The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/tc13-027.zip/TC13-027.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-19 | 19KB | 421 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 17 Jan 93 22:41:30 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 27

Index To This Issue:                     Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    EFF ... Important Changes ... $  (Karim Saouli)
    Norway Goes Eight-Digit: One Week and Counting (Morten Reistad)
    You Didn't Accept a Collect Call, But You'll be Billed Anyway? (J. Decker)
    Cheaper Source of 66 Block Pads Wanted (Pat Turner)
    "Secret" Phone Codes (Kennita Watson)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1993 11:08:36 +0100
From: Karim Saouli <[e-mail]>
Subject: EFF ... Important Changes ... $


MAJOR CHANGES AT THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION

Cambridge, Massachusetts    [e-mail]   Wednesday, January 13, 1993

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July, 1990 to assure
freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular emphasis on
applying the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights to computer-based communication.

EFF has met many of those challenges. We have defended civil liberties
in court. We have shaped the policy debate on emerging communications
infrastructure and regulation. We have increased awareness both on the
Net and among those law enforcement officials, policy makers, and
corporations whose insufficient understanding of the digital
environment threatened the freedom of Cyberspace.

But we've found that Cyberspace is huge. It extends not only beyond
constitutional jurisdiction but to the very limits of imagination. To
explore and understand all the new social and legal phenomena that
computerized media make possible is a task which grows faster than it
can be done.

Maintaining an office in Cambridge and another in Washington DC, has
been expensive, logistically difficult, and politically painful. Many
functions were duplicated. The two offices began to diverge
philosophically and culturally. We had more good ideas than efficient
means for carrying them out. And an unreasonable share of leadership
and work fell on one of our founders, Mitch Kapor.

These kinds of problems are common among fast-growing technology
startups in their early years, but we recognize that we have not
always dealt with them gracefully. Further, we didn't respond
convincingly to those who began to believe that EFF had lost sight of
its founding vision.

Against that background, the EFF Board met in Cambridge on January 7,
8, and 9 to revisit EFF's mission, set priorities for the Foundation's
future activities, adopt a new structure and staff to carry them out,
and clarify its relationship to others outside the organization.


1. EFF'S CAMBRIDGE OFFICE WILL CLOSE.

We will be shutting down our original Cambridge office over the next
six months, and moving all of EFF's staff functions to our office in
Washington.

2. JERRY BERMAN HAS BEEN NAMED EFF'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

In December, we announced that Mitch Kapor would be leaving the job of
Executive Director. He wanted to devote more time and energy to
specific EFF projects, such as The Open Platform Initiative, focusing
less on administrative details and more on EFF's strategic vision. We
also said that we would conduct a search for his replacement,
appointing Jerry Berman as our Interim Director. Jerry's appointment
is now permanent, and the search is terminated.

3. CLIFF FIGALLO WILL MAINTAIN EFF'S PRESENCE ON-LINE, AND WILL DIRECT THE
   TRANSITION PROCESS.

Cambridge Office Director Cliff Figallo will manage the EFF transition
process, working out of Cambridge. He is now considering a move to
Washington for organizational functions yet to be defined. In the
meantime, he will oversee our on-line presence and assure electronic
accessibility.

4. STAFF COUNSEL MIKE GODWIN'S ROLE TO BE DETERMINED

We recognize the enormous resource represented by Mike Godwin. He
probably knows more about the forming Law of Cyberspace than anyone,
but differences of style and agenda created an impasse which left us
little choice but to remove him from his current position. EFF is
committed to continuing the services he has provided. We will discuss
with him a new relationship which would make it possible for him to
continue providing them.

5. COMMUNICATIONS STAFFERS GERARD VAN DER LEUN AND RITA ROUVALIS WILL
   LEAVE EFF.

Despite the departure of the Cambridge communications staff, we expect
to continue publishing EFFector Online on schedule as well as
maintaining our usual presence online. Both functions will be under
the direction of Cliff Figallo, who will be assisted by members of the
Board and Washington staff.

6. JOHN PERRY BARLOW WILL ASSUME A GREATER LEADERSHIP ROLE.

John will replace Mitch Kapor as Chairman of EFF's Executive
Committee, which works closely with the Executive Director to manage
day to day operations. Mitch will remain as Board Chairman of EFF. All
of the directors have committed themselves to a more active role in
EFF so that decisions can be made responsively during this transition.

7. EFF WILL NOT SPONSOR LOCAL CHAPTERS, BUT WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH
   INDEPENDENT REGIONAL GROUPS.

We have labored mightily and long over the whole concept of chapters,
but, in the end, the Board has decided not to form EFF chapters.
Instead, EFF will encourage the development of independent local
organizations concerned with Electronic Frontier issues. Such groups
will be free to use the phrase "Electronic Frontier" in their names
(e.g., Omaha Electronic Frontier Outpost), with the understanding that
no obligation, formal or informal, is implied in either direction
between independent groups and EFF. While EFF and any local groups
that proliferate will remain organizationally independent and
autonomous, we hope to work closely with them in pursuit of shared
goals. The EFF Board still plans to meet with representatives of
regional groups in Atlanta next week to discuss ideas for future
cooperation.

8. WE CLARIFIED EFF'S MISSION AND ACTIVITIES

In undertaking these changes, the board is guided by the sense that
our mission is to understand the opportunities and challenges of
digital communications to foster openness, individual freedom, and
community.

We expect to carry out our mission through activities in the following
areas:

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ADVOCACY. EFF has been working to promote an
open architecture for telecommunications by various means, including
the Open Platform Initiative, the fight against the FBI's Digital
Telephony wiretap proposal, and efforts to free robust encryption from
NSA control.

FOSTERING COMMUNITY. Much of the work we have done in the Cambridge
office has been directed at fostering a sense of community in the
online world.  These efforts will continue. We have realized that we
know far less about the conditions conducive to the formation of
virtual communities than is necessary to be effective in creating
them. Therefore, we will devote a large portion of our R & D resources
to developing better understanding in this area.

LEGAL SERVICES. We were born to defend the rights of computer users
against over-zealous and uninformed law enforcement officials. This
will continue to be an important focus of EFF's work. We expect to
improve our legal archiving and dissemination while continuing to
provide legal information to individuals who request it, and support
for attorneys who are litigating. Both the board and staff will go on
writing and speaking about these issues. Our continuing suit on behalf
of Steve Jackson Games is unaffected by these changes.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. We have started many projects over the years
as their need became apparent. Going forward, EFF will allocate
resources to investigating and initiating new projects. To ensure that
our projects have the greatest impact and can reasonably be completed
with the resources available, EFF will sharpen its selection and
review process.

IN CONCLUSION ...

We expect that the foregoing may not sit well with many on the Net. We
may be accused of having "sold out" our bohemian birthright for a mess
of Washingtonian pottage. It may be widely, and perhaps hotly,
asserted that the "suits" have won and that EFF is about to become
another handmaiden to the large corporate interests which support our
work on telecommunications policy.

However plausible, these conclusions are wrong. We made these choices
with many of the same misgivings our members will feel. We have toiled
for many months to restore harmony between our two offices. But in
some cases, personal animosities had grown bitter. It seems clear that
much of the difficulty was structural. We believe that our decisions
will go far to focus EFF's work and make it more effective. The
decision to locate our one office in Washington was unavoidable; our
policy work can only be done effectively there.

Given the choice to centralize in Washington, the decision to
permanently appoint Jerry Berman as our Executive Director was
natural. Jerry has, in a very short time, built an extremely effective
team there, so our confidence in his managerial abilities is high. But
we are also convinced of his commitment to and growing understanding
of the EFF programs which extend beyond the policy establishment in

Fortress Washington.

We recognize that inside the Beltway there lies a very powerful
reality distortion field, but we have a great deal of faith in the
ability of the online world to keep us honest. We know that we can't
succeed in insightful policy work without a deep and current
understanding of the networks as they evolve -- technically,
culturally, and personally.

To those who believe that we've become too corporate, we can only say
that we founded EFF because we didn't feel that large, formal
organizations could be trusted with the future of Cyberspace. We have
no intention of becoming one ourselves.

Some will read between these lines and draw the conclusion that Mitch
Kapor is withdrawing from EFF. That is absolutely not the case. Mitch
remains thoroughly committed to serving EFF's agenda. We believe
however, that his energies are better devoted to strategy and to
developing a compelling vision of future human communications than in
day to day management.

The difficult decision to reject direct chapter affiliation was based
on a belief that no organization which believes so strongly in
self-determination should be giving orders or taking them.
Nevertheless, we are eager to see the development of many outposts on
the Electronic Frontier, whether or not they agree with us or one
another on every particular. After all, EFF is about the preservation
of diversity.

This has been a hard passage. We have had to fire good friends, and
this is personally painful to us. We are deeply concerned that, in
moving to Washington, EFF is in peril for its soul. But we are also
convinced that we have made the best decisions possible under the
circumstances, and that EFF will be stronger as a result. Please cut
us some slack during the transition. And please tell us (either
collectively at [e-mail] or individually at the addresses below)
when we aren't meeting your expectations. In detail and with examples.
We don't promise to fix everything, but we are interested in listening
and working on the issues that affect us all.

The Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Mitch Kapor, [e-mail]
John Perry Barlow, [e-mail]
John Gilmore, [e-mail]
Stewart Brand, [e-mail]
Esther Dyson, [e-mail]
Dave Farber, [e-mail]
Jerry Berman, [e-mail]
Cliff Figallo, [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 17 Jan 93 15:57 +0100
Organization: Oslo Stock Exchange
From: Morten Reistad <[e-mail]>
Subject: Norway Goes Eight-Digit: One Week and Counting


Thursday, January 28th 1993 at 16:00 local time, Norway will go
through step one in the great number change towards uniform
eight-digit dialing in the entire country, without any area codes.

The area code 02, now used for Oslo and parts of surrounding Akershus
will be affected. Other numbers will stay the same.

The new numbers will be :

  02 XX XX XX  Within Oslo       22 XX XX XX  (Postal codes 0100-1299)
  02 XX XX XX  Within Asker      66 XX XX XX  (affects 02-78/79/84/90/98)
  02 XX XX XX  Within Baerum     67 XX XX XX  (affects 02-12/13/53/54/58/59)
  02 24 XX XX  Within Baerum     67 14 XX XX
  02 47 XX XX  Within Baerum     67 57 XX XX
  02 51 XX XX  Within Baerum     67 56 XX XX
  02 87 XX XX  Within Baerum     67 15 XX XX
  02 88 XX XX  Within Baerum     67 80 XX XX
  02 7X XX XX  Within Nittedal   67 0X XX XX  (affects 02-76/77)
  02 70 XX XX  Within Loerenskog 67 90 XX XX
  02 82 XX XX  Within Loerenskog 67 92 XX XX
  02 97 XX XX  Within Loerenskog 67 97 XX XX
  02 XX XX XX  Within Oppegaard  66 XX XX XX  (affects 02-80/81/99)

And, if dialing any of the above from abroad you dial +47 XX XX XX XX,
while the rest of the country is still +47 A XX XX XX or +47 AA XX XXX.

Doing such a thing at 16:00 is outragous. On a Thursday, when all
shops have open late is even worse. Guess it's still "We don't care.
We don't have to. We're The Phone Company". And there is NO permissive
dialing period. Go figure.

TV commercials are run at one-hour intervals now reminding us about
this.  So at least a lot of actors get paid.

This will be part one of a five-stage change. Next change is April
15th, when the 09 and parts of 06 will change, covering parts of
eastern Norway.  There is a diskette available with the entrire
numbering plan. I will try to get permission from the Telco to post in
the archives.


Morten Reistad

------------------------------

Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: You Didn't Accept a Collect Call, But You'll be Billed Anyway?
Date: 17 Jan 93 09:26:34
From: [e-mail]


I'm sure this isn't the first time this has ever happened to a TELECOM
Digest reader, but it struck me as a poor way to do business.

The phone rang the other day and a young female voice asked to speak
to my 15-year-old son.  It was a friend of his from the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan, where we used to live before our move to GTE
country.

Anyway, she was calling from a pay phone, and had deposited money to
pay for the call (this was an inter-LATA call so it was handled by
AT&T).  But then the operator (or the automated equipment) let the
call go on for several minutes without requiring another deposit.
When the operator did come back on the line, the girl didn't have
enough money to pay for the rest of the call, and because her parents
don't currently have a phone (or so she claims), there was no number
that the call could be billed to.  So the operator stated that the
remainder would be charged to the party she called.  At no time did
the operator converse directly with my son, although he could overhear
all of this.  After this the call was disconnected.

I called AT&T back to inquire about this, and they basically said that
they will bill the unpaid remainder of a coin phone call to the
calling party, but only if the calling party accepts the charge.  I
told her that the charge had not been accepted, and that in any case
my son (who is a minor) would have no authority to accept such a
charge anyway.  The AT&T rep then said that if the call appeared on my
bill (and it probably would), I could call AT&T and they would issue a
credit.  That might be acceptable if I were still in Bell territory,
but living here in GTE land I sure don't need anything else to foul up
my bill.

Then she had the nerve to start asking me why I didn't use AT&T as my
long distance carrier!  I just said it was because I'd had one too
many billing screw-ups like this one from AT&T.

I rather anticipate that Pat may comment that AT&T is just trying to
collect their money, but I would counter that if I answer the phone
and the call is not announced as collect (it would be refused in such
a case), I should be able to hand it over to one of my children
without worrying that an operator might try to stick them with the
charge.  In a way, this strikes me as deliberately fraudulent, in the
same way as if I'd gone to a self-serve gas station and the car before
me pulled out without paying, so they added his gasoline purchase to
my credit card.  In this case, I did nothing to induce that call, I
did not agree to pay for it, and it shouldn't be appearing on my bill.
The fact that I or someone in my family was a party to the call is
irrelevent; unless it can be shown that we had somehow conspired with
the caller to do this as a means of toll avoidance (which is certainly
NOT the case here, since we had no idea this girl was even going to
call), we should not be getting the bill for it, period.

I know that we have all come to expect sleazy billing practices from
third-tier carriers, but don't think for a moment that AT&T is squeaky
clean either!


Jack Decker --- 1:154/8.0 FidoNet, [e-mail]
Gated through a Linux system

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 Jan 93 13:14 EST
From: rsiatl![e-mail]
Subject: Cheaper Source of 66 Block Pads Wanted
Reply-To: [e-mail]


An orgnazation I am affiliated with uses a large quality of Larus
pads.  These pads are aproxmently 3/8"x5/8"x1" and replace the
bridging clips on 66 blocks.  They use a four resistor square pad
configuration to provide a 600 ohm impedence fixed attenuation.  The
problem is that the total cost of these four resistors and the plastic
shell runs about $18/ea.  The pads are usually purchased in quantities
of a hundred or more.

I am wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper source for similar pads?


Pat Turner   KB4GRZ   [e-mail]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Kennita Watson)
Subject: "Secret" Phone Codes
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1993 07:57:41 GMT


At the end of the month I'm moving to a house that already has one
phone line installed, and having a second line turned on.

I have heard that there is a code I can dial into a phone that will
tell me what phone number that phone is connected to.  Would somebody
please email me what it is?  If there are other similar nifty codes,
I'd love to know those too.

I don't normally read this group, so please email me.


Thanks in advance,

Kennita Watson   [e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: No Kennita, obviously you do not read this group
very often, if at all, or you would know we have covered this time and
again here. The 'secret code' you are seeking changes from one town to
the next, and from one phone exchange to the next. Sometimes they are
changed after a few months to something else. There is no standard,
and no clue at all as to what it might be without knowing *where*
(what area code and exchange) the phone is located, and even then,
there may be no difinitive answer except from some of the local guys
in that town.   PAT]

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End of TELECOM Digest V13 #27
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