---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <A796834A-8B08-4002-AB95-04CF4A9AB511@roscom.com> Date: 5 Dec 2018 10:01:38 -0500 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Samsung used my DSLR photo to fake their phone's "portrait mode" Samsung used my DSLR photo to fake their phone's "portrait mode." by Dunja Djudjic Earlier this year, Samsung was busted for using stock photos to show off capabilities of Galaxy A8's camera. And now they did it again - they used a stock image taken with a DSLR to fake the camera's portrait mode. How do I know this, you may wonder? Well, it's because Samsung used MY photo to do it. https://www.diyphotography.net/samsung-used-my-dslr-photo-to-fake-their-phones-portrait-mode/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** when politicians appear on TV, they have expert makeup artists change their appearance so as to give the sincere-and-friendly image that will best help to get them what they want. I don't usually get excited about it: the lights used in TV, and the limits of the transmission medium, used to require makeup just to prevent the "death mask" outcome which lost the presidential election for Richard Nixon in 1960. However, we have digital TV and better lighting now, and such tricks aren't needed. Politicians still use them, though: they probably feel that they'd be fools not to take every advantage. Of course, you see where I'm headed here: Samsung is more interested in selling phones than in full disclosure. That, by itself, isn't a big deal, but it illustrates an important fact about digital media in general: we can never be sure how much of the truth survives the touchups. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205232339.GA25000@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 18:23:39 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink Consumer Reviews and Complaints 4323 CenturyLink Consumer Reviews and Complaints Jay of Chiloquin, OR Internet service in Chiloquin, Oregon is out going on day two. Contacted CenturyLink and they will not provide any reason for the outage and no estimate of when service will be restored. Pathetic customer service. Gary of Fort Hood, TX Service has been average with more outages than normal. The worst part of this company though is the tendency to add unspecified charges for no upgrade in service, and to increase billing amounts with no notification. (Centurylink posted a response) https://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/centurylink.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ***** Moderator's Note ***** As always, sites that accept postings from the public should be taken with a gram of salt. Bill "That's a lot of salt!" Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205224000.GA24887@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 17:40:00 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: UPDATE: Phone service restored after outage in Rock Island County IL PORT BYRON, Illinois - Residents waiting for a call can expect to hear a ring anytime again. Land line services have been restored to the Port Byron area after a service outage. Residents, especially in the Port Byron area of Rock Island county, experienced home phone outages, according to a press release by the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. https://wqad.com/2018/11/29/phone-outage-reported-in-rock-island-county/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205224818.GA24938@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 17:48:18 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Senators Continue To Point Out Our Broadband Maps Suck >From the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept For a country that likes to talk about "being number one" a lot, that's sure not reflected in the United States' broadband networks, or the broadband maps we use to determine which areas lack adequate broadband or commpetition (resulting in high prices and poor service). Our terrible broadband maps are of course a feature not a bug; ISPs have routinely lobbied to kill any efforts to improve data collection and analysis, lest somebody actually realize the telecom market is a broken mono/duopoly whose dysfunction reaches into every aspect of tech. If you want to see our terrible broadband maps at work, you need only go visit the FCC's $300+ million broadband availability map, which is based on the Form 477 data collected from ISPs. If you plug in your address, you'll find that not only does the FCC not include prices (at industry behest), the map hallucinates speed and ISP availability at most U.S. addresses. Part of the problem is that the FCC declares an entire region "served" with broadband if just one home in a census tract has service. Again, ISPs fight efforts to reform this in a bid to protect the status quo. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181128/07594341118/senators-continue-to-point-out-our-broadband-maps-suck.shtml -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205234657.GA25024@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 18:46:57 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Opinion: How AT&T Fooled the Federal Judiciary The telecom giant promised it wouldn't use its merger with Time Warner to hurt consumers. But now it is doing precisely that. By Tim Wu HBO has long been the crown jewel of American television. It was HBO, in the 1990s and 2000s, that kick-started the golden age of television, funding and running shows like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire." And it is HBO that still captures broad audiences with shows like "Game of Thrones." So it's disheartening to see this venerable institution of pop culture wielded as a weapon by AT&T - HBO's new owner since the blockbuster merger in June between AT&T (a telecommunications giant) and Time Warner (a media giant). Last week, HBO went dark for both DISH and DISH-Sling, the main competitors to DirecTV and DirecTV Now, AT&T's television services. This brazenly anticompetitive strategy does not portend a happy future for the viewing public, or for HBO itself. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/opinion/att-hbo-antitrust.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FAT%26T -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205231639.GA24980@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 18:16:39 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Thread regarding CenturyLink layoffs Check this out - so much like CenturyLink A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The North Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. https://www.thelayoff.com/t/Wmqqf0C -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20181205224613.GA24921@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 17:46:13 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Labour Inspectorate charges two Chorus subcontractors By Chris Keall The Labour Inspectorate is lining up its first two scalps as it cracks down on alleged widespread exploitation of workers in the Chorus-driven Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) fibre rollout. The watchdog has lodged cases with the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) against two Chorus subscontractors: Sunwin Technologies and Babylon Communications, the agency's National Manager Stu Lumsden tells the Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12171147 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ***** Moderator's Note ***** This story is from New Zealand, and I caution readers that different societal norms may apply to that country than those we are used to in the U.S. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 06 Dec 2018