Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA16569; Wed, 14 Dec 88 01:58:05 EST Message-Id: <8812140658.AA16569@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Wed, 14 Dec 88 1:24:54 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V8 #200 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 Dec 88 1:24:54 EST Volume 8 : Issue 200 Today's Topics: IBM Sells Rolm To Siemens AG Call for Papers: ACM 28th Annual Symposium Re: Modem noise (T1 Trunks from #5 ESS > Analog Re: 613/819 (Ottawa, Ont./Hull, Que.) [Moderator's Note: Thanks to the several of you who wrote and mentioned possible solutions to our 'unknown host' mailing problem. JSol is giving the matter his close attention as time permits. Dial direct to Santa Claus? Our final message in this issue tells how to do it! :) P. Townson] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 88 01:16:00 EST From: telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) To: telecom@bu.cs.bu.edu Subj: IBM Sells Rolm To Siemens AG International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) announced on Tuesday that it was selling its Rolm telephone equipment subsidiary to West Germany's Siemens AG. Rolm has lost several hundred million dollars since IBM bought it in 1984 for $1.5 billion. Rolm was the first, or one of the first companies to market digital PBX systems. As most readers of [Telecom Digest] already know, the PBX market has been very soft for years. It has suffered from little or no growth and very bitter price competition. Siemens, a leading PBX supplier in Europe wants to bolster its sales in the United States, and believes it can do so by aquiring Rolm's sales and service operations. Quite obviously, it will also gain access to some of the lucrative IBM customers in Europe. Rolm was an early leader in digital PBX's, but they were surpassed in 1984 by AT&T and Northern Telecom Ltd. of Canada. Part of the strategy behind IBM's purchase of Rolm was IBM's belief that small personal computers would be linked through digital PBX's. Although this has happened, most businesses seem to prefer ethernet arrangements; something neither IBM or Rolm had given much thought to. IBM was certain the late 1980's would see office computers everywhere hooked up through PBX's. IBM made a mistake, and at Tuesday's press conference they admitted it and announced that Rolm was going bye-bye, as part of the corporate restructuring which has seen IBM divest itself of numerous non-computer related businesses in the past several months. From its beginning until 1984, Rolm could not run itself very well; now IBM has washed its corporate hands. Time will tell how much luck the Europeans have with it. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ To: Telecom@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: Call for Papers: ACM 28th Annual Symposium Date: Mon, 12 Dec 88 17:49:12 -0500 From: mitchell%community-chest.mitre.org@gateway.mitre.org ***** CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION ***** 28th Annual Technical Symposium of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the ACM INTERFACES: Systems and People Working Together National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Maryland - August 24, 1989 No computer is an island. Increasingly, systems are being tied together to improve their value to the organizations they serve. This symposium will explore the theoretical and practical issues in interfacing systems and in enabling people to use them effectively. *** SOME TOPICS OF INTEREST FOR SUBMITTED PAPERS *** * HUMAN FACTORS * User interfaces Meeting the needs of handicapped users Conquering complexity Designing systems for people Intelligent assistants The human dimension of information interchange * SYSTEMS INTEGRATION * Communications networks Distributed databases Data standardization System fault tolerance Communications standards (e.g. GOSIP) * STRATEGIC SYSTEMS * Decision support systems Embedding expert systems in information systems Strategic info systems Computer Aided Logistics Support (CALS) * SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION * Quality control and testing Designing a system of systems System management Conversion and implementation strategies Software tools and CASE Identifying requirements thru prototyping * ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR APPLICATIONS PORTABILITY * Ada Database management Open software Open protocol technology Operating systems (e.g., POSIX) ==> DON'T BE LIMITED BY OUR SUGGESTIONS - MAKE YOUR OWN! Both experienced and first-time authors are encouraged to present their work. Papers will be refereed. A length of 10 to 20 double-spaced pages is suggested. Those presenting a paper are entitled to register for the symposium at the early advance registration rate. To propose special sessions or noncommercial demonstrations, please send three copies of an extended abstract to the Program Chairman at the address below. Note: A paper must include the name, mailing address, and telephone number of each author or other presenter. Authors of accepted papers must transfer copyright to ACM for material published in the Proceedings (excepting papers that cannot be copyrighted under Government regulations). The ACM policy on prior publication was revised in 1987. A complete statement of the policy appears in the November 1987 issue of Communications of the ACM. In part it states that "republication of a paper, possibly revised, that has been disseminated via a proceedings or newsletter is permitted if the editor of the journal to which it has been submitted judges that there is significant additional benefit to be gained from republication." *** SCHEDULE *** March 2, 1989 Please send five copies of your paper to the Program Chairman: Dr. Milton S. Hess American Management Systems, Inc. 1525 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22209 April 13, 1989 Acceptance notification June 22, 1989 Final camera ready papers are due August 24, 1989 Presentation at the symposium If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact: Symposium General Chairman: Charles E. Youman, The MITRE Corporation, (703) 883-6349 (voice), (703) 883-6308 (FAX), or youman@mitre.org (internet). Program Chairman: Dr. Milton Hess, American Management Systems, Inc., (703) 841-5942 (voice) or (703) 841-7045 (FAX). NIST Liaison: Ms. Elizabeth Lennon, National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards), (301) 975-2832 (voice) or (301) 948-1784 (FAX). ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: ssr@cos.com (Dave Kucharczyk) Subject: Re: Modem noise Date: 13 Dec 88 16:25:15 GMT In article chen@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Bill Chen) writes: >X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 198, message 3 > >We've been having progressively worsening noise problems on our dial >up modem pool for our PBX. It seems to occur mainly at nights and >consists mostly of "{" characters. These { comes periodically, about 1 >every 30 secs to 2 minutes. [rest of description deleted] I had this problem for a few months when i moved to a place served by a #5 ESS. the problem is that the T1 line between two offices is not synced properly which causes the bit stream to slip (ie the offset between the two clocks becomes greater than one pulse width and a bit is missed). Why this causes "{" to appear I haven't figured out yet. My friend posted something about this (he got them to fix it), so I'll just repost it. dave [the entire message appears in 187...here are excerpts] .........forget to install, or improperly configure a board in the T1 carrier system equipment (this is not the analog switch, but before the switch) called an "OIU board". He didn't know what OIU stood for, but he tells me that it's fairly standard telco terminology. He said that this board provides the clocking for the link going from the analog office to the digital office. Without the board, the T1 carrier system uses a different clocking source (presumably an internal clock within the T1 equipment) which is not always quite in sync with the correct source. That's why things appear to work ok for voice, but not for data...... ------------------------------ To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu From: Henry Troup Subject: Re: 613/819 (Ottawa, Ont./Hull, Que.) Date: 13 Dec 88 21:57:37 GMT This is very common. At the edges of area codes, a system called 'Extended Area Dialling' is used. The area code is unneccessary for a local call between area codes. Thus, peopel in Ottawa are often unaware that they have called into another area code. How the revised North American Numbering plan impacts this, I don't know. P.S. My Bell Canada map shows that Santa Claus has an 819 number. utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bnr-public | BNR is not | All that evil requires hwt@bnr (BITNET/NETNORTH) | responsible for | is that good men do (613) 765-2337 (Voice) | my opinions | nothing. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************