Compu-Fix/Compu-Fix.iso/pubnews/td10463.txt

Text File | 1993-03-01 | 12KB | 307 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 1 Jul 90 08:32:14 CDT    Volume 10 : Issue 463

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Mysterious Disconnection [Rob Warnock]
    Telephone Company/Credit Card Tie-Ins [Jeff Jonas]
    Power Out Device [David Dodell]
    DTMF Decoder [John Lefor]
    Re: Manhole Covers [Marc T. Kaufman]
    Re: Motorola Plans Global Cellular Thrust [Michael Gammal]
    Is Santa Barbara Completely Destroyed? [TELECOM Moderator]
    Temporary Re-route and Resulting Problems [TELECOM Moderator]
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Date: Sat, 30 Jun 90 04:12:34 GMT
From: Rob Warnock <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mysterious Disconnection
Reply-To: Rob Warnock <[e-mail]>
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Mountain View, CA


A mysterious thing happened to me a couple of days ago. I woke up to
discover my primary home telephone was dead -- no battery voltage. (My
modem line was still o.k.) After checking to make sure I'd paid my
bill (!), I called repair service.

[From the old-Telco-habits-die-hard file: Them: "What time will
someone be home to let the repair person into the house?" Me: "I've
checked at the demarc and there's no dial tone and no battery
voltage." Them: "<pause> Oh. Okay. Is there a number where we can we
call you to let you know when we've fixed it?"  Me: "<my mobile
number>."]

About an hour later I get a call on the mobile. It's the repairman,
who says it's all fixed. Now here's the strange thing. He says that
out on the pole the "jumper" [didn't say whether it was a bridging
clip or a real pair of wires] was missing! Just gone. Not there. He
declined to provide any speculation as to how such a thing had
happened.

My question: Do such things happen often? I can understand the horror
stories I've heard about pair-starved apartment buildings in downtown
Chicago or New York, but this is in a medium-low-density
"single-family dwelling" neighborhood 25 miles away from a "real"
city. (O.k., San Mateo's a city, but it's not San Francisco or San
Jose. It's not even Palo Alto!) I have a 6-pair drop cable to the
house (of which only two happen to be live these days).

Is this likely to have been an installer's random goof? ... or some
sort of vandalism? ... or a prelude to a burglary?

Just paranoid I guess.


Rob Warnock, MS-9U/510        [e-mail]        [e-mail]
Silicon Graphics, Inc.        [phone]        Protocol Engines, Inc.
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA  94039-7311


[Moderator's Note: Is it possible it was somehow loose / not properly
attached and eventually worked its way off and fell to the ground?
Have you noticed any difference in the behavior (or lack of it) in the
other pairs which you say are not currently active coming from the
pole? I would attribute it to error.  PT]

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

From: Jeff Jonas <synsys![e-mail]>
Subject: Telephone Company/Credit Card Tie-ins
Date: 30 Jun 90 05:14:50 GMT
Reply-To: Jeff Jonas <synsys![e-mail]>
Organization: Jeff's House of Electronic Parts


A news item from AT&T's newsline (800-2ATT-NOW):

AT&T's Universal Card has gotten twice the response anticipated.
[surprise!  When were AT&T's forecasts ever right, such as
anticipating the demand of the PC6300 during the employee fire-sale?]

Citibank and other banks are trying to retaliate, crying "foul" that
AT&T is in the credit card business.  In response, Citibank is now
offering a tie-in between MCI and its VISA card, but has no intention
of reducing their fees.  (Did Citibank switch from AT&T to MCI in
response to the Universal Card offering?  Some feared that AT&T
offended some of their banking customers by competing with them in the
credit card arena.  Then again, some financial institutions made their
own telecommunications network, such as the NY Teleport as reported in
the TELECOM Digest.)  American Express has offered MCI's "Expressphone"
for a while now, so the link between credit cards and phone service is
not new.  The AT&T Universal card is free for those who enroll this
year, and offers 10% discount on calling card calls.  The others offer
no discounts.

I'd say that AT&T succeeded in upsetting Citibank and all the other
overpriced credit cards.  Good going!

The phone company is not just technology.  It's finance too.


Jeffrey Jonas
[e-mail]


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

Date: Sat, 30 Jun 90 09:45:56 mst
From: David Dodell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Power Out Device


I am looking for a device that I could plug into my home's AC outlet,
and if power goes off, it would automatically dial a programmed phone
number, and perhaps say with a synthesized voice: "The power is out".


I know this would have to be battery operated (or at least a float).
Any suggestions?

David

          St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona
        uucp: {gatech, ames, rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell
    Bitnet: ATW1H @ ASUACAD                    FidoNet=> 1:114/15
    Internet: [e-mail]       FAX: [phone]


[Moderator's Note: There are commercial devices available which allow
what you want, and also accept incoming calls to tell you about the
temperature at the place where the device is located, then allow you
to listen to background noise for thirty seconds or so. In the event
of some problem (usually a choice of three or four problems) they call
out to up to four(?) different phones, and keep calling until someone
presses certain tones on the phone to reset the device.  PT]

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

From: John Lefor <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 90 21:05:28 BST
Subject: DTMF Decoder


In a recent issue, a Telecom reader asked for a service which would be
able to decode DTMF tones.  My understanding was that he wanted to be
able to figure out what number an autodialer was dialing without
risking calling the local fire department.

I have rigged up what I call a DTMF decoder service that anyone is
welcome to use but I would appreciate a few tests before announcing it
to the world.  If you think this would be useful to Telecom readers
and are willing to be a tester here is how it works:

        1) Call 716-248-5269
        2) An answering system will answer with a message "You have
           reached Tele-Ware Corporation for ...."
        3) At this point you can press "4" on the touch pad and
           you should get the message "DTMF decoder enter DTMF
           tones now" (or something like that).
        4) Wait about 0.5 seconds then send some DTMF tones.
        5) About 5 seconds after the last key is pressed you will
           get a message "You sent ...." reading off the tones
           you sent.  The system will accept a maximum of 22 keys
           per sent tones.  The "*" reads as "asterisk" and the
           "#" reads as "number".
        6) You get sent back to the "DTMF decoder ..." message
           and you can enter more DTMF tones or hang up.

All this for just the cost of a phone call.

Please understand this is the answering system for my business.  It
gets very little traffic so I am happy to offer this service.  If
things get out of hand I will have to discontinue it.  But if it looks
interesting and useful I have no objection to making it available.

PS - The system is actually an IBM PC with the IBM Voice Communications
Option (the worlds most expensive answering machine).  I programmed the
answering system and I add feature as I see fit.  This one seemed fun
and useful.

I program ... therefore I am.


John Lefor        University of Rochester        Dept of E. Engineering
716-275-8265    [e-mail]        uunet!ur-valhalla!jal


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

From: "Marc T. Kaufman" <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail] (Marc T. Kaufman)
Subject: Re: Manhole Covers
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 90 04:23:07 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark Brader) writes:

>Hold the lid with one edge vertical, and it will go in just fine if
>placed next to one edge of the opening.  So an equilateral triangle
>*doesn't* work.

Uh ... on that basis, a circle doesn't either.  The diameter will allow a
circle of the same diameter to pass edge on.  On the other hand, most
REAL *hole covers I have seen are set into a flanged ring that has a
smaller diameter than the maximum diameter of the cover.  Presumably
this is to insure that the covers stay flush with the street, and
don't fall to the bottom of the hole.  I imagine that triangular
covers are installed similarly.  Based on this discussion, I think I
am glad that computer scientists or telephone engineers did not design
these things.


Marc Kaufman ([e-mail])

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

From: Michael Gammal <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Motorola Plans Global Cellular Thrust
Organization: None
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 90 04:41:12 GMT


I don't trust Motorola's world-wide plans! (World Cellular)

Sounds like a nice way for espionage!

Think about it...

Every single user has their own coding....

Thus can locate any individual anywhere!

Talk about tracking ... among other things....

Such as the fact that since it can receive calls the tracking is
simple since no need for the phone call to originate with the user.

FBI, CSIS, CIA, KGB, you name it!

It is will also be useful when they develop cellular mini-belt and
watch phones.

Terrorists can be tracked in seconds!!!  Anyone on a plane can be
tracked and won't even know it. A hijacking is what I refer to.


Michael Gammal      Apple //e & Atari Enthusiast      Dawson College
[e-mail]      qp qp qp qp qp qp qp         Montreal, Que.
                db Support Nature db         Canada

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

Date: Sun, 1 Jul 90 8:23:10 CDT
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Is Santa Barbara Completely Destroyed?


Word has been reaching us the past few days of the tragic fires
burning though parts of California, and the most disturbing news is
that apparently much of the town of Santa Barbara is in ashes. Perhaps
someone in the area could let us know what the effect has been on
telco service in that area, and other parts of the state.


Patrick Townson

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

Date: Sat, 30 Jun 90 23:43:34 CDT
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Temporary Re-route and Resulting Problems


Due to a temporary problem with the Usenet gateway machine here at
Northwestern, the comp.dcom.telecom messages are being re-routed via
another account at cs.bu.edu.

When I found that messages were not leaving here and being accepted
and re-distributed by accuvax (the news machine at nwu), I took over
thirty messages (three issues of the Digest) to my account at
cs.bu.edu to send them out. Then the fun began: Although Pnews at
cs.bu did accept the messages, an old .signature file had been
forgotten about, and it reared its ugly head at the bottom of each
message in issue 460, which explains the odd additions the Usenet
people saw on those messages.

But that is not all: Since some of the messages had been sitting in
the queue here, waiting for accuvax to accept them for a couple days,
a few places on the net have received no comp.dcom.telecom messages
for three or four days. Now I suppose they are getting flooded with
them from the backlog. Of course when no messages go out, I get no
messages in return, which explains the skimpy issue you are reading
now. Just the kind of trouble I need two days before leaving town!

Please remember telecom will be off-line through July 8. Please HOLD
new messages until next weekend before sending them in.  Thanks.


Patrick Townson

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End of TELECOM Digest V10 #463
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