Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id BAA07720; Sat, 8 Feb 1997 01:44:11 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 01:44:11 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199702080644.BAA07720@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #33 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Feb 97 01:44:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 33 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Call For Papers: IWCS'97 (Irene Ludman) Re: New Internet Domain Names (John R. Levine) Re: Telegraph Questions (Ed Ellers) Re: Telegraph Questions (Bill Ranck) Re: Telegraph Questions (Eric Elder) Looking For Access Devices (Data, Voice and Video) (Jaime Alvarez Mendez) Re: Florida PSC Selects Three-Way NPA Split (Linc Madison) Ohio Residents Choose New Area Code (Tad Cook) Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check (Linc Madison) Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check (Tom Betz) Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check (Ron Newman) Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check (Dale Hesselroth) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. 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The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 20:17:09 GMT From: ludman@austerlitz.devinci.fr (Irene Ludman) Subject: Call For Papers: IWCS'97 CALL FOR PAPERS 1st INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON COMPUTATIONAL SEMIOTICS 26th - 27th May, 1997 Ple Universitaire Lonard de Vinci PARIS - LA DEFENSE - FRANCE TOPICS SEMIOTICS OF TEXT : Suzanne Bertrand-Gastaldy, University of Montreal Computers are increasingly used to assist text analysis for cognitive, literary, anthropological, sociological, documentary, etc. research. The workshop will focus on actual realisations, on the possibilities and limits of methodologies and existing tools to take into account the complex and multidimensional nature of texts, allowing multiple points of views for a variety of user needs. Issues such as desirable features of text analysis software, robustness and conviviality of implantations, interaction between corpora and users, constraints that actual tools put upon kinds of analyses and coding choices, the ability to elaborate models of electronic analytical tools suited to different semiotic theories, semiotical foundations of markup languages are examples of possible debates. SEMIOMETHODOLOGY : Claude Vogel, Lonard de Vinci University Several genres are currently under investigation for semiotic studies : electronic mail, news, corporate information, Web publishing. The flood of full text is overflowing semantic analysis, and this major paradigm break leads us to reconsider our approach of text processing. The size of these new corpora, the lack of consistency of information, the physical scattering of the basic units of texts, make the classical documentary solutions very uncomfortable. Instead, the semiotic based analysis seems to be a highly compelling perspective. It is focused on chronology; it provides a way to build transitive narratives throughout large amounts of data, and it does not require the understanding of the details of each local grammatical sentence in order for a global plot to be elaborated. This promising trend may give a second wind to ethnomethodology. For this reason, it is more appropriate to use the term "semiomethodology" when evoking this attempt to rationalize the computational approach of the symbolic dynamics which underlie collaborative production. ORGANIZATIONAL SEMIOTICS : Kathleen Carley, Carnegie Mellon University Organizational semiotics is the semiotics of organizations and organizational dimensions of textual semiotics. The objective of this workshop is to define the boundaries of this new specialty. Specifically, we will address the issue of: "How can semiotic analysis of interpersonal and corporate exchanges be used to reveal, evaluate, and contrast the underlying organizational logics and changes in these logics over time ?" Recent advances in textual analysis are facilitating this endeavor and creating new opportunities for understanding organizational behavior. Critical issues in the area of organizational semiotics include : 1) how to quickly and reliably analyze large quantities of texts, 2) how to reduce textual data to an empirical form that can be combined with other types of data and analyzed statistically, 3) how to identify corporate texts (those representing the "view" of the organization as an entity) and address issues of authorship, and 4) how to identify institutional constraints on the production and maintenance of corporate texts. New and innovative computational methods for empirically analyzing texts are being developed to address these and related concerns. These techniques have the potential to move textual analysis beyond counting words or locating a few themes or concepts. This section will focus on the issues involved in performing organizational semiotics with particular attention to the new computationally based techniques for facilitating organizational analysis that increase the ease, speed or reliability of coding texts and generate information that can be analyzed statistically. BIOSEMIOTICS : Jean-Claude Heudin, Lonard de Vinci University Recently, algorithms and architectures based on models derived from biological systems have been receiving an increasing amount of interest. This section will explore how such new approaches and techniques could be used for managing large amount of information exchanges on Internet or Intranet. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, applications of agent-based systems, autonomous and evolving agents, genetic algorithms and programming, neural networks, cellular automata etc. to text stream analysis and in the more general framework of semiotics analysis. SUBMISSION OF PAPERS Send four copies of an abstract (approximately 500 words) in English or email it to: Irne Ludman - IWCS'97 Ple Universitaire Lonard de Vinci 92916 PARIS-LA DEFENSE-CEDEX, FRANCE Phone: (33) 01 41 16 73 05 Fax : (33) 01 41 16 73 35 Email : irene.ludmann@devinci.fr DEADLINES Submission of abstracts by 1st April 1997 Acceptance notification to authors by 15th April 1997 Submission of full papers by 12th May 1997 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Claude Vogel (chairman) Suzanne Bertrand-Gastaldy Kathleen Carley Jean-Claude Heudin PROGRAM COMMITTE Pierre Boudon (canada) Guillaume Deffuant (France) Evelyne Lutton (France) Joe Porac (USA) Carl Roberts (USA) J. Sebeok (Canada) Peter Stockinger (France) Bill Turner (France) For more information please visit the following Web page : http://www.devinci.fr/home/actua.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 97 10:16:00 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: New Internet Domain Names Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg, N.Y. > The article notes that 85,000 new domain names are registered per > month, 90% of those ending with .com The 28 firms that will register > the names will likely charge $50 per year per name, same as Internic > charges. The 28 name givers have formed a Council of Registrars to > administer conflicting claims. If that's what the article said, they're jumping the gun by several months. The registars will be chosen by an application process, with a lottery if there are too many qualified applicants. There are rules to ensure geographic diversity as well. For the true facts, see http://www.iahc.org where the report is, along with far too many comments. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 640 Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, http://iecc.com/johnl, "New witty saying coming soon." ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Telegraph Questions Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 15:13:05 -0500 Organization: PCM Magazine Reply-To: edellers@mis.net John R. Grout wrote: > Since intra-city bandwidth was relatively less expensive, service for > many larger or communication-intensive businesses used a > slightly-different tradeoff between labor and bandwidth ... these > businesses still used telegraphy, but had their own wire link to the > local Western Union office to lower pickup and delivery costs. This led to a move by Western Union starting in 1948 to install fax machines (connected to their local offices by leased lines) to move telegrams to and from specific high-volume locations -- first public places such as hotel lobbies with a system called Telefax, then business offices with the less expensive Desk-Fax system. (One of the Desk-Fax machines can be seen on a secretary's desk in the movie "Desk Set.") Western Union scrapped the Desk-Fax project in the 1960s, and thousands of machines were sold off, many to amateur radio operators who converted them to operate over HF or VHF radio links. ------------------------------ From: ranck@joesbar.cc.vt.edu (Bill Ranck) Subject: Re: Telegraph Questions Date: 6 Feb 1997 20:23:34 GMT Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia Lee Winson (lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com) wrote: > In old movies, when they're reading from a telegram, they use the word > "stop" between sentences. Yet, didn't Morse code and Teletypewriters > have punctuation, so there was no need for a full word? Indeed, I > recall reading in a 1948 secretary's book _not_ to use the word "stop" > in telegrams. > Would anyone know if they really did use the word "stop" in telegrams, > and if so, why did they and when did they stop? This is just a guess, but the item we Americans refer to as a period, is called a "stop" or "full stop" by the British. It may be as simple as some old/different terminology being used within a fairly closed culture (the culture of telegraphers) for many years. * Bill Ranck +1-540-231-3951 ranck@vt.edu * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Computing Center * ------------------------------ From: Eric Elder Subject: Re: Telegraph Questions Date: Thu, 06 Feb 1997 09:55:30 -0800 Organization: Lucent of Largo Netcare Services Reply-To: eelder@mailhost.paradyne.com The Old Bear wrote: > In the early 1960s, I used to stay with my grandparents at a resort > hotel, and being bored, made friends with the hotel desk clerk who > used to let me operate the hotel plug-board switchboard at times and > to help sending and receiving Western Union telegrams for the guests. > Telegrams were sent by having the guest hand write the message on a > paper form which was placed on a small machine with a rotating drum > and then scanned to Western Union. After sending a message, it was > important to remove it from the drum and replace it with an incoming > telegram form which was printed on special paper (the precursor of > thermal fax paper?) which could record the next incoming telegram as a > pinpoint of light "burned" it into the paper as the drum rotated. The Air Force was still using the burning drum technology in the mid- 1960's to fax weather maps. The smell from the ozone could get instense when two or three of the machines were operating at the same time. These machines were messy. Several ounces of carbon that had to be removed every week. I was elated when the thermal fax machines showed up. No smell, no carbon and the maps looked a lot nicer. The maps didn't mess your clothing either. ------------------------------ From: Jaime Alvarez Mendez Subject: Looking For Access Devices (Data, Voice and Video) Date: 6 Feb 1997 19:34:29 GMT Our network have the following topology: Central Site ------------ Office ----------------- Remote Site (ATM backbone) + +------------ Remote Site + +- Office We are looking for an access devices like this: Central Site ------------ Office Access Devices -- LAN WAN link +- PBX (E1, E3, OC3, ...) +- Video +- Routers +------------- Remote Site WAN Link Access Devices - LAN (leased line, + PBX frame relay, + Video etc.) We know the ADC Kentrox products (by catalog) but we want to know others products. Jaime Alvarez Mendez Systems Engineer Tenerife - Spain jaimeam@iedatos.es ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.NOSPAM (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Florida PSC Selects Three-Way NPA Split Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 16:38:54 -0800 Organization: No unsolicited commercial e-mail! In article , psyber@mindspring.com wrote: > The Florida PSC decided Tuesday in favor of a three-way split for NPA > 904, to take place as early as late May. > Essentially, the Pensacola, Panama City, and Tallahassee LATAs will > retain area code 904. The Jacksonville LATA, encompassing the > northeast corner of the state, will receive 850, and Daytona Beach > will receive a third NPA, possibly either 780 or 550 (based on > available domestic-relief codes, vs. assigned COCs in 904, 407, & > 352). > Permissive dialing could start as early as May 31, 1997 (based on > documentation from the PSC meeting), and last as long as a year. > The move was a surprise, considering most of the industry support was > behind a two-way split, with Tallahassee/Panama City/Pensacola > retaining 904, and Daytona/Jacksonville receiving 850. The move would > allow 904 and 850 to last until 2004-6, and the new NPA to last six to > ten years beyond that ... How long is 352 supposed to last? The original plans called for a much larger area to be moved out of 904 into the new area code, but the plan was changed on the basis of the assertion that 904 didn't really need all that much relief, so it would be okay to move only the Gainesville LATA. Here they are talking about another split not even a year and a half later. Many people have expressed concern about the pace at which we are using up area codes now. I'm not really concerned about things like the 19-way split in the Caribbean, because at least that's a one-shot deal. However, if we keep having splits where not even 200 prefixes are moved into the new area code, we're going to be in serious trouble. According to John Cropper's figures on his web page, 352 currently has only 184 prefixes in it. In Colorado, area codes 970 and 719 combined have fewer prefixes than what's left of 303. Area code 320 in Minnesota has only 183 prefixes, leaving 612 to split again almost immediately. In Virginia, area code 757 has only 294 prefixes, while 804 will be left with about 478, putting it right back in the queue for another split. Don't get me wrong -- I think a 3-way split is probably the best option at this point. However, I think it would've been more prudent to have made essentially a 3-way split, but with Daytona Beach joining Gainesville in area code 352, so that what was 904 two years ago would be three, instead of four area codes a year from now. How many people in Daytona Beach are really pleased that they got to hold onto 904 for an extra 18 months? ** Do not spam e-mail me! ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must change "NOSPAM" to "com" << ------------------------------ Subject: Ohio Residents Choose New Area Code Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 23:39:15 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) North Summit County, Ohio, Residents Choose New Area Code By Melanie Payne, Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News AKRON, Ohio--Jan. 24--Presented with the choice of the Cleveland suburban area's new 440 area code and the 330 area code, telephone customers in northern Summit County chose the latter. "We left them in the 216 area code for as long as possible," Brynette Drennan, community affairs administrator for Alltel Ohio Inc., said. Alltel is the local phone company that serves Aurora, Hinckley, Hudson, Northfield, Peninsula, Richfield and Twinsburg, all of which will switch to the 330 area code later this year. "At the time of the split (of 216 into 330) we didn't know how far down 216 would extend, but when the industry team met they didn't extend 216 down far enough to accommodate these customers," Drennan said. The "industry team" is a national group of telecommunications companies that makes decisions on area code coverage. The available numbers for the 216 area code were depleting so rapidly that the team decided that only the city of Cleveland could continue with 216. The remaining 216 area would become 440 in August. Unfortunately, for northern Summit County the gamble to stay with 216 failed. If customers had not fought so hard to remain in the Cuyahoga County area code, they would have entered into the 330 code 15 months ago when the rest of Summit county converted. "We know (changing area codes) is a problem and that people really don't like it, but it's a reality. It's happening all over the country, every state," Drennan said. Recently, Alltel sent information to some of its business customers in the northern Summit County area alerting them to the change. From August 1997 until April 1998, people living in the former 216 area code will be able to dial as usual. After April 1998, people will have to dial the area code prior to the number, in other words, dial 10 digits, to reach numbers in the 440 area code and for some exchanges in the 330 area code. Local calls, however, will remain local calls, even if the area code is different. "This is a unique situation because people are right in the middle between Akron and Cleveland," Drennan said. Because of the proliferation of devices needing telephone numbers (pagers, fax machines and cellular phones) the area code split was a necessary evil, she said. Drennan said that the industry team is trying to diminish future area code splits by making coverage areas smaller. ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.NOSPAM (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 02:33:36 -0800 Organization: No unsolicited commercial e-mail! In article , James E Bellaire wrote: > The wording on the back of the latest carrier switch check from AT&T > is interesting: > "My signing ... this check authorizes [AT&T] to ... unblock my carrier > choice service protection to make this switch possible... CHECK VOID > IF ALTERED." > 'unblocking my carrier choice service protection'? If AT&T can get > around the block on changing my default long distance carrier for > these checks, what stops them from doing it when their telemarketers > 'think they heard the customer say yes' before I hang up on them when > they call? So much for slam protection. Simple. It's in writing with your signature. The carrier change block applies only to verbal authorization. ** Do not spam e-mail me! ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must change "NOSPAM" to "com" << ------------------------------ From: tbetz@panix.com (Tom Betz) Subject: Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check Date: 07 Feb 1997 08:03:34 -0500 Organization: Society for the Elimination of Unsolicited Commercial Email Reply-To: tbetz@pobox.com Quoth James E Bellaire in : > The wording on the back of the latest carrier switch check from AT&T > is interesting: > "My signing, cashing and/or depositing of this check authorizes you > to switch my long distance service to AT&T, unblock my carrier choice > service protection to make this switch possible, and notify my local > telephone company of this decision. I understand that only one long > distance company may be designated for the telephone number listed > on this check. My local telephone company may charge me a fee to > switch my long distance service. CHECK VOID IF ALTERED." > 'unblocking my carrier choice service protection'? If AT&T can get > around the block on changing my default long distance carrier for > these checks, what stops them from doing it when their telemarketers > 'think they heard the customer say yes' before I hang up on them when > they call? So much for slam protection. Actually, a signature endorsement is pretty good protection. They probably did this to keep people like me, who had protection on, from cashing checks (mine was for $80) and then never getting around to confirming the change with the local Telco. AT&T finally called us a couple weeks ago (about three months after we cashed the check) and facilitated making the change. We put the block back on after we made the switch. I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't had a lot of people like me cash those checks and forget to follow through ... Tom Betz (914) 375-1510 Want to send me email? First, read this page: ------------------------------ From: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) Subject: Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 08:47:32 -0500 Organization: Zip News In article , James E Bellaire wrote: > The wording on the back of the latest carrier switch check from AT&T > is interesting: > "My signing, cashing and/or depositing of this check authorizes you > to switch my long distance service to AT&T, unblock my carrier choice > service protection to make this switch possible, and notify my local > telephone company of this decision. I understand that only one long > distance company may be designated for the telephone number listed > on this check. My local telephone company may charge me a fee to > switch my long distance service. CHECK VOID IF ALTERED." The check also has a blank space that says, "If your address or telephone number is printed incorrectly on the front of this check, please make changes here." I'm thinking of filling in the phone number of some local COCOT and depositing the check. What would AT&T do then? Ron Newman rnewman@cybercom.net Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What they would be perfectly within their legal rights to do at that point is file federal charges of postal fraud against you; using the mail as part of a deceptive practice. You do not own the COCOT nor have the authority to make changes in the status of the line it is connected to. Ditto the COCOT owner; he could make a stink with you also. Rephrase the last paragraph of your article to read, "I am thinking about filling in the phone number of some other person, cause them to get their service slammed, and cash the check ... what would AT&T do?" Better still, if anyone has any AT&T checks laying around, why not fill in Ron Newman's phone number then cash the check? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dale Hesselroth Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 08:20:10 -0500 Subject: Re: Last Laugh: AT&T Check If you really want the last laugh, don't endorse the check, but enclose it with your payment to your current carrier deducting its value from the amount due your carrier. Many carriers will honor checks from their competitors rather than lose you as a customer! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If the current carrier chooses to eat the loss and issue the same amount as goodwill credit, fine. But they should not plan on collecting the money from AT&T; remember, if altered or not filled in correctly, then the check is void and will not be paid by AT&T. As soon as your present carrier stamps its acounting and remittance advices on the back of the check, it has become 'altered', remember? And it certainly will not have your all-important signature. If the truth were known however, I'll bet AT&T has absorbed some pretty hefty losses on that program due to people 'forgetting' to unblock carrier change restrictions, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #33 *****************************