34 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Nov 5, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 202 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones (David LaRue)
Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones (unknown)
Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones (David Scheidt)
Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones (John Levine)
Re: AT&T withdrawing operator services (HAncock4)
FCC fining groups that block WiFi access (danny burstein)
Re: UTF-8 (Harold Hallikainen)
Re: PBX Attendant Tips (David Clayton)

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought:
Constant attention wears the active mind,
Blots out our powers, and leaves a blank behind.
Charles Churchill

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details.

Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2015 10:30:30 +0000 (UTC) From: David LaRue <huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones Message-ID: <XnsA54737B0C437A507d764ee9285@178.63.61.145> Ron <ron@see.below> wrote in news:jrrc3bp4v0d7mou35cj313kvofb5vd41nr@4ax.com: >>***** Moderator's Note ***** >> >>I'd like some more opinions on this: please respond either online or >>offline, and let me know if you are in favor of the Telecom Digest >>switching from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8. > > I wouldn't like to see the switch. I still read the group via a > newsreader. Emojis and other UTF-8 cruft would look like > garbage and damage the readability of the posts. I'll second that. My newsreader doesn't understand utf-8. I'd have to get another newsreader just for this forum. I do understand the push to preserve character sets where needed.
Date: 04 Nov 2015 02:33:39 -0400 From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones Message-ID: <877flyjmt8.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> writes: > As I can't read Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, Greek, Innuit, > Hebrew or anything in Cyrillic and don't want to see emoji, I'm happy > with ISO-8859-1 or even ASCII. I find news, mail and web sites that > use (what I take to be) UTF-8 punctuation really annoying. I can read > German and puzzle out bits in French, Spanish and Italian but they use > the Roman characters. [snip] > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I understand not wanting to see emojis or "dingbat" fonts, since they > are still not standardized and some email programs over-decorate them. > > However, and no offense, but if the UTF-8 punctuation is accurate, why > do you find it annoying? I mostly use a really old browser that renders it as hentracks. If I save a page as text with copy & paste, my equally elderly Emacs renders it as '??' which I have to edit to make it easily readable. The old browser meets in excess of 90% of my browsing needs but this isn't the venue to argue the case for my idiosyncrasies. I use the old Emacs because I haven't figured out how to disable all the unwanted features, esp. highlighting, of new ones. In another post, Ron <ron@see.below> wrote: > I wouldn't like to see the switch. I still read the group via a > newsreader. Emojis and other UTF-8 cruft would look like garbage > and damage the readability of the posts. Same. And this is an English-language venue. -- Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2015 04:12:40 +0000 (UTC) From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@panix.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones Message-ID: <n19c7o$2ae$1@reader1.panix.com> :That's the problem in a nutshell: I want to keep the Digest compatible :with newsreaders, but I don't want to obstruct the use of :(appropriate) accented characters in posts. :Maybe I'm looking at this in an unproductive way, so I'll add these :questions to my reuest for opinions: :1. Is there Open-source software available to convert ISO-8859-1 to/from UTF-8? Yes. Lots, on any platform you care to work on. :2. Are there versions of pine, et al, which are able to understand utf-8? yes. There are particular software programs that haven't been updated, either because they're not maintained or because their maintainers actively worked to make them incompatable. But there are suitable replacments available, for almost every platform. :3. What do users of "ascii only" newsreaders gain or lose from switching to utf-8? the ability to spell names correctly, instead of butchering them into ASCII. The ability to properly use various symbols that come in technical conversations, instead of poor ASCII approximations of them. -- sig 119
Date: 4 Nov 2015 00:48:41 -0000 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How Emojis Find Their Way to Phones Message-ID: <20151104004841.48398.qmail@ary.lan> >1. Is there Open-source software available to convert ISO-8859-1 to/from UTF-8? Yes. >2. Are there versions of pine, et al, which are able to understand utf-8? Yes. The standard Unix version of Alpine shows UTF-8 messages quite nicely. >3. What do users of "ascii only" newsreaders gain or lose from switching to utf-8? Non-ASCII characters look ugly in different ways in 8859 and UTF-8. UTF-8 is definitely the code of the future. I use trn with roxterm, an open source X terminal, and it shows UTF-8 fine. R's, John
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2015 19:42:27 -0800 (PST) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: AT&T withdrawing operator services Message-ID: <91f694cb-4b09-478a-a3a8-1237c9bb4e2d@googlegroups.com> On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 9:16:27 PM UTC-5, Anonymous wrote: > AT&T says that it plans to withdraw certain operator services - > including Bill to a Third Number, Busy Line Verify, Busy Line > Interrupt, Collect Calling, and Person to Person - in its 21-state > ILEC franchise service area. Some of the services are clearly obsolete. With à la carte toll pricing of only 12¢/minute, there is no need for Third Number Billing, Collect, and Person-to-Person. However, many people do not have Call Waiting, and Busy Line Interrupt is important in case of emergency. IMHO, that should be retained. (Also, if someone with Call Waiting is talking on 'both' lines, then incoming callers will get a busy signal. So, there is a need for it even for people who do have Call Waiting.)
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2015 10:30:16 -0500 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: FCC fining groups that block WiFi access Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1511031029580.3197@panix1.panix.com> wo press releases dated yesterday (just saw them today): 1: FCC TO FINE HILTON HOTELS FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH WI-FI BLOCKING INVESTIGATION The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau today proposed a $25,000 fine against Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc. for its apparent obstruction of an investigation into whether Hilton engaged in the blocking of consumers' Wi-Fi devices. In today's order, the Bureau directs Hilton to immediately provide essential information and documents about its Wi-Fi management practices and warns the company that it may face a significantly higher fine for any continued obstruction or delay. "Hotel guests deserve to have their Wi-Fi blocking complaints investigated by the Commission," said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau. "To permit any company to unilaterally redefine the scope of our investigation would undermine the independent search for the truth and the due administration of the law." --------- rest: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-fine-hilton-hotels-obstructing-wi-fi-blocking-investigation ================ 2: FCC to Fine MC Dean $718K for Wi-Fi Blocking at Baltimore Conventions The Federal Communications Commission plans a $718,000 fine against M.C. Dean for blocking consumers' Wi-Fi connections at the Baltimore Convention Center. The FCC's Enforcement Bureau investigation found that M.C. Dean, Inc., one of the nation's largest electrical contracting companies, blocked personal mobile "hotspots" of convention visitors and exhibitors who tried to use their own data plans to connect to the Internet rather than paying M.C. Dean substantial fees to use the company's Wi-Fi service. "Consumers are tired of being taken advantage of by hotels and convention centers that block their personal Wi-Fi connections," said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau. "This disturbing practice must come to an end. It is patently unlawful for any company to maliciously block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections." ---- rest: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-fine-mc-dean-718k-wi-fi-blocking-baltimore-conventions-0 _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2015 05:27:12 -0800 From: "Harold Hallikainen" <harold@hallikainen.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: UTF-8 Message-ID: <3d3c92fbf5f6dc59c1303a73bb5ae51b.squirrel@www.hallikainen.org> > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > Harold, > > Please, have mercy on the old Model 33 repairmen in the audience, and > explain why the Unicode character set is better than what ISO-8859-1 > can provide. TIA. > > Bill Horne > Moderator > For almost all English text, UTF-8 just turns out to be 7 bit ASCII. I don't think I saw a single non-ASCII character in today's telecom digest. But, if you want to use a non-ASCII character, you now have access to the full Unicode character set instead of the limited set included in ISO-8859-1. For English, though, I find ASCII to be fine. If you don't mind shouting, even 5 bit BAUDOT would be fine. Anyone up for EBCDIC? Harold (former Teletype model 15 user) --- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com Not sent from an iPhone. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Since I learned to touch-type on a Model 19, I share your love of Baudot/Murray code. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2015 15:30:26 +1100 From: David Clayton <dc33box-usenet2@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: PBX Attendant Tips Message-ID: <pan.2015.11.03.04.30.22.666017@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au> On Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:36:51 -0700, HAncock4 wrote: >> ***** Moderator's Note ***** ......... >> This is why "POTS" phones almost all have a hybrid network in them to >> feed the user's voice into both the phone line and the earpiece: when >> the earpiece is blocking their ear, they need to have the phone provide >> the feedback they would normally hear while speaking without it. > > This feature was so important that the telephone companies researched the > optimum level of sidetone to provide in the telephone set. No sidetone > would have people shouting, and too much sidetone would cause people to > talk too softly. ......... Research done when telephones were almost always used in far different environments (enclosed rooms, offices, homes etc.) to what happens today may not be relevant. It may be time to research what people who constantly use phones in noisy outdoor locations - and may never, ever use "landline" phones with sidetone - need to communicate clearly. -- 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.

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