance is
>short.
Our post office, just inside California at the Arizona border, has had a
separate box for the neighboring states for many years. There were for a
long time three places to deposit mail inside the post office:
* local ZIP code only
* neighboring states of Arizona and Nevada
* all other destinations
Far from removing boxes, they recently added a fourth:
* Netflix discs only
I haven't seen dedicated spots to deposit Netflix discs in the customer
areas of any other post offices, although I have spotted them in the
employee areas of some.
Lee
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:59:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: T-Mobile versus AT&T Mobility 3G questions
Message-ID: <11999.88843.qm@web52706.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:35:32 -0600 John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
> I own a quad-band GSM phone that I got through AT&T. I chose a
> quad-band phone for when I'm overseas. I get 3G speeds in Malaysia
> with it. Just for grins I popped my wife's T-Mobile SIM in and also
> got 3G.
>
> My wife's T-Mobile phone is not quad-band. I put in my AT&T SIM and
> only had EDGE.
T-Mobile's AWS 3G uses 1700/2100 Mhz combination for 3G. AT&T uses
850 and 1900 Mhz combined.
> <<In my mind this makes sense if these things work like I think they
> work in the United States. But someone disagreed with me. He said it
> was impossible for me to have seen 3G speeds with anything other than
> an AT&T SIM. Who is correct?
You don't mention which phone or device you're attempting to put on a
network. If it's a device like the iPhone if you use it on T-Mobile
you'll only get EDGE since its internal radio only can use 3G at 850
and 1900 Mhz combined with 2100 Mhz. It all depends on what device
you're using and if the device is capable to use T-Mobile's AWS bands
with combination of 1700/2100. It will revert to EDGE or if no EDGE
to GPRS.
It should work fine in any area that uses GSM for voice using 850,
900, 1800 or 1900 Mhz.
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:25:09 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless announces the iPhone Fork
Message-ID: <750249.2177.qm@web52706.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:25:33 -0600 John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
<<Yes, that is what I intended to type. As everyone here is well aware,
starting February 2011 the iPhone will be available on the Verizon
Wireless network in the US.>>
Maybe I'm obtuse, but I don't get what you're getting at. Anyway...
<<"Relying on Verizon's older 3G CDMA network, instead of its fledgling
4G LTE network, means Verizon's iPhone will have a few shortcomings.
Most glaringly: Customers wouldn't be able to chat on the phone and
surf the Web simultaneously, as they can on AT&T's iPhone.">>
"4G" networks have barely been deployed so that's really not a big
deal. Apple didn't deploy an iPhone with 3G the first year because
AT&T's network didn't have enough places where it was deployed that it
would be an advantage with the iPhone. Same goes with the LTE flavor
of 4G. Perhaps when the next iteration of iPhone appears in June for
the GSM version it will have LTE but I'm guessing not.
<<My first question is how different is the iPhone sold in the US from
the iPhone sold in other countries?>>
The iPhone as it's now manufactured is the same wherever it's being
deployed as far as I know the only difference being that wall chargers
will have the relevant plug type for the countries where it's sold
e.g. flat bladed parallel for North America, round pin for Europe and
the middle east and the three lugged "chunky" plug for the UK and
other countries that use that style of plug (and other variations.)
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:49:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: More on abandonment of telephone directories
Message-ID: <47951.1578.qm@web111712.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Tue, 1/11/11, Matt Simpson <net-news69@jmatt.net> wrote:
[ ... ]
> Obviously a good online system would be far preferable to
> this multiply-redundant waste of paper. Unfortunately, as
> others have pointed out, the available online systems are frequently
> less than
> adequate.
A "good online system" is of no value for prople without computers or
smart phone. There are a substanial subset of people in this
category.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
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End of The Telecom Digest (10 messages)
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