---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <4C5A4D51-7A2D-4280-97B8-5E73A9414F61@roscom.com> Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 17:17:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Verizon to Pay $4.8 Billion for Yahoo's Core Business Verizon to Pay $4.8 Billion for Yahoo's Core Business It's the end of the line for Yahoo as an independent company, once valued at $125 billion. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/business/yahoo-sale.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ddcac0f4-98f6-4448-bd17-e79af2d2db11@googlegroups.com> Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2016 13:02:05 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Microsoft Confirms Windows 10 New Monthly Charge On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 12:33:26 PM UTC-4, Bob Goudreau wrote: [snip] > In fact, until the 1956 consent decree, leasing was the *only* way for > customers to access IBM hardware (and thus, the bundled software). > That agreement with the Justice Department gave customers the option of > purchasing outright instead of leasing. But even after that, many > enterprises preferred to stick to leasing's "predictable, periodic > operating expenses" model that Garrett mentioned. When the software > industry took off after the unbundling decision thirteen years later, > many businesses applied the same logic when making their buy vs. sub- > scribe decisions about software. But the key issue here is that businesses want to _choose_ for themselves whether to lease or purchase, not having [the choice] forced on them as M/S apparently is doing. For some business, for a variety of reasons, leasing is better, for others, purchase is better. (Just as some businesses choose to purchase the buildings they occupy while others lease them.) We must note that lease vs. purchase was a major motivator in the Bell System breakup. Until then, all Bell System customers had to lease almost all communications products from Bell. Many resented that, and would've preferred to purchase and handle their own maintenance, or have purchased gear from a separate vendor. The big issue was [that] customers wanted to choose for themselves. As for IBM, after unbundling, IBM customers had three general choices: lease from IBM, purchase from IBM, or lease from a third party vendor. Each approach had pros and cons. But prices were reduced. > Heck, my wife's employer is the world's largest privately-held > software firm, and virtually their entire revenue stream comes from > software subscriptions and associated services, not one-time > sales. So Microsoft will hardly be blazing a trail by offering > Windows 10 Enterprise as a subscription-based service. The large > companies that use Windows 10 Enterprise (which, remember, is not a > consumer-level product) are already used to that pricing model for > all sorts of other enterprise software they use. I don't know who your wife's employer is, but I must respectfully disagree. I do know that in the mainframe world, many once independent vendors were bought out by a large company which now has a near monopoly on independent mainframe software. Why this isn't an anti-trust issue I don't know--it sure seems like it is. Anyway, many of the software products are stable and haven't been advanced in decades, but are still used by mainframe customers. None the less, the prices charged for them are extremely high-- thousands of dollars per year. Seems to me that a functionally stabilized product should have a modest lease charge. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1607241329120.3938@panix5.panix.com> Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 13:29:30 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Illinois (IL!!) new law restricting use of "Stingrays" well, at least casual use by the local folk. Feds, I'd guess, are unaffected. [Illinois ACLU press release] Statement: Governor Bruce Rauner signs Senate Bill 2343 (Cell site simulator regulation) Earlier today, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 2343, a measure that increases transparency and regulation of cell site simulators, often known by the brand name Stingrays, when they are used by law enforcement in Illinois. Left unregulated, the technology can be a powerful tool for mass surveillance as it can sweep up large amounts of data from cell phones in a particular area. The new law, once it goes into effect, requires law enforcement to get a court order to use a Stingray, adopt specific procedures to assure that data of non-targets is not captured and retained and prohibit the technology to block phone calls, drain a phone battery or intercept the content of phone calls, web browsing and text messages by police. ==== rest: http://www.aclu-il.org/statement-governor-bruce-rauner-signs-senate-bill-2343-cell-site-simulator-regulation/ _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 26 Jul 2016