TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 Sep 94 13:33:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 363 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "On Internet '94" by Dern/Abbott (Rob Slade) ISLIP'94 Final Program Announcement (R. Jagannathan) Cell One NY/NJ is becoming "Hell One" (Stan Schwartz) Free Demo - Multi-User Virtual Reality (Jim Durward) Novel TeleMarketing Dialing System Needed (Rich Williams) Help: Computer Voicemail Hard/Software (Peter Salzman) Cable & Wireless Won't Give Me Their Rates (Alan Boritz) Wanted: Information on CTI (Dermot Wall) Help: Universities to Pursue Telecomm Managemant Grad Studies (D. Nyarko) Audiovox MXT-950 900 MHz Phone (Dick Kalagher) Area Code 562 May Arrive Early (Craig Milo Rogers) 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 at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. ************************************************************************* * 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. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, 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. 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, 09 Sep 1994 11:20:55 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "On Internet '94" by Dern/Abbott BKONIN94.RVW 940606 Mecklermedia 11 Ferry Lane West Westport, CT 06880 "On Internet 94", Dern/Abbott, 1994, 0-88736-929-4, U$34.95/C$44.95 ddern@world.std.com meckler@jvnc.net This is a set of resource listings of mailing lists, texts and archives, systems, services, newsgroups and WAIS databases on the net. Of great value to those who act as Internet guides within their own institutions, this is promised to be an ongoing service, updated on a yearly basis. The largest section of the book is devoted to mailing lists and electronic journals, in chapters one and two. The distinction is not readily apparent other than in degree of moderation, and this may account for the fact that a number of lists appear in both chapters. (Indeed, some entries appear, in slightly different terms, more than once in a given chapter, since most are listed by list name, but some are listed by descriptive name.) Another odd division is the separation of the reviewed mailing lists to an appendix at the end of the book. This work relied upon returns from a questionnaire sent out by Meckler, which had both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, if full details were returned, there are some very interesting datum points which you are not likely to find in the list of lists. On the other hand, it is obvious that many list owners sent back very terse entries largely with insufficient instruction on how to get or use the lists. Some lists are startling by their absence, and I therefore assume that the returned questionnaires were the sole source used. I would hope to see more editing in future editions. Chapter three refers to electronic texts, archives, ftp sites, and resource guides. Obviously, this had to be very selective. Like the "catalog" of the Krol book, it is interesting, useful, and even fun, but definitely limited. Chapters four, five and six list community, campus, and commercial systems which may allow greater or lesser degrees of public access. Chapter seven is the annotated Usenet newsgroup list by Spafford and Lawrence. The final chapter is a list of WAIS servers. It is certainly handy having all this information in hard copy, and the research, particularly in the mailing lists, can be quite useful. At the same time, some general editing needs to be done. Access methods still need a bit of work. The index, for example, at least has a "Mystery" entry for the DOROTHY-L list, but nothing under "Literature" or "Writing" (even though these categories exist). Tech support types will find no entries at all for desktop, IBM, Mac, MS-DOS, personal computer or PC. In spite of the gaps, this first effort at "On Internet" shows significant promise beyond the comparable "Internet: Mailing Lists" (cf. BKINTMAL.RVW) and I look forward to the 1995 edition. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKONIN94.RVW 940606. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Sep 94 17:12:08 -0700 From: R. Jagannathan Subject: ISLIP'94 Final Program Announcement ISLIP '94 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON LUCID AND INTENSIONAL PROGRAMMING FINAL PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT STARTS Monday September 26th at 9 AM; ENDS Tuesday September 27th at 530 PM. WHERE: At SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California. A building, Conference Room B PROGRAM Talks should take 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes for questions. Monday, September 26 9:00 Welcoming remarks Jaggan Jagannathan and Ed Ashcroft 9:20 Multidimensional Declarative Programming: The Book Ed Ashcroft 10:00 Hyperindexical Pandimensional Beings Bill Wadge 10:40 Break 11:10 Prescription for Modelling Time in Databases Mehmet Orgun 11:50 On the Design of an Indexical Query Language Joey Paquet and John Plaice 12:30 Lunch 1:50 Objectflow - Adding Objects to GLU Weichang Du and Tony Faustini 2:30 Object-Oriented Implementation of Intensional Languages Weichang Du 3:10 Break 3:40 Developing Scientific Applications in GLU Pushpa Rao and Jaggan Jagannathan 4:20 Particle Simulation with Lucid John Plaice 5:00 End of program for Monday Tuesday, September 27 9:00 Observations on Spreadsheet Languages and Dataflow Alan G. Yoder and David L. Cohn 9:40 Adding Eagerness to Eduction Jaggan Jagannathan 10:20 Break 10:50 Isomorphisms between Two Groups: An Experiment in Program Synthesis and Transformation F. Esfandiari and C. T. P. Burton 11:30 Transforming First-Order Functional Programs into Intensional Programs of Nullary Variables: Theoretical Foundations Panos Rondogiannis and Bill Wadge 12:10 Lunch 2:00 Standard Cell Designs for Hardware Synthesis with Lucid Operators Abhay Kejriwal and Ben Huey 2:40 An Object-Oriented Visual Dataflow Language Da-Quian Zhang, Sute Lei, and Kang Zhang 3:20 A Visual Programming Environment for GLU Dhanraj Rajender and Tony Faustini 4:00 Break 4:30 Panel Discussion 5:30 End of ISLIP 94 HOW TO GET TO SRI: From San Francisco or San Jose Airport, take Highway 101 to Willow Road (Menlo Park). Go west on Willow Road to Middlefield Road, right on Middlefield to Ravenswood Avenue (2nd stop light), left on Ravenswood to 333 Ravenswood (main entrance). PARKING: Park in visitors lot in front of building A REGISTRATION: Registration by mail recommended (by September 19th, 1994) On-site registration possible as a last resort. Registration form follows. ACCOMMODATION: Information on places to stay near SRI follows. ISLIP '94 REGISTRATION September 26-27, 1994 SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., USA Name _____________________________________________________________ Institution ______________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Phone __________________FAX ________________ email________________ Registration fee: $15.00 Send registration (by September 19th) to: Judith Burgess ISLIP 94 Computer Science Laboratory SRI International 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel. (415) 859-5924, FAX (415) 859-2844 email: burgess@csl.sri.com Please enclose check or money order in US dollars, payable to SRI International. No credit cards. Registration includes break refreshments -- lunch is on your own. ACCOMMODATIONS Note: Prices not guaranteed and not necessarily current. Saying you are attending a conference at SRI *may* get you a better rate. Holiday Inn 625 El Camino Palo Alto, CA (415) 328-2800, fax 327-7362 (800) 465-4329 SRI 89/99, gov`t 69/79 if avail. Menlo Park Inn 1315 El Camino Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 326-7530, FAX 328-7539, res 800-327-1315 SRI/gov't 57.00/62.00 (walking distance) Mermaid Inn 727 El Camino Menlo Park, CA (415) 323-9481 $48/$58, $60/70 w/kitchen $62 2bed double (walking distance) Riviera Motor Lodge 15 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 321-8772, FAX 321-2137 $44/52 (long walking distance) Red Cottage Motel 1704 El Camino Redwood City, CA (415) 326-9010 Reg. S=$50, D=$60-65 Govt S=$45, D=$55 No tax (5-10 min. drive) Stanford Park Hotel 100 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 322-1234 S=$148-225; D= $158-225 (walking distance) ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: 8 Sep 1994 21:06:15 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC A couple of months ago, I posted my dissatisfaction with attempting to use my cell phone in Montreal, Canada while roaming from NY with a "Fraud Protection Feature" on my account. To Cell One's credit, one of their representatives read the Digest and contacted me directly to discuss my problem. The resolution was to: A: Have me call customer service before I plan to travel to Canada again to have them remove my FPF before I travel there. B: Make a notation on my account so that when I call under condition "A" I won't get a hard time. So I believed them. Last Thursday, I called customer service to have them remove my FPF before my trip to Toronto. The rep didn't want to do this and when I insisted and explained myself, I got the pleasure of holding for five minutes. When she returned, after checking with the "technical department", she confirmed that there is still a problem with the FPF in Canada and that she would remove the feature. She begged me to call back when I returned to re-activate the feature. She also told me that Toronto was a NACN city and I should have no problem using my phone. Saturday night in Toronto, I tried to make a call and I alternately got a re-order or a CanTel operator. When trying to call in from a pay phone, I got my voice mail. I tried to activate call delivery (*350) and that code was not valid in Toronto. The CanTel rep couldn't tell me what the equivalent code was there and he wouldn't/couldn't connect me to Cell One NY. I went down to a pay phone (Bell Canada, with the neat two-line display), and I called 1-800-242-7327 (CellOne NY customer service). I got the menu choices and was holding for a rep for about 30 seconds when a recording came on to tell me that the number I dialed could not be reached from my calling area. BUT I HAD!!! I tried this a couple more times, only to resign myself to the fact that this was the strangest supervision I had ever encountered. I called Cell One's Paramus number and was lucky enough to find that their switchboard has a voice response option to reach customer service. The rep there tried calling my phone a few times (at one point she said, "Let me try another way. Hold on."), put me on hold, and returned to tell me that Toronto IS a NACN city, but because of the large amount of fraud in the NYC area, I am in a "Pooled Region". This means that CanTel's system sees that my home area code (516) is in a high-fraud area and won't complete calls. Nice, eh? "Imagine No Limits" indeed!!! (The limit is when you reach the Canadian border). I called CellOne today to make sure that I won't have the same problem on my next trip to Denver next week. My conversation went something like this: Me: "I'm calling to see if a couple of cities are in the NACN." CellOne: "Sure, what cities?" Me: "Denver and Toronto." [ I _HAD_ to see what answer I'd get ;-) ] CellOne: "Yes, sir, those are both NACN cities, which means that your callers won't have to use a roamer access number to reach you." Me: "But I was in Toronto last week and I was unable to make calls." CellOne: "That shouldn't have been a problem." .....insert above situation here..... CellOne: "A pooled region is where Canada's phone companies won't let THEIR customers make calls here. None of our customers are in a pooled region. " Now I'm fuming. Josie (the customer service rep) was kind enough to do some research, call me back, and file a trouble report. I'm just not feeling safe depending on the phone anymore while roaming. CellOne NY/NJ is probably _THE_ most expensive carrier in the country, doesn't offer discounted/unlimited weekends, and they can't provide dependable roaming. What's the deal!?? Stan ------------------------------ From: jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca (Jim Durward) Subject: Free Demo - Multi-User Virtual Reality Organization: Virtual Universe Corp Date: Thu, 8 Sep 1994 20:11:45 GMT VIRTUAL UNIVERSE CORPORATION Suite 510, 700 - 4th. Ave. S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2P 3J4 Tel. (403) 261-5652, Fax. (403)237-0005 Internet Address - jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca S.E.C. Rule 12g3-2(b) File number 82-3467 Alberta Stock Exchange Symbol - VRX September 8, 1994 NEWS RELEASE The Company is pleased to announce that it has entered into a development agreement with Virtual Games Inc.(VGI) whereby VGI will port its STIMSLUM videogame to The Parallel Universe. This represents a major step forward as this will be the first commercial application to run on The Parallel Universe and is expected to be a showcase for the leading edge technology of both companies. VGI's videogame is a first person perspective, three dimensional texture-mapped, real-time game that takes place in the future on an abandoned space station. The game is specifically designed to be playable as a networked game and focuses on a rich playing environment versus a linear storyline, to provide the players with enhanced roleplaying interactivity in an alternate virtual society. Players can speak to each other anonymously and are able to select and modify body types and game playing instruments. As Director and Chief Programmer at VGI, Anselm Hook has extensive videogame experience including the programming of hit titles such as Sword of Sodan (SEGA), Dragon's Lair (PC and 3D0), and Maelstrom (PC). The initial STIMSLUM target platform is the PC-CDROM due the large installed base and the strong growth in the CDROM market. The Company believes that the release of STIMSLUMþ with The Parallel Universe will represent the dawning of a new age in real-time networked videogames. The Parallel Universe allows multiple users, regardless of physical location, to enter into a common networked three dimensional environment and fully interact with each other in real-time. The system is enhanced with spatially-relative voice using a proprietary process dubbed "Steereo". To the company's knowledge, this system is the only one of its kind in the world and has the significant advantage of allowing fully interactive three dimensional Virtual Reality delivery to home, business, or arcade-based computers over standard telephone lines. The Company continues to seek strategic partners in order to implement its long term plan of worldwide deployment of The Parallel Universe. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Ian T. Tweedie" Ian T. Tweedie C.A. President The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved this news release and the Company takes full responsibility for its accuracy and content. FREE VIRTUAL UNIVERSE DEMO SOFTWARE AVAILABLE BY EMAIL. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of The Parallel Universe, Virtual Universe is making available a simple demo program that is a sort of multi-player tankwar. When you enter into the Parallel Universe using this demo, you are represented as a tank and you can drive around the playing field while firing at others. You can speak to the other players while you are playing. The graphics rendering is basic as a result of the use of the public domain renderer called VR386. The demo runs on PC only and requires 386/387 or 486. USERS ARE ASKED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE SYSTEM CAPABILITIES, NOT THE GRAPHICS. Commercial applications such as STIMSLUM will have a much higher resolution and speed and will be texture-mapped. If you wish to have the demo emailed to you, please request it from: info@virtual.cuc.ab.ca Jim Durward Virtual Universe Corporation jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca voice: 403-261-5652 fax : 237-0005 ------------------------------ From: rvw@laplace.math.purdue.edu (Rich Williams) Subject: Novel TeleMarketing Dialing System Needed Date: 8 Sep 1994 22:49:31 GMT Organization: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana I am looking for a Automated Dialing system that can be driven by a Novel Network based database. This is one of those pain in the *ss tele-marketing system, that take input from a database dials and once a real voice is detected switches the phone over to a Lot Lizard. I know of Unix based versions of this, but these folks want a Novel system version as the database and network already exist. So if you sell or know of someone who sells these systems let me know please. Contact me at rvw@cs.purdue.edu or (317) 494-4246. Thanks, Rich Williams rvw@math.purdue.edu Purdue University (317) 494-4246 Department of Mathematics #include West Lafayette, IN 47907 ------------------------------ From: psalzman@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Peter Salzman) Subject: Help: Computer Voicemail Hard/Software Date: 8 Sep 1994 08:42:02 GMT Organization: California State University Sacramento I am desperately looking for the needed hardware and software that is used in computer voice mail and telepersonals services. Specifically, my roomate and I would like to start a telephone dating service where people call up, leave messages in other peoples boxes, record their own messages, etc etc. Would some kind soul tell me what I need for this? If someone has actually done this I would be appreciative of any tips you can give me, like system requirements, drive requirements, etc. Since I cross posted this to a slew of groups, the best thing would be to email me. If anyone wants the information, I'd be glad to forward it. Thanks so much, peter ------------------------------ Subject: Cable & Wireless Won't Give Me Their Rates From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Fri, 09 Sep 94 08:08:02 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Called this LD provider about DDD service and they wouldn't even talk to me about rates until they saw a copy of my phone bill! I was impressed when I found out that they deliver ANI on interstate calls, but now I'm not so sure if I'm still "impressed." Ignoring for the moment that they stand a good chance of losing a customer every time I audit a customer's long distance billing where Cable & Wireless is the PIXC, would anyone be familiar with this vendor's switched-access wats rates? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 13:34:16 +0000 From: dermot@nt.com Subject: Wanted: Information on CTI Reply-To: dermot@nt.com Organization: Northern Telecom, GALWAY, Ireland [Please note correct email reply address is gidxw01@nt.com] I am interested in finding some information on computer telephony, eg TAPI etc and wonder if anyone could point me to where I could find some, ideally in the vein of "An Idiot's Guide ...". Thanks for the help, DERMOT WALL EMAIL : gidxw01@nt.com Northern Telecom Galway Ireland ESN : 570 3334 ------------------------------ From: nyarko@ee.ualberta.ca (David Nyarko) Subject: Help: Universities to Pursue Telecomm Managemant Grad Studies Date: 9 Sep 1994 14:21:24 GMT Organization: Computer and Network Services, U of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Hi, Could I have some pointers to Universities in Canada and the US for pursuing a postgraduate program in Telecomms Management. Please email responses. This posting is on behalf of a friend without internet access. David Nyarko email: nyarko@bode.ee.ualberta.ca Dept. of Electrical Engineering Tel:(403)-492-5877 (Office) University of Alberta, (403)-431-0408 (home) Edmonton, AB, CANADA Fax:(403)-492-1811 ------------------------------ From: kalagher@mitre.org (Dick Kalagher) Subject: Audiovox MXT-950 900 MHz Phone Date: Fri, 09 Sep 1994 13:43:49 -0500 Organization: The MITRE corporation Has anyone tried this phone? I saw it at the Price Club and it looks really nice. Its a small flip phone (smaller than the Panasonic, I think) that would easily go in shirt pocket. It has an LCD display that apparently lets you store names for speed dialing. Claims to have 40 cahnnels but it doesn't say whether it hops over the channels or somehow selects the best one. Even has nine different ringer tones and music while on hold (don't know how this works, though). The best part is it is only $199 which is a great price for a 900 MHz phone. ------------------------------ Subject: Area Code 562 May Arrive Early Date: Thu, 08 Sep 94 21:08:49 PDT From: Craig Milo Rogers According to an item on p. D2 of the Thu 8 Sep 1994 edition of the {Los Angeles Times}, areac code 310 is in jeopardy of running out of numbers. Consequently, area code 562 may be activiated within a year. Craig Milo Rogers ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #363 ******************************