Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA16740; Wed, 4 Jan 89 01:13:02 EST Message-Id: <8901040613.AA16740@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Wed, 4 Jan 89 0:44:59 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #3 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu Status: O TELECOM Digest Wed, 4 Jan 89 0:44:59 EST Volume 9 : Issue 3 Today's Topics: Re: A Tiny Tim Re: A Tiny Tim Re: Touch-Tone around the world TouchTone in the UK Re: Excuses but No Number Hands-on Telecom Curricula Re: Telephone gizmo for one-line customers Time marches on... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 89 08:21:50 PST From: faigin@aerospace.aero.org To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: A Tiny Tim Cc: gmeeca!sb@tis.llnl.gov According to my wife, California State University at Northridge just had a conference on computer aids for the handicapped. One of their gizmos that made the local TV news was an interface that allowed an ALS patient to communicate by focusing on words on a gridded CRT screen. Said patient had control over only his eye muscles. You might want to contact folk over there for more details (they have a lab that specializes in custom-fit computer aids for the handicapped). Daniel -- Work : The Aerospace Corp M8/055 * POB 92957 * LA, CA 90009-2957 * 213/336-3149 Home : 8333 Columbus Avenue #17 * Sepulveda CA 91343 * 818/892-8555 Internet : faigin@aerospace.aero.org +---------------------------------------- Voicemail: 213/336-5454 Box# 3149 | Take what you like, and leave the rest ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 89 08:01:55 PST (Tuesday) Subject: Re: A Tiny Tim From: schwartz.osbunorth@xerox.com To: comp-dcom-telecom@decwrl.dec.com Cc: Schwartz.osbunorth@xerox.com, Kaufman@polya.stanford.edu, Re: "... hooking an automobile accident to a computer ..." I just noticed the following item in "Online Today", the monthly magazine of Compuserve: Apple "Pickings" for the Disabled: A packet of information on Apple computer resources for the handicapped is available from Access Unlimited Speech Enterprises, a charitable, non-profit, special technology corporation. The package includes titles, descriptions and prices of talking and larger print Apple software, accessories, peripherals and special hardware, such as alternatives to the standard keyboard. The products described in the packet are being used by the blind, low-visioned, multiple-handicapped, mute, reading- or learning-disabled, mentally retarded and hearing impaired. Some are designed for users with special needs, while others are general-market products that are recommended additions to the Apple computer system used by a handicapped child or adult. When requesting a free information packet, include your name, organization, address and telephone number, the nature of the disability being addressed, computer of interest, and age or developmental level. Information tailored to your needs will be sent. Mention that you heard of the packet in "Online Today." To order, call 800/531-5314 (nationwide) or 800/292-5619 (in Texas). The organization also is selling a 10-minute VHS videotape of severely handicapped children and young adults using Apple computers to demonstrate the versatility of the machines. The tape costs $45 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. To order, call 713/461-0006. For information, contact Access Unlimited Speech Enterprises, 99039 Katy Freeway, Suite 414, Houston TX 77024. Information on computers and the handicapped is available in the Disabilities Forum [on Compuserve] (GO DISABILITIES). ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU From: desnoyer@Apple.COM (Peter Desnoyers) Subject: Re: Touch-Tone around the world Date: 3 Jan 89 21:31:34 GMT In article mcvax!santra.hut.fi!news@uunet.UU.NET writes: > >As a side show, I've also had problems on long-distance connections in >Finland, and they sound a lot like the slippage problems that were described >here. When I call Helsinki from Jyvaskyla, I keep getting these {'s almost >every five seconds ! The problem is, there are three (!) companies involved >in the mess: the local telco for Jyvaskyla area, the PTT (as the long-distance >carrier) and the Helsinki local telco. The problem would seem to in the >PTT/Helsinki telco connection. A lot on it I can do to it from here... > If (1) the '{'s appear regularly, rather than sporadically, (2) they appear more often on more expensive calls, and (3) you don't have itemized long distance billing in your area, you may be suffering from metering pulses. I know they used them recently in Sweden, but I don't know whether other countries have used this billing method. The idea is that the long-distance office sends these tone pulses (at 10-20kHz) at intervals representing some monetary unit worth of service, and something remarkably like a gas meter records them at the local office. Some modems are immune to these pulses. With others, if this is indeed the problem, you might be able to improvise a low-pass filter (or get one from the PTT? sounds to practical to be true.) Of course, it could be slips or bad noise, too. Peter Desnoyers ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 89 06:39:43 PST (Tuesday) Subject: TouchTone in the UK From: "hugh_davies.WGC1RX"@Xerox.COM To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu I rang the local British Telecom telephone sales office to enquire if the new exchange (a TXE4A, I believe - judging by its inability to provide dialtone on offhook in about 50% of occasions) in the St.Albans (where I live) supported TouchTone dialling. The person I spoke to said, and I quote, "What's TouchTone dialling?". Sigh. Hugh. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Jan 89 00:47:56 EST From: mgrant@cos.com (Michael Grant) To: uunet!bu-cs.BU.EDU!telecom@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Re: Excuses but No Number The phone companies are far less willing to let other people know the internal test numbers these days since there are independent telephone repair people (who do not work for the telephone company) who would use them. -Mike ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jan 89 23:17:24 mst From: harvard!arizona.edu!naucse.UUCP!rrw (Robert Wier) To: arizona!noao!ncar!husc6!harvard!bu-cs!telecom@arizona.edu Subject: Hands-on Telecom Curricula Cc: naucse!rrw@arizona.edu Patrick - I am teaching a data networks/data communications class for senior level undergrads this semester (consisting of both cs and ee types). I'd like to have some "hands-on" lab assignments. I got to thinking about this from your recent posting of classes from the American Institute. I wonder if you might have any suggestions on sources or suggestions for lab type projects along these lines? I have been in contact with a few people and have a couple of ideas, but could use a few more. Feel free to post this to the net if you think it worthwhile. Thanks - -Bob Wier at Flagstaff, Arizona Northern Arizona University ...arizona!naucse!rrw | BITNET: WIER@NAUVAX | *usual disclaimers* [Readers: what can you suggest for Mr. Wier's lesson preparations? PT] ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@watmath.waterloo.edu From: "Norman S. Soley" Subject: Re: Telephone gizmo for one-line customers Date: Mon, 2 Jan 89 17:48:56 EST In article , black%ll-micro@ll-vlsi.arpa (Jerry Glomph Black) writes: : I just read a short review in PC Week about a $400 gizmo which : answers your phone, then issues a robot-voice announcement to the : caller requesting that the (hopefully touch-tone-equipped) person : press the '3' button. The caller is then connected to your voice : phone, which rings as usual. If '3' is not pressed, the gizmo : box assumes that a fax or modem is calling, and your data : equipment receives the incoming call. Seems like a good way to : get double use of one line. : : The $400 seems overpriced for what you get I think what you were reading about is a product called Watson, in addition to doing what you say it also is a modem and comes with voicemail software for the PC (a little rudimentary, but workable) considering this the price is quite reasonable. -- Norman Soley - Data Communications Analyst - Ontario Ministry of the Environment UUCP: uunet!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ontenv!soley VOICE: +1 416 323 2623 OR: soley@ontenv.UUCP " Stay smart, go cool, be happy, it's the only way to get what you want" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Jan 89 09:31:08 PST From: laura_halliday@mtsg.ubc.ca To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Time marches on... I walked by a shop yesterday that specializes in antique stuff for movie sets (you know, 1959 licence plates and the like) and one of the things they had in the window was a telephone that had a dial on it. Kinda makes you think... laura halliday University of B.C. [Moderator's note: Yep. And people with touch tone phones are still a *minority* in the United States, let alone other countries. Did you know that? For all the to-do which is made of touch tone phones in this country, there are still millions of subscribers with rotary dial service and POTS, which means 'plain old telephone service'. I've had touch tone since around 1967; long before anyone I know had it. Likewise with modems: Maybe five to ten percent of all phone subscribers have one. Another thirty to forty percent have probably never even heard of them, or only know vaguely what they do. Yet we look at an 'antique' rotary dial phone and say how quaint it is. In my collection of old phones here, I have a 'french-style' unit with the fat base, the skinny, short neck, and the four fingers which hold the receiver in place. Best of all, it is a phone without a dial at all, with a brown *cloth* straight cord from the handset to the base and the jack. The bottom of the instrument says it was manufactured by the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne Works, 1930. It still works fine. Patrick Townson] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************