home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ============================================================================
-
- THE SYNDICATE REPORT
- Information Transmittal No. 10
- Released April 16, 1987
- Featuring:
- BOC 800 Service Signals Major Changes (n wk 12\20)
- MultiBus II Goes Unix (ele engr 12\25)
- Software Publishers Step Up Anti-Piracy Actions in Canada (c.user 2\21)
- Hybrid Phone System (c.user 2\21)
- Lawmaker's proposal restricts computerized calls (s&t 4\15)
- by The Sensei
- ============================================================================
- Exposition:
-
- Once again, TSReport now excepts outside sources. Anyone can write/provide
- information to the Syndicate Report. The Syndicate Report is also altering
- format. Rather than concentrating mainly on BELL orientated information,
- the Syndicate Report now has a more broad interest. Thus, TSR now handles
- all types of news gatherings.
-
- All articles have been presented by me unless shown at the end of the
- article as the information provider(s).
-
- This transmittal is a little late, sorry.
-
- ============================================================================
-
- BOC 800 SERVICE SIGNALS MAJOR CHANGES:
-
- An assistant vice president of Bell Communications Research said this
- month that the first application of a new signaling network and a group of
- Bell Comm. Research-developed specialized data bases will transform today's
- telephone system into the "Intelligent Network."
-
- Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Robert Robrock said
- the Bell operating companies (BOCs) are on the brink of the most significant
- network service introduction since customers first dialed long distance
- without the help of an operator 30 years ago.
- Robrock said the new network is reffered to as "intelligent" because
- call-handling equipment will no longer be limited to switches. \ He said its
- first application will be BOC 800 service.
-
- Business customers will be able to tailor their own BOC 800 service,
- Robrock said. They'll be able to choose a single, nationwide 800 number and
- select single or multiple carriers. They also can vary call distribution to
- destinations based on the time of day, day of week, the caller's are code, or
- other criteria.
-
- BOC 800 service will begin in BellSouth late next year. All the BOCs
- expect to be cut over by 1988. At that time, the network will be supporting
- 10 billion 800 call attempts per year. The 800 service is only the first of
- many new services the network makes possible. Included are such services as
- area-wide Centrex (R) and a new billing procedure for CREDIT CARD CALLS that
- verifies the caller's identity before call completion.
-
- "A local switch no longer needs to contain all sorts of special call-
- handling information," Robrock said. "Rather, it only needs to send a query
- to the data base. Therefore, changing or adding a service could mean simply
- changing or adding information to the data base -- rather than updating
- hundreds of switches."
-
-
- ============================================================================
-
- MULTIBUS II GOES UNIX:
-
- The first MultiBus II UNIX System V development system lets systems
- designers get up and running with a minimum fuss. The SDU-II from Microbar
- System Inc. is a complete development key with all the necessary ingredients.
- The heart ofthe system is Microbar's MT 68020 single-board computer with a
- 16.7-MHz 68020, a magabyte of dual-ported RAM (expandable to 4 Mbytes), SCSI
- disk and tape controller and a pair of RS-232 ports. The OS (operating system),
- Unix System C, Release 2, is fully loaded and preconfigured on a 40--
- Mbyte Winchester drive. The software includes sample drivers for several
- different peripherals and instructions for reconfiguring other user-supplied
- devices. Compared with VME, the 40-Mbyte-per-second MB II offers
- synchronous protocals for easier system design and improved noise immunity.
- The multiplexed bus with parity offers greater efficiency and reliability and
- it supports burst or sequential data transfers for maximum transfer rates,
- adds Sherrod. And, Multibus supports distributed bus arbitration that
- implements advanced multiple bus master configurations efficiently and includes
- will-- defined secondary buses for optimum data, message and control transfers.
-
-
- :::::::::::::::::Information provided by Swingline Edison:::::::::::::::::::
-
- ============================================================================
-
- SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS STEP UP ANTI-PIRACY ACTIONS IN CANADA:
-
- Through civil and criminal actions, software publishers are stepping up
- efforts to curb unauthorized copying of software in Canada. On Jan. 8, 1987,
- Canada Judge Paul Rouleau ordered Montreal-based C&D Data Systems to pay
- 36,000$ in damages to Concept Omega Corp. of Somerville, New Jersey, for
- illegaly reproducing copies of Concept Omega's Thoroughbred Software for
- PC-DOS, Unix, and Xenix systems.
-
- In addition, Judge Rouleau ordered C&D Data Systems to provide Concept Omega
- with a list of all illegal copies made and to replace unauthorized copies with
- legitimate copies, according to Roger Sparks, vice president of
- marketing for Concept Omega. Many customers did not know they were buying
- illegitimate copies of Thoroughbred, Sparks said, adding that C&D had sold
- both legitimate and illegitimate copies of the program.
-
- Concept Omega filed charges in Dec. and received a search and seizure
- order for its attorneys to enter C&D's offices and obtain evidence, Sparks said.
- The search and seizure was similar to an action recently taken by Lotus
- Development Corp., the Software Publishers Association, and six other software
- publishers against softsave Information Services Inc. of Cancouver, British
- Columbia ("Canadain Rental Firm charged with Copyright Infregement," Feb. 5, 1987).
-
- The pursuit of illegal software copiers is not limited to civil actions
- in Canada, however. Recently, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials in
- Toronto brought criminal fraud charges against three rental firms in Toronto,
- according to RCMP Constable Pierre Riopel of the Toronto trademark copyright
- unit. The RCMP raided the firms to collect evidence and shut down the
- operations, Riopel said.
-
- Charged in the raid were Softcity of Scarborough, Ontario; Photo
- Insurance of Toronto; and Brent Muray Radbourne of Toronto, Riopel said. Fraud
- charges were filed because criminal copyright laws in Canada permit a maximum
- fine of 200$, Riopel said. Under fraud charges, defendants face stiffer fines
- and possible jail sentences.
-
- Radbourne's attorney confirmed that his client had allowed customers
- to come to his business to make copies of the software for a fee. "The question
- is whether he did anything illegal," said Hy Bergal, a Toronto attorney.
- "The question is, are there proprietary rights to that software that belong to
- somebody else?"
-
- Canadian appellate courts are considering cases related to copying of
- BIOS code, which might clarify the illegality of unauthorized software copying
- in Canada, said Robert Brouillette, partner at the Montreal law firm of Clark
- Woods, which represents Concept Omega.
-
- ============================================================================
-
- HYBRID PHONE SYSTEM:
-
- There used to be a sharp division between the kind of Telephone system you
- found in a small business and the kind you found in a large corp.
- To put it simply, small businesses had key systems and large businesses had
- private automatic-branch exchanges. The electromechanical key system can have
- as few as two lines and four telephones (a 2 x 4 system), but seldom has more
- than 15 telephones (or stations or sets). Each station has a button for each
- line that blinks when the line is busy. With this arrangement, often called a
- squared system, each user knows which lines are in use and can answer any
- ringing line if the receptinist is busy.
-
- Electronic key systems, priced around 500$-600$ per station, have a
- similar config. They have a few additional microprocessor-controlled features
- like speed dialing and conference calling. You cn add more lines, but that
- meanes:1W-Kk:Ul4RkKWUQQ=9-Y
- At the other end of the monetary scale in the private branch exchange or PBX.
- At a cost of around 800$-1,000$ per sation, it can accommodate hundreds of users.
- You can expand it even further by adding modular circuit cards. Users do not
- know what calls are coming in because the receptionist fields them all at the
- front desk and switches them to the appropriate station.
- Private branch exchanges are microprocessor controlled and have considerable
- memory-GTE's Omni is equipped with 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM. and a 20MB hard disk.
- That opens the way for all kinds of data processing capabilities: integrated
- voice-data transmission, networking within and among company locations, to name a
- few. Some manufacturers incorporate a telephone and data terminal in the
- individual station units.
-
- ::::::::::::::::::Information provided by Ascii Py-Rat X:::::::::::::::::::
-
- ============================================================================
-
- LAWMAKER'S PROPOSAL RETRICTS COMPUTERIZED CALLS:
-
- A funny thing happened to a man named Lakin the other day that boosted
- his hostility a bit: He got a call from a computer named John who, by all
- accounts, simply would not get off his telephone line. As a result, said Lakin,
- a free-lancer who does commercials and celebrity interviews for radio stations
- around the country, he missed a telephone interview that he had spent two weeks
- setting up.
-
- You thus can understand how Lakin's interest in the political process has perked up since he learned that Sen. Allan Spear, DFL-MN, introduced a bill
- in the Legislature to regulate these computerized forays into our living rooms.
-
- His complaint was that he tried to hang up, but that John the Computer
- held onto the line for what Lakin estimated was about 3 minutes. How ever,
- Central Telephone Co. which serves Lakin's, contended that its spiffy, up-to--
- date, good-as-Bell's electronic switching gear could not have allowed that to
- happen.
-
- The equipment is designed to force a disconnect within 15 seconds after
- the person being called hangs up. Most Bell companies use a 11-second lag.
- The delays are necessary because new telephone features -- call waiting and
- forwarding, for example -- are operated by the switch hook.
-
- ============================================================================
-
- If there is any question to the information in this file, contact the
- author. Now can be found on the Private Sector 20 Meg, 3/1200 baud
- system at (201) 366-4431 (2600 Magazine Bulliten Board).
-
- ============================================================================
- This concludes this transmittal No. 10 provided by:
- The Sensei of The Syndicate Report
- Released April 16, 1987
- ============================================================================
- [Mother Earth BBS]
-
- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+
-