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The Telecom Digest for June 26, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 155 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:13:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: School District incorporating cell phones into lesson plans
Message-ID: <d800f1ae-b2c6-4348-bbdc-2cec3b1b2fd7@w24g2000vby.googlegroups.com>
"As schools fight the rising tide of student cell phone use, the
Hopewell Valley [NJ] Regional School District has embraced the
trend. The district is piloting a program dubbed "Bring Your Own
Device" that will put in-class cell phone use into lesson plans for
eighth-graders and high school students. For example, students can
use them to covertly alert teachers they don't understand. What the
teacher can say is, 'Does everybody understand where we are?' and
without fear of embarrassment from their friends, they can text in
'No' or 'Can you clarify?'"
for full article please see:
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/06/hopewell_valley_schools_go_hig.html
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:34:00 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Reliance on smartphones is leaving hikers in a bind
Message-ID: <p062408f9cc0e4a410bbd@[10.0.1.6]>
A call to be better prepared
Reliance on smartphones is leaving hikers in a bind
By Billy Baker
Globe Staff / June 25, 2012
It was getting dark. They were lost atop Mount Lafayette in the White
Mountains. And Analia Oliva and her boyfriend, Cory Robertson, out
for a day hike with their dog, were not prepared for a night in the
woods.
The only tool they had with them was Oliva's iPhone. Except that they
had no reception, and Robertson, 25, and Oliva, 20, had used up much
of the battery taking photos. The New Hampshire couple eventually
found the right trail, scrambled down the mountain, hoping to get a
signal, but it was too late. They could not see where they were
walking, and there were no bars on the phone. When it died, they
settled into the reality of a night on the mountain.
That is when a minor miracle happened: They were rescued,
accidentally, by crews out looking for another lost hiker.
Increasingly, smartphones are creating problems in the backcountry,
particularly in New Hampshire's White Mountains, where, officials
say, more hikers are skipping basic gear - particularly a map,
compass, and flashlight - and relying too heavily on phones with GPS
and a slew of gear-like apps, including compasses and trail maps, to
bail them out of a jam.
...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/06/25/iphones_can_save_hikers_from_danger_and_put_them_in_it/
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/06/24/iphones-can-save-hikers-from-danger-and-put-them/8K3qj5zu3RJh87wlzDmZLI/story.html
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:32:53 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: T-Mobile likely to end attempt to block Verizon spectrum purchase
Message-ID: <p06240802cc0e974cbd6b@[10.0.1.6]>
T-Mobile likely to end attempt to block Verizon spectrum purchase
Spectrum and cash swap allay T-Mobile's antitrust concerns.
by Jon Brodkin
Ars Technica
June 25 2012
When Verizon Wireless struck a deal to buy new spectrum for $3.6
billion, T-Mobile USA was the first to ask the government to block
the sale. Verizon's purchase of airwaves from SpectrumCo, a joint
venture of Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House, raised antitrust
concerns because the spectrum was needed more by smaller competitors
who would "use it more quickly, more intensively, and more
efficiently," T-Mobile said in February.
But this morning, Verizon announced a deal that seems all but certain
to end T-Mobile's opposition. The companies will trade spectrum and
cash, with the deal being contingent on the approval of Verizon's
purchase of licenses from SpectrumCo, Cox, and Leap Wireless.
...
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/t-mobile-likely-to-end-attempt-to-block-verizon-spectrum-purchase/
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:35:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: How SSDs conquered mobile devices and modern OSes
Message-ID: <p06240803cc0e97ede33b@[10.0.1.6]>
How SSDs conquered mobile devices and modern OSes
With flash ascendant, OS vendors have disabled defragging and supported TRIM.
by Lee Hutchinson
Ars Technica
June 25 2012
In part one of our "SSD Revolution" series, we covered the basics of
flash memory in solid state drives, walking through lots of important
but esoteric details such as the difference between NAND flash and
NOR, or how SSD reads and writes work. We also talked about the
techniques used to make SSDs faster and to prolong their lives. But
SSDs don't just exist in a vacuum-the state of solid state, such as
it is, has had a significant effect on the shape of the modern mobile
device landscape, which we explore now in part two.
Not long ago, flash-based MP3 players occupied the low end of the
capacity spectrum and, while some brave souls were using PCMCIA
compact flash cards in their laptops, you still needed a real hard
disk drive to effectively boot and use Windows or OS X. Not
anymore-not only are flash-powered, high-capacity MP3 players and
laptops standard, but modern operating systems are quickly adapting
to SSDs as the norm.
An entire class of ultrabooks-which, in spite of what the name
suggests, do not contain hyperdrives, organic CPUs based on alien
DNA, or anything else truly deserving of the "ultra" prefix-are now
built around the MacBook Air's design philosophy of being durable,
thin, light... and stuffed full of NAND flash. Laptops of this form
factor seem poised to deliver on most of the promises that netbooks
once made (especially portability and battery life) without falling
prey to the same set of compromises that ultimately doomed netbooks
to hobbyist devices.
Tablets, too, are on the rise. The tablet segment of the mobile
device market didn't even meaningfully exist prior to 2010-say what
you will about the iPad, but it truly sparked a revolution. Since
their rise to prominence, all mainstream tablets have been
exclusively flash-powered devices; there's not a hard disk to be
found anywhere in the lot. While the SSD craze might be sweeping the
"real" computer segment as flash storage becomes more common on
desktops and laptops, the place where NAND flash most truly empowers
consumers is in mobile devices.
But things were not always thus, and flash wasn't always the best
choice for mobile devices to store data.
...
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/inside-the-ssd-revolution-mobile-devices-and-modern-oss/
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