TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 Nov 93 11:02:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 740 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Motorola PT550 Cellular Phone Info Requested (Ed Greenberg) Preparing my Case Against Sprint (Chris Ambler) Received My Free Sprint Modem Today (Rosella Bartonico) CFP94 Scholarships (John F. McMullen) Recommendations For Programmable Audio Synthesizer Wanted (Brett Delmage) Frame Relay Summary (Michael Lewis) Books, Interesting to Some People (James H. Haynes) Telecom at the Opera (Aninda Dasgupta) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Motorola PT550 Cellular Phone Info Requested Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 22:17:53 GMT I have the above cellular telephone and wonder if anybody out there has the documentation for test mode. I can get into test mode easily enough, since that is documented, for the purpose of programming the rejection list of systems that you don't want to use for roaming. What I'd like to know is: * Standard test mode display is alternating between the cell frequency and signal strength on one flash, and a seven digit number on the other flash which remains constant for each cell. Does anybody know the interpretation of this number? * What else can you do in test mode? Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Preparing my case against Sprint Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 13:53:21 GMT I promised I'd keep you up to date on this, so here is the current situation, and a call for help, if you can. (This, in relation to their "Dvorak offer" fiasco, for which I am suing them in small claims court) I called Sprint, to ask them for the proper address at which to serve them. They refused me this information, pointing me at the Secretary of State for my state (CA). I called there (after an hour of busy signals) and was told that they no longer give that information out over the phone. Wonderful. I love our goverment. It now must be done via writing, and costs $4. I sent that off. Meanwhile, I've been doing legal research, and have come to the conclusion that their verbal offer on the phone, my acceptance, the switching of my lines, and the one long-distance call to "activate" the plan constitutes a valid contract. Point of help number 1. If anyone has specific case references for verbal offer and acceptance, when acceptance relies on specific performance of an action intended to benefit the party which made the inital offer, this would be of great use to me. Also, if anyone knows if the section of the law dealing with "rewards" is relivant here, I'd like to know about it. Is there a section dealing with offers to the public of a premium in exchange for perchase of item or service? I also sent a letter, via registered mail, to Sprint, outlining what I am preparind my case against them for, what I contracted for, and what they offered. I then outlined the deficiency, and assigned it a fair monetary value (average of ten street prices for the modem initially offered). Point of help number two: If anyone knows anything I'm missing here, I'd like to know about it. I have legal citations to show that the contract was valid, I have a letter demanding performance of the contract, and I have documentation of names and times of phone calls where they refused to honour the contract. What am I missing? At this rate, I should have a court date some time in December or January. If there's anyone else who is taking Sprint to court over this, I'd like to hear from you as well, we can share information. One last thing. Those of you who called Sprint and were told that they offered a 9600 baud external data/fax modem, could you PLEASE document this, with the name and time you called (if you have it) and sign it and send it to me? Simply a personal letter saying that you, too, were promised this over the phone by Sprint. I was told that this would be of invaluable help in any case. If you are taking Sprint to court as well, I would be happy to send you the same. My address is: Christopher J. Ambler 1720 Diablo Drive San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 (805) 782-8000 More info as I get it. Thanks to all who have kept in touch over this. While it's not something I want to do again, I am learning quite a lot over this and enjoying the process, as frustrating as it is :-) ++Christopher(); // Home of the 30K plan! | cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu Christopher J. Ambler, Author, FSUUCP 1.41 | chris@toys.fubarsys.com Call The Central Coast Connection, Voice BBS: (805) 544-3754 - Avail 15 Nov! ------------------------------ From: rosellab@hawaii.edu (Rosella Bartonico) Subject: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 02:39:43 GMT It finally came today, after eight weeks (I switched to Sprint for the free modem about September 10). It is indeed an internal 1/4 card (half size, half heigth) PC modem. Not an external. It came via UPS 2nd day air. The modem comes in a shrink wrapped package. Here are the specs: The Smart One Fax Modem from Best Data Products, Inc. 9600/4800 bps send/receive fax 2400/1200/300 bps data modem with V.42bis and MNP error correction and data compression QUICKLINK WinDos Software and a free month of Compu$erve for $8.95. A letter was also included with the shipment that said: November 1, 1993 Dear Customer, Due to the emergency situation that we have had over the past week in Los Angeles, we have had logistic difficulties with UPS and other carriers. Best Regards, Best Data Products So the Mac owners are outta luck, since this is indeed an internal modem for the PC. Let me just say that I don't think Sprint should be held accountable because in the radio commercial that announced this promotion, they clearly specified that it was an internal PC 2400 data modem w/fax. I know, I heard it with mine own ears. Of course, it's unfortunate that the computer illiterate Sprint Reps didn't know the difference between a 9600 bps data and 9600 bps fax. Sprint should only switch the misinformed back to their original carrier at Sprint's expense and compensate the customer with whatever they might have lost for being with Sprint. ($50 is very fair). [steps down from soapbox] Aloha. ------------------------------ Subject: CFP94 Scholarships From: mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com (John F. McMullen) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 08:41:05 EST Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) The Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP'94) is pleased to announce that it will once again provide a number of full tuition scholarships for attendance at the conference. The conference will be held in Chicago, IL from March 23rd through March 26th, 1995 and will be hosted by the John Marshall Law School under the chairmanship of George Trubow. The conference traditionally attracts an extremely diverse group of persons concerned with issues relating to the rapid development of the "information society"; civil libertarians, information providers, law enforcement personnel, privacy advocates, "hackers", sociologists, educators and students, computer professionals, cryptography advocates, government policy makers and other interested parties have all played major roles in the three previous conference. Speakers at previous conferences have included Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) co-founders John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor, FBI Deputy Director William A. "Al" Bayse, writer Bruce Sterling, privacy advocate Simon Davies, Harvard University law professor Lawrence Tribe, hacker "Phiber Optik", Georgetown University's Dorothy Denning, "Cuckoo's Egg" author Clifford Stoll, Prodigy counsel George Perry, USA Today founder Al Neuwith, former FCC Chairman Nicholas Johnson, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)'s Marc Rotenberg, Arizona prosecutor Gail Thackeray, and Bay Area Women in Computing's Judi Clark. The scholarships are intended to provide access to the conference to those that would like to attend the conference but are unable to afford the tuition. They are available to undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline (previous student attendees have come from computer science, law, sociology, liberal arts, journalism, and womens' studies backgrounds), law enforcement personnel, hackers, social scientists, and others interested in the future of the information society. Persons interested in a scholarship should send the following information (e-mail greatly preferred) to: John F. McMullen CFP'94 Scholarship Chair Perry Street Jefferson Valley, NY 10535 mcmullen@panix.com (914) 245-2734 (voice) (914) 245-8464 (fax) 1. Personal Information -- Name, Addresses (including e-mail), Phone Numbers, School and/or Business Affiliation 2. Short Statement explaining what the applicant helps to get from CFP'94 and what impact that attendance may have in the applicant's community or future work. 3. Stipulation that the applicant understands that he/she is responsible for transportation and lodging expenses related to the conference. The scholarship includes tuition and those meals included with the conference. 4. Stipulation that the applicant would not be able to attend the conference if a scholarship is not granted. 5. Stipulation that the applicant, if granted a scholarship, will attend the conference. 6. Stipulation that the applicant, if granted a scholarship, will provide a written critique of the conference to the scholarship committee by April 30, 1994. Applications will be accepted until December 31, 1993 and scholarship winners will be notified by approximately February 1, 1994. Please contact John McMullen at the above e-mail address or phone numbers with any questions. John F. McMullen mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com Consultant, knxd@maristb.bitnet mcmullen@well.sf.ca.us Writer, 70210.172@compuserve.com mcmullen@panix.com Student, GEnie - nb.nyc mcmullen@eff.org Teacher ------------------------------ From: bd@hydra.CARLETON.CA (Brett Delmage VE3JLG) Subject: Recommendations for Programmable Audio Synthesizer Required Reply-To: bd@hydra.carleton.ca Organization: JATOM Systems Inc. Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 22:26:05 GMT I am looking for a replacement / back-up for my employer's (Plantronics) Wilcom T-296 Programmable Frequency Synthesizer. I have not any luck finding anything in catalogues in the last year :( The T-296 is a two channel programmable audio synthesizer. It is programmable by a front-panel keypad, and stored control programs can be entered in a BASIC-like language, for example, 10 DTMF 123*# 20 DELAY 2000 30 GOTO 10. Full user control over each tone frequency, level (in 1dB steps) and timing (~1ms) is provided, which is an important feature for us. Ideally, we would like a plug-in card for the ISA (IBM PC) bus that can provide similar functionality. A free-standing box that can be controlled over an RS232 link would also be acceptable. We are willing and able to program the device at a lower-level to the hardware, in C. One of the biggest shortcomings of the T-296 is that programs must be entered on the front-panel keypad and cannot be saved externally. It's getting to be quite a pain to reenter several- hundred program lines when the T-296 loses its mind, which is happening more and more in its old age :( Please email your suggestions and recommendations. Contact information (model, manufacturer/supplier and phone number) and personal experience with the product would be appreciated if you can provide it. Thanks in advance! Brett Delmage, JSI Telecom 613) 591-5910 bd@hydra.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 02:16:53 -0800 From: Michael Lewis Subject: Frame Relay Summary I would like to thank those of you who responded to my recent request for guidance in the field of Frame Relay. I have compiled the following responses: Michael L. Lewis DHL Systems Inc. Network Engineering 700 Airport Blvd Phn: (415) 375-5135 Global Communications Burlingame, CA 94010 FAX: (415) 571-7073 Internet: mlewis@ssf-sys.dhl.com ------------------- Try getting a hand on cisco's Internetworking Technology Overview. They condense the X.25 to 6 pages and then go into frame relay for another 8 pages, comparing frame relay to X.25. Sounds like just what you want for a broad overview. StrataCom is evidently the keeper of Frame Relay Interface Specification. 040-207460, Rev. 2.3, August 9, 1990. cisco is at (800) 553-6387. I have no idea how to reach StrataCom, perhaps the cisco folks know. They implement frame relay well. Ron Rietz rreitz@sadis01.kelly.af.gov Well, let me see if I can help you a bit .. If the "one RFC" you're referring to is 1294, it has now been replaced by 1490, which you should get a copy of. I can mail it to you if necessary (I'm a co-author). You should call or send mail to the Frame Relay Forum. I'm on the road right now so I don't have the phone number, but send email to vivianb@interop.com - she's in charge of the FRF Secretariate. She can mail you plenty of info, along with pointers and references on where to find more. There's also the ASNI specs if you want technical detail - T1.606, T1.617, T1.618. My company also sells FR switches and routers with FR interfaces - let me know if we can be of assistance. Hope this helps. Regards, Andrew G. Malis malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com -or- malis_a@timeplex.com Ascom Timeplex 289 Great Rd., Acton MA 01720 USA~ +1 508 266-4522 I found that MCI has a pretty good overview of their services in a little booklet which also described FR in general. P.S.: This is no endorsement of their services of course :-) Alex Bochannek Phone : +32 2 778 42 00~ Technical Support Analyst Fax : +32 2 778 43 00 Cisco Systems Belgium SA/NV RFC822: abochann@cisco.com Complex Antares, 5th Floor 72 Avenue des Pleiades 1200 Brussels, Belgium~ Currently on vacation in Berlin, Germany We are just starting to work with BT Tymnet on a frame relay option for our net also. Our Canadian affilate has some frame relay in place using Cisco ags routers. I will inquire about their findings and results. What data rates and locations are you looking at - I assume some international sites. Warren Smith wsmith@vaxl1.danavictor.com Dana Corp / Victor Reinz Division You might consider joining the Frame Relay Forum. Jim Battan - Sequent Computer Systems, Beaverton, OR battan@sequent.com or uunet!sequent!battan Too bad you just missed Interop. The vendors are the ones who seem to be carrying and promoting Frame Relay services although in a dizzying array of capabilities and costs. A few articles of interest from the trade magazines would be: "Coping with Public Frame Relay: a Delicate Balance" Data Communications, 21 Jan. 1992 "What are the Network Design Choices for Frame Relay Based Networks?" Networks-in-Depth, Feb. 1992 (If you cant get these articles, I can send a copy to you) Also about a year ago, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) began a multivendor OSI/Frame Relay Interoperability Trial that presumably is finished and the results are in. You may not be interested in the OSI aspects, but the list of vendors and results may be of interest. You can get information on the trial from Doug Montgomery, dougm@osi.ncsl.nist.gov . Some of the participants were AT&T, Cascade Communications, ISDN Systems, NCR, Sprint, StrataCom, 3Com. Elin Klaseen Research Engineer SRI Int'l 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 859-4425 klaseen@erg.sri.com ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: Books, Interesting to Some People Date: 6 Nov 1993 23:31:35 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Here's some books and things advertised in the latest issue of Morse Telegraph Club newsletter. I have no connection with any of the vendors, have bought some of the books and enjoyed having them. Morsum Magnificat - International bi-monthly journal for Morse telegraphy, past, present, & future. Details from: Morsum Magnificat 9 Wetherby Close, Broadstone, Dorset BH18 8JB, England or subscribe via Wise Owl Worldwide 4314 W. 238th St. Torrance, CA 90505. $21.50 surface or $26.50 airmail QNC! Journal for amateur radio c.w. enthusiasts; cognizant that landline gave rise to wireless. QNC! 85000 Laughlin Rd., Eugene, OR 97405 The Vail Correspondent - Journal for key and telegraph hobbyists. Free subscriber ads. Sample copy $2; subscription (4 issues) $10. The Vail Correspondent POB 88, Maynard, MA 01754 (same as Artifax Books) Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook. 60 pages. Excellent, Illustrated. $11.95 ppd. [also good for model railroaders] also coming soon: Ted McElroy Biography Illustrated. Hardcover $41.95 ppd, softcover $21.95 ppd. Printing date early December. Artifax books, Box 88-D Maynard, MA 01754 The Story of Telecommunications by George P. Oslin, Western Union's first public relations director. Hard cover, 507 pages, 150+ illustrations. Comprehensive history covers smoke signals to fax machines. $35. Mercer University Press 1400 Coleman AVe., Macon, GA 31207 800-637-2378 Ext 2880 Collector Reprints of Bunnell Learners Manual of 1884, Drawings & diagrams, telegraph fundamentals, $8 check or MO, L.A. Bailey 813-442-1557 909 S. Evergreen Ave., Clearwater FL 34616 [I have a copy of this -- he did a beautiful job of reproducing the old booklet] The Telegraph by Lewis Coe. Hardcover 184 pages. Illustrated. Excellent overview of the telegraph. $25.95, McFarland & Co. 919-246-4460 Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 06:49:56 EST From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Telecom at the Opera Last week I was at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. We had real bad seats (not my fault, I was there courtesy of my date) and were seated in a box on the top left balcony, literally hovering over the stage. As a result, part of the stage was blocked from my view and all I remember seeing from up there are the cleavages of the dimensionally disadvantaged divas and the bald patch on Placido Domingo's cerebral-box (although the singing was great, not to mention the music, but I digress). Looking on towards the stage, one saw the orchestra pit, which was, as is usual, sunk below the audience, then there was the front part of the stage, in the middle of which was the prompter's box. So the prompter was actually standing on the floor at the same level as the orchestra pit, with his head barely reaching the stage floor and only the performers could see him in the hole. Sitting right above the stage allowed me a nice view of the backstage, the prompter's hole and the orchestra pit. I saw that the prompter had a Black and White TV (about 10" wide), on which the conductor's gestures were being constantly shown. The performers could stare at the two sides of the auditorium and nicely concealed from the rest of the audience were strategically placed TV monitors, which also showed the conductor. Thus, the prompter could watch the conductor's arm movements and, using hand signals, prompt the different performers to sing lines. Simultaneously, the performers would from time to time look at the walls and see the conductor's wand and at other times watch the prompter for signals to start, slow down or stop singing. The lines were also being scrolled on a little LED/Bulb strip that was sunk into the front of the stage and which only the performers could see. Backstage were a number of TV monitors that allowed the director to watch and direct the whole thing via audio with the prompter. Outside the Lincoln Center (of which the Metropolitan Opera House is a part) was a huuuuge tractor trailer with the word "Unitel" painted on it. The trailer had some neat modules that were hydraulically pushed/ raised out of the trailer's walls and steps lowered to allow people access to the interior of the trailer. There were no antennae or dishes anywhere on the trailer, but I did see a guy scuttle in and out wearing headphones. I wonder what the trailer was for; I know the local PBS station was recording the performance for a future broadcast. All in all, I was surprised that they use such telecom for classical performances. I can only wonder how they did things in the days when Verdi composed the music for the opera. (Now don't you go comparing my experience with what you saw at the Megadeth concert.) Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 "Err.., Phillips Petroleum gives you gas; fortunately Phillips Chemical makes antacid. Philips is with one "el", we make lightbulbs. And other shtuff" [Moderator's Note: Forty years ago during the 1950's, one could always tell when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was doing a radio broadcast since in the alley behind Orchestra Hall where the alley intersects with Adams Street there would appear a very large semi-trailer/truck with the words 'Illinois Bell Telephone Company' on its side. A thick cable would snake out of the stage entrance of the Hall and into this van, then it would come out the van and go down into a manhole in the street. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #740 ****************************** ****************************************************************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253