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The Telecom Digest for Mon, 15 May 2017
Volume 36 : Issue 56 : "text" format

Table of contents
A new tool to further deter smartphone theftMonty Solomon
Re: Are Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here's the cure tlvp
FCC Chairman Responds to Letter from Municipal Broadband ... Neal McLain
Happy Mothers Day from Western UnionHAncock4
Re: Are Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here's the cureJim Haynes
Google's "Project Treble" solves Android update roadblocks Monty Solomon
At Least 12 Nations Hit by N.S.A. Hacking ToolMonty Solomon
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <B6268CFD-20B4-44F5-B6E3-C2E82FE4C74C@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 06:12:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: A new tool to further deter smartphone theft Whether you live in New York, Atlanta or Los Angeles, you are likely reading this article on your smartphone. With over 260 million smartphones in use across the nation - equating to more than one for every adult - we all know smartphones are now essential to keeping in touch and managing our daily lives. https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/05/op-ed-a-new-tool-to-further-deter-smartphone-theft/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <2wmnou8nhp9d$.lxed0lo4vvnn$.dlg@40tude.net> Date: Thu, 11 May 2017 17:08:07 -0400 From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> Subject: Re: Are Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here's the cure On Thu, 11 May 2017 11:09:28 -0400, responding to Monty Solomon, Moderator wrote: > Take one for the team. > > I think you should answer the call, and hang on until you get to talk > to a human being. Stretch the call out as long as you can, and then > politely say that you're not interested. > > /THAT/ will get you on their don't dial list faster than ..., [snip!] ... Just yesterday I had a call from the infamous 799-CALL-045 "Windows Technical Support" offering to clean the malware from my Windows computer. (On a tangent: am I right that 799 is a not a US but a Mexican area code?) "Yes," I answered, "I was expecting you yesterday already to clean my windows, when are you coming?" Remote voice: "No, no, it's your Windows computer needs cleaning, and ... " Me: "Yes, can you come this afternoon? or tomorrow? there's 13 of them on each floor, and 3 floors, so, along with the glass in the front door, 40 windows, and they're filthy, really need a thorough cleaning." Remote voice? gone -- hung up. But, 160 minutes later, same caller-ID rings again. No, I didn't answer. Clearly I hadn't (yet?) made it to their "don't dial list". We'll see tho'. Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <8f0e32d9-dea6-4d39-ac2b-e7e57af595f3@googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 12:42:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> Subject: FCC Chairman Responds to Letter from Municipal Broadband ... FCC Chairman Pai Responds to Letter from Municipal Broadband Providers in Support of Title II Reversal By Laura Hamilton, CED, May 12, 2017 Nineteen municipal broadband providers that support FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plans to reverse the classification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II sent him a letter on Thursday, which Pai is calling an "exceptionally important contribution to the debate." "These nonprofit ISPs serve small towns across America, from Bagley, Minn., to Tullahoma, Tenn. They told us that the FCC's heavy-handed rules have led them to 'often delay or hold off from rolling out a new feature or service,'" Pai says in a statement released Friday. "As a result, [their] customers lose out on having access to innovation and new capabilities." The chairman also points out that the muni broadband providers told him in their letter the rules are so complex they have to retain attorneys and consultants to provide advice on compliance. They further suggest that Pai's proposal could cut regulatory compliance costs, and therefore they could invest more in their networks. "The fact that ISPs lacking any profit motive agree that eliminating Title II regulation will benefit consumers and promote innovation and investment is a powerful endorsement of reversing the FCC's 2015 Title II Order," Pai concludes. https://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2017/05/fcc-chairman-pai-responds-letter-municipal-broadband-providers-support-title-ii-reversal?et_cid=5948872&et_rid=65et_rid=652835436 -or- http://tinyurl.com/lrwfujf Neal McLain ------------------------------ Message-ID: <9089fdca-d078-43f8-9464-c22e475b785e@googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 14:34:42 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Happy Mothers Day from Western Union Two [Mothers Day] advertisements from LIFE magazine from the late 1950s. https://books.google.com/books?id=81AEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA48&dq=life%20mothers%20day%20western%20union&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q=life%20mothers%20day%20western%20union&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=V08EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PT16&dq=life%20mothers%20day%20western%20union&pg=PT16#v=onepage&q=life%20mothers%20day%20western%20union&f=false ------------------------------ Message-ID: <a9f68d76-7790-468b-a2a6-22321023ed09@googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 17:59:49 -0700 (PDT) From: jhhaynes@earthlink.net Subject: Re: Are Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here's the cure How effective is it if you just press 1 to talk to a live operator, then set the phone down and go on with your life? Does that waste enough of their time to annoy them? ------------------------------ Message-ID: <3397F621-0564-490D-B7DA-52BDE49BF94D@roscom.com> Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 23:37:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Google's "Project Treble" solves Android update roadblocks Google's "Project Treble" solves one of Android's many update roadblocks Android's "Vendor Interface" will finally separate the OS from the hardware. by Ron Amadeo Since time immemorial, the Android ecosystem has made quickly updating an operating system across devices seem like an impossible task. Google releases a new version of Android, and while Nexus and Pixel devices get updated, other Android OEMs mostly shrug their shoulders and go about their business. If users are lucky, they might get an OS update six months down the line, at which point Google has already moved on to an even newer version of Android. Ahead of Google I/O, Google has just dropped a bombshell of a blog post that promises, for real this time, that it is finally doing something about Android's update problems. "Project Treble" is a plan to modularize the Android OS, separating the OS framework code from "vendor specific" hardware code. In theory, this change would allow for a new Android update to be flashed on a device without any involvement from the silicon vendor. Google calls it "the biggest change to the low-level system architecture of Android to date," and it's already live on the Google Pixel's Android O Developer Preview. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/google-hopes-to-fix-android-updates-no-really-with-project-treble/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <98724030-D902-40F1-8B35-501E6E786109@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 19:00:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: At Least 12 Nations Hit by N.S.A. Hacking Tool At Least 12 Nations Hit by N.S.A. Hacking Tool Britain was the most severely affected by the ransomware attack across Europe and Asia, affecting countries from Russia to Spain and Japan. By NICOLE PERLROTH and DAVID E. SANGER SAN FRANCISCO - Hackers exploiting malicious software stolen from the National Security Agency executed damaging cyberattacks on Friday that hit dozens of countries worldwide, forcing Britain's public health system to send patients away, freezing computers at Russia's Interior Ministry and wreaking havoc on tens of thousands of computers elsewhere. The attacks amounted to an audacious global blackmail attempt spread by the internet and underscored the vulnerabilities of the digital age. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/europe/uk-national-health-service-cyberattack.html ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Mon, 15 May 2017

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