qik.com has an app for iPhone/Android, etc allows you to stream video you're recording directly to your account over 3G/4G, etc. People dealing with TSA Abuse have been documenting and recording them using this app and similar. Even if your phone is confiscated, the video is already on the server.
ATT doesn't have to keep the new customer, that's why they make you sign a contract. It's the old customers with the expiring contracts they're trying to retain.
ATT's implementation is indeed to blame. CallerID is the calling presentation of a call, not the source/origination. Using CallerID to authenticate anything requires trusting the person making the call and that's just not smart. ANI or Automatic Number Identification is what should be used to identify the call; it's what is used to bill the call after all. No Bell in the right mind accepts ANI from their customer. The bell switch always lookus up the TN originating the call and set the ANI to appropriate value. The ANI is what should be used to authenticate VM as it cannot be set by the customer. Sprint's implementation is indeed correct as I've tried spoofing my own cell # in the past to call into VM was was unsuccessful.
My company is in the process of designing our new/next data center and we're highly considering a non-battery based UPS solution from Active Power. It's the old 'fly wheel' technology of the past, upgraded to the 21st century. The idea is that the mechanical flywheel can sustain the load for 10-14seconds while the generator kicks on. The theory is that if your generators can't start up and switch over within 10-14 seconds (because of a failure), then they're probably not going to start up/switchover within 45mins--the usually battery backup time in a data center. Some people are using this technology to supplement their traditional battery arrays and make them last longer. The jury is still out on the solution, but looks promising.
When I worked at Compusa, we had similar quotas on our ESP (extended service plans) later renamed TSP (Technology Service Plans). The quota/goal was 3% of gross individual sales.
We didn't refuse sales, although, we would put sales out the door without going under our name in the system as to not affect our individual percentage.
Store managers were under the same type of pressure to maintain the overall TAP percentage and would basically do whatever was necessary to make it happen. One 'trick' was to 'negotiate' the sale of the TAP with the customer and discount the computer and record the reason as a 'price match'.
On the plus side, I do recall purchasing a couple 2 year Exchange Plans on cell phones there (when they sold them) in case my phone mysteriously died, I could get another phone of equal value [read newer/better] at that time. Strangely enough, both phones purchased failed around 18 months and I had to get an upgrade. Glad I had that instant exchange warranty on it.:)
Heck, I'm surprised they haven't equipped the tables with RFID readers and use cards with RFID in them so a computer at the table can maintain the count and watch the bets and point out potential card counters.
Some Casinos Do. L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles does. I was there 2 years ago playing BlackJack so when I asked to be rated for my level of play, she went to the computer attached to the table and pulled up my stats. She was able to tell my average bit, how many hands I played an hour, etc. That being said, I know that computer must also signal card counting betting patterns. [Note to anyone that plays there: The 'button' the dealer hits before dealing out the cards tells the computer a round has started to collect the wager -> player position for the round.
This has a huge potential to backfire on the ISPs.
IANAL, but I have worked at an ISP before. ISP have some limited immunity from civil suits because they are a common carrier.
i.e. They're providing transport to another network (the internet) and the information the flows between it is the responsibility of the sender / receiver because they're merely providing the transport.
The minute they start to police the network at a content level (like Nexicon suggests) they can potentially be liable for the information passing through their networks because they are now 'aware' of the illegal content and have a responsibility to act.
The cons outweigh the pros for this time of agreement. I dont' expect many ISPs to by into this B.S.
There is a bit of a difference.
When you send a letter, the letter is being carried by 1 network--the post office/fedex/ups, etc.
When you text--espeically if its between networks--then only the sending network gets the revenue and the receiver (company) doesn't get anything, yet still has the 'cost' of delivering it. Sure if there is a reply, it may even out, but notification services would tip the scales in favor of the sender's provider for sure.
As for voice calls, quite simply, we're on a metered cellphone system. In the US, if you don't have an 'unlimited' plan for your local [land line] calls, then you would pay per minute--even inbound.
Its obvious the cell phone companies are trying to push everyone to unlimited plans to get more revenue up front to improve cash flow and stabilize profits with more fixed A/R than variable.
There is a bright side. Companies start offering 'Unlimited Everything' plans (see Sprint) which force other carriers to do that. Then the carriers get into a price war over the unlimited plans and ultimately, the consumer witll win.
When taking a break from Surfing the web, walking around the office, surfing the web, going to the water cooler, and surfing the web, I do some work. I figure, on any given day I do about 15 minutes of 'real' work. -peter gibbons.
If memory serves correctly, NTP sued RIM because of the technology they used to push email violated one of their patents. Palm--to my knowledge--doesn't have technology to push email to their devices. That's where companies like http://www.good.com/, and (at the time) http://www.jpmobile.com/ came in. (3rd party addons to add push email to palm devices) It seems NTP should go after Good--and now Microsoft (For their Exchange/AS Push) if anyone, but not palm.
You would need to have these call centers staffed, and fed by a few DS3 links
Not exactly true. Let's say a typical call center uses T1s for a minute. A T1 gives them 24 outbound calling channels to annoy 24 people at a time when configured for voice traffic.
Now Let's look at a T1 configured for data. 24 channels, each carrying 64Kb give us our 1536Kb.
Using a VOIP Provider that uses the G.729 codec (Granted, it's a licensed codec, but still a small expenditure in the grand scheme of things) you can now make a phone call with only 8kb per call. The net result is I can now fit 256 calls on the same T1 that was could only previously carry 24 calls.
Truth be told, VOIP can increase the capacity of a T1 when used for voice. How much it increases depends on the codec, and If you don't want to license a commercial codec, there's always A/U Law that are free and work at 64k/call which is the same as a t1 configured for voice, yes they can still take advantage of the LD savings.
The reasons for big corporations using VOIP for years is because it's a cost _savings_.
You still have the right to tell them to take you off their call list, and they must oblidge and do so.
Think of the DNCL as a 1st layer filter stating, "If this person doesn't do business with you or you're not a non-profit go away" which will take out probably 80-90% of your telemarketing calls.
You still have the right to tell the remaining 10-20% to take you off their list and they must comply and technically their first call hasn't violated any laws; however, subsequent calls after you've given them notice is a violation under another FCC regulation.
XM claims to have 100% commercial free music stations. These are the stations within their control. Other feeds (take fox news), because they're rebroadcasting another feed (it's live tv, without the pic) can't prevent adds. XM, can, detect commercials in streams and replace it with their own. I can't comment on the comedy stations--I don't know where their feeds are from.
Biometrics are here today; however, Biometrics should be used for identification, _Not_ Authentication.
Biometrics are more 'secure' (term used loosely) for identification rather than having a user hold up a prox card or type in a username.
Using Biometrics in place of a password just proves you have a body part of the user, or know were able to lift the imprint, not that you are actually the person you're claiming to be.
After all, they say they're not going to send me unsolicited emails and promise not to sell/share 'my' email address to other companies, so my strategy shouldn't be a problem.
I always thought that since the Sales/Marketing group for [theirdomain] drives people to send me unsolicited mail that it's only fair to provide their email.
Both the CEO and I (CTO) have T1s to our houses, but we also provide Broadband/DSL to our employees in the department (IT) as well.
The CEO gets one because he was tired of DSL/Broadband reliability and well--we want to make him happy. I have one because he offered, so I accepted--both of which go to the company network, not directly to the net, but it's only 1 hop away.
Anyhow, we try to be flexible with our employees, so if they have personal/family issues going on--provided they're not absolutely needed at work--we'll let them work from home. Additionally, we find that a happy employee is willing to check email and take care of mundane tasks at night if they're bored and actually increases productivity.
Turnover in IT is costly--the training on our custom systems is incredible. We like happy IT people and they appreciate the extra efforts we put forth. Broadband, Company Cell, Brining in lunch are just a few things we do to keep them happy.
Ironically, I've been dealing with this exact situation in airports, but the fight is between the dominating terminal tennant and the authority that controls the terminal/airport.
In short, the Authority controlling the terminal (varies by city/state) wants to control Wireless access to enable 3rd parties to come in (concourse is one of the larger) to sell wireless access with the authority getting profit from the deal.
The Dominating tennant, usually an airline, has quite a bit of say (They're actually responsible for maintaining the facility set forth by the authority), but has been fighting an uphill battle with frequency allocation.
In Short, the authority is looking to make money. The dominating tennant is looking for stability. My company operates a 802.11b network throughout a terminal and we were 'assigned' a channel by the dominating tennant. Obviously, I could run on any frequency I choose, but if I did, they'd shutdown my equipment (my antennas are on their roof, in their IDFs, powered by their power, etc.) and prohibit me from operating. They can, kick me out of the terminal if I won't impact them too much (There's a termination for convienence clause in these leases) or, simply over power my network by broadcasting the same SSID and dropping traffic to an VLAN that goes no where.
Yes, the FCC says I have certain rights, but when you choose to co-exist with someone who's ultimately a) paying you and/or b) allowing you to make money, politics plays a huge deal so it's best to work it out peacefully.
If you're really paranoid, just PGP your messages. Granted there's no direct plugin I know of yet, but I'm sure it's about to come. Then again there's always c&p into your email.
The propensity for unencrypted emails to be read and intercepted has existed on the net, but people just ignored the possibility or figured the probability of it happening them is low.
If it bothers you there's an indefinate log of your email, encrypt it--So what if google shows you nothing by PGP ads on the right side of your screen ?
In response to #3, Check out Good Company's Good Link Software. They sync up everything over air--Blackberry doesn't do Contacts or Tasks without going back in the cradle.
We're currently doing feasability testing on the 600 (CDW just shipped it out today) and some Black Berrys. The Good link software works with both, so the Server side application (Good vs BBery Server) is done. Now just to determine the best handheld--although I'm going to predict it's the 600.
One last note. GoodLink should--in the future--work with all Palm Enabled Phones (although it's only officially supported on the Treo 600) which will be nice. I really want a Samsung i500.
Additionally, like you said, better healthcare rates are available through a large organization; however, that organization does not need to be your employeer.
I belong to IEEE which offers insurance through their group plan. Many large organizations have that ability, and If I didn't have coverage otherwise, I'd heavily consider it.
If losing benefits is a problem, you should check out (if you haven't already) your COBRA rights. In short, the Cobra act of 1986 allows an employee who is no longer elgible to participate in an employer's health plan (i.e. fired, laid off, etc..) to still continue to participate in the health plan for up to 3 years if the employeee (former) is willing to burden the premium costs 100% plus a small administrative fee. Again, it may not be the cheapest way to do it, but if you're worried about switching providers with a pre-existing condition that may not be covered under a new plan it's an option.
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qik.com has an app for iPhone/Android, etc allows you to stream video you're recording directly to your account over 3G/4G, etc. People dealing with TSA Abuse have been documenting and recording them using this app and similar. Even if your phone is confiscated, the video is already on the server.
ATT doesn't have to keep the new customer, that's why they make you sign a contract. It's the old customers with the expiring contracts they're trying to retain.
ATT's implementation is indeed to blame. CallerID is the calling presentation of a call, not the source/origination. Using CallerID to authenticate anything requires trusting the person making the call and that's just not smart. ANI or Automatic Number Identification is what should be used to identify the call; it's what is used to bill the call after all. No Bell in the right mind accepts ANI from their customer. The bell switch always lookus up the TN originating the call and set the ANI to appropriate value. The ANI is what should be used to authenticate VM as it cannot be set by the customer. Sprint's implementation is indeed correct as I've tried spoofing my own cell # in the past to call into VM was was unsuccessful.
My company is in the process of designing our new/next data center and we're highly considering a non-battery based UPS solution from Active Power. It's the old 'fly wheel' technology of the past, upgraded to the 21st century. The idea is that the mechanical flywheel can sustain the load for 10-14seconds while the generator kicks on. The theory is that if your generators can't start up and switch over within 10-14 seconds (because of a failure), then they're probably not going to start up/switchover within 45mins--the usually battery backup time in a data center. Some people are using this technology to supplement their traditional battery arrays and make them last longer. The jury is still out on the solution, but looks promising.
Corrected that for you. Assuming, by nerds, you meant scientists and engineers, and not people outside of America. :)
When I worked at Compusa, we had similar quotas on our ESP (extended service plans) later renamed TSP (Technology Service Plans). The quota/goal was 3% of gross individual sales.
:)
We didn't refuse sales, although, we would put sales out the door without going under our name in the system as to not affect our individual percentage.
Store managers were under the same type of pressure to maintain the overall TAP percentage and would basically do whatever was necessary to make it happen. One 'trick' was to 'negotiate' the sale of the TAP with the customer and discount the computer and record the reason as a 'price match'.
On the plus side, I do recall purchasing a couple 2 year Exchange Plans on cell phones there (when they sold them) in case my phone mysteriously died, I could get another phone of equal value [read newer/better] at that time. Strangely enough, both phones purchased failed around 18 months and I had to get an upgrade. Glad I had that instant exchange warranty on it.
Heck, I'm surprised they haven't equipped the tables with RFID readers and use cards with RFID in them so a computer at the table can maintain the count and watch the bets and point out potential card counters.
Some Casinos Do. L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles does. I was there 2 years ago playing BlackJack so when I asked to be rated for my level of play, she went to the computer attached to the table and pulled up my stats. She was able to tell my average bit, how many hands I played an hour, etc. That being said, I know that computer must also signal card counting betting patterns. [Note to anyone that plays there: The 'button' the dealer hits before dealing out the cards tells the computer a round has started to collect the wager -> player position for the round.
This has a huge potential to backfire on the ISPs.
IANAL, but I have worked at an ISP before. ISP have some limited immunity from civil suits because they are a common carrier.
i.e. They're providing transport to another network (the internet) and the information the flows between it is the responsibility of the sender / receiver because they're merely providing the transport. The minute they start to police the network at a content level (like Nexicon suggests) they can potentially be liable for the information passing through their networks because they are now 'aware' of the illegal content and have a responsibility to act.
The cons outweigh the pros for this time of agreement. I dont' expect many ISPs to by into this B.S.
There is a bright side. Companies start offering 'Unlimited Everything' plans (see Sprint) which force other carriers to do that. Then the carriers get into a price war over the unlimited plans and ultimately, the consumer witll win.
I always thought it was a launchpad *to* a dead end. YMMV.
People in hell *want* ice water..... but I wouldn't get hopes up if I were them.
When taking a break from Surfing the web, walking around the office, surfing the web, going to the water cooler, and surfing the web, I do some work. I figure, on any given day I do about 15 minutes of 'real' work. -peter gibbons.
If memory serves correctly, NTP sued RIM because of the technology they used to push email violated one of their patents. Palm--to my knowledge--doesn't have technology to push email to their devices. That's where companies like http://www.good.com/, and (at the time) http://www.jpmobile.com/ came in. (3rd party addons to add push email to palm devices)
It seems NTP should go after Good--and now Microsoft (For their Exchange/AS Push) if anyone, but not palm.
Then again, what I do know, IANAL.
Not exactly true. Let's say a typical call center uses T1s for a minute. A T1 gives them 24 outbound calling channels to annoy 24 people at a time when configured for voice traffic.
Now Let's look at a T1 configured for data. 24 channels, each carrying 64Kb give us our 1536Kb. Using a VOIP Provider that uses the G.729 codec (Granted, it's a licensed codec, but still a small expenditure in the grand scheme of things) you can now make a phone call with only 8kb per call. The net result is I can now fit 256 calls on the same T1 that was could only previously carry 24 calls.
Truth be told, VOIP can increase the capacity of a T1 when used for voice. How much it increases depends on the codec, and If you don't want to license a commercial codec, there's always A/U Law that are free and work at 64k/call which is the same as a t1 configured for voice, yes they can still take advantage of the LD savings.
The reasons for big corporations using VOIP for years is because it's a cost _savings_.
You still have the right to tell them to take you off their call list, and they must oblidge and do so. Think of the DNCL as a 1st layer filter stating, "If this person doesn't do business with you or you're not a non-profit go away" which will take out probably 80-90% of your telemarketing calls. You still have the right to tell the remaining 10-20% to take you off their list and they must comply and technically their first call hasn't violated any laws; however, subsequent calls after you've given them notice is a violation under another FCC regulation.
XM claims to have 100% commercial free music stations. These are the stations within their control. Other feeds (take fox news), because they're rebroadcasting another feed (it's live tv, without the pic) can't prevent adds. XM, can, detect commercials in streams and replace it with their own. I can't comment on the comedy stations--I don't know where their feeds are from.
Biometrics are here today; however, Biometrics should be used for identification, _Not_ Authentication.
Biometrics are more 'secure' (term used loosely) for identification rather than having a user hold up a prox card or type in a username.
Using Biometrics in place of a password just proves you have a body part of the user, or know were able to lift the imprint, not that you are actually the person you're claiming to be.
sales@[theirdomain] or
info@[theirdomain]
After all, they say they're not going to send me unsolicited emails and promise not to sell/share 'my' email address to other companies, so my strategy shouldn't be a problem.
I always thought that since the Sales/Marketing group for [theirdomain] drives people to send me unsolicited mail that it's only fair to provide their email.
Both the CEO and I (CTO) have T1s to our houses, but we also provide Broadband/DSL to our employees in the department (IT) as well.
The CEO gets one because he was tired of DSL/Broadband reliability and well--we want to make him happy. I have one because he offered, so I accepted--both of which go to the company network, not directly to the net, but it's only 1 hop away.
Anyhow, we try to be flexible with our employees, so if they have personal/family issues going on--provided they're not absolutely needed at work--we'll let them work from home. Additionally, we find that a happy employee is willing to check email and take care of mundane tasks at night if they're bored and actually increases productivity.
Turnover in IT is costly--the training on our custom systems is incredible. We like happy IT people and they appreciate the extra efforts we put forth. Broadband, Company Cell, Brining in lunch are just a few things we do to keep them happy.
Ironically, I've been dealing with this exact situation in airports, but the fight is between the dominating terminal tennant and the authority that controls the terminal/airport.
In short, the Authority controlling the terminal (varies by city/state) wants to control Wireless access to enable 3rd parties to come in (concourse is one of the larger) to sell wireless access with the authority getting profit from the deal.
The Dominating tennant, usually an airline, has quite a bit of say (They're actually responsible for maintaining the facility set forth by the authority), but has been fighting an uphill battle with frequency allocation. In Short, the authority is looking to make money. The dominating tennant is looking for stability. My company operates a 802.11b network throughout a terminal and we were 'assigned' a channel by the dominating tennant. Obviously, I could run on any frequency I choose, but if I did, they'd shutdown my equipment (my antennas are on their roof, in their IDFs, powered by their power, etc.) and prohibit me from operating. They can, kick me out of the terminal if I won't impact them too much (There's a termination for convienence clause in these leases) or, simply over power my network by broadcasting the same SSID and dropping traffic to an VLAN that goes no where.
Yes, the FCC says I have certain rights, but when you choose to co-exist with someone who's ultimately a) paying you and/or b) allowing you to make money, politics plays a huge deal so it's best to work it out peacefully.
If you're really paranoid, just PGP your messages. Granted there's no direct plugin I know of yet, but I'm sure it's about to come. Then again there's always c&p into your email.
The propensity for unencrypted emails to be read and intercepted has existed on the net, but people just ignored the possibility or figured the probability of it happening them is low.
If it bothers you there's an indefinate log of your email, encrypt it--So what if google shows you nothing by PGP ads on the right side of your screen ?
Scott Richter... "I didn't know anything about computers," he says now. "All I knew was how to log into AOL. That's still about all I can do."
Someone wanna do a black op to uninstall AOL from his computer and save us all a lot of grief?
Now if we could only get AOL to stop sending him discs, we could cross another spammer off the list for good.
RTM ISOs floating around on the net... Then I'll know it's not vaporware.
In response to #3, Check out Good Company's Good Link Software. They sync up everything over air--Blackberry doesn't do Contacts or Tasks without going back in the cradle.
We're currently doing feasability testing on the 600 (CDW just shipped it out today) and some Black Berrys. The Good link software works with both, so the Server side application (Good vs BBery Server) is done. Now just to determine the best handheld--although I'm going to predict it's the 600. One last note. GoodLink should--in the future--work with all Palm Enabled Phones (although it's only officially supported on the Treo 600) which will be nice. I really want a Samsung i500.
Yes, so very true.
Additionally, like you said, better healthcare rates are available through a large organization; however, that organization does not need to be your employeer.
I belong to IEEE which offers insurance through their group plan. Many large organizations have that ability, and If I didn't have coverage otherwise, I'd heavily consider it.
If losing benefits is a problem, you should check out (if you haven't already) your COBRA rights. In short, the Cobra act of 1986 allows an employee who is no longer elgible to participate in an employer's health plan (i.e. fired, laid off, etc..) to still continue to participate in the health plan for up to 3 years if the employeee (former) is willing to burden the premium costs 100% plus a small administrative fee. Again, it may not be the cheapest way to do it, but if you're worried about switching providers with a pre-existing condition that may not be covered under a new plan it's an option.