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THE SYNDICATE REPORT
Information Transmittal No. 10
Released April 16, 1987
Featuring:
BOC 800 Service Signals Major Changes (n wk 12\20)
MultiBus II Goes Unix (ele engr 12\25)
Software Publishers Step Up Anti-Piracy Actions in Canada (c.user 2\21)
Hybrid Phone System (c.user 2\21)
Lawmaker's proposal restricts computerized calls (s&t 4\15)
by The Sensei
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Exposition:
Once again, TSReport now excepts outside sources. Anyone can write/provide
information to the Syndicate Report. The Syndicate Report is also altering
format. Rather than concentrating mainly on BELL orientated information,
the Syndicate Report now has a more broad interest. Thus, TSR now handles
all types of news gatherings.
All articles have been presented by me unless shown at the end of the
article as the information provider(s).
This transmittal is a little late, sorry.
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BOC 800 SERVICE SIGNALS MAJOR CHANGES:
An assistant vice president of Bell Communications Research said this
month that the first application of a new signaling network and a group of
Bell Comm. Research-developed specialized data bases will transform today's
telephone system into the "Intelligent Network."
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Robert Robrock said
the Bell operating companies (BOCs) are on the brink of the most significant
network service introduction since customers first dialed long distance
without the help of an operator 30 years ago.
Robrock said the new network is reffered to as "intelligent" because
call-handling equipment will no longer be limited to switches. \ He said its
first application will be BOC 800 service.
Business customers will be able to tailor their own BOC 800 service,
Robrock said. They'll be able to choose a single, nationwide 800 number and
select single or multiple carriers. They also can vary call distribution to
destinations based on the time of day, day of week, the caller's are code, or
other criteria.
BOC 800 service will begin in BellSouth late next year. All the BOCs
expect to be cut over by 1988. At that time, the network will be supporting
10 billion 800 call attempts per year. The 800 service is only the first of
many new services the network makes possible. Included are such services as
area-wide Centrex (R) and a new billing procedure for CREDIT CARD CALLS that
verifies the caller's identity before call completion.
"A local switch no longer needs to contain all sorts of special call-
handling information," Robrock said. "Rather, it only needs to send a query
to the data base. Therefore, changing or adding a service could mean simply
changing or adding information to the data base -- rather than updating
hundreds of switches."
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MULTIBUS II GOES UNIX:
The first MultiBus II UNIX System V development system lets systems
designers get up and running with a minimum fuss. The SDU-II from Microbar
System Inc. is a complete development key with all the necessary ingredients.
The heart ofthe system is Microbar's MT 68020 single-board computer with a
16.7-MHz 68020, a magabyte of dual-ported RAM (expandable to 4 Mbytes), SCSI
disk and tape controller and a pair of RS-232 ports. The OS (operating system),
Unix System C, Release 2, is fully loaded and preconfigured on a 40--
Mbyte Winchester drive. The software includes sample drivers for several
different peripherals and instructions for reconfiguring other user-supplied
devices. Compared with VME, the 40-Mbyte-per-second MB II offers
synchronous protocals for easier system design and improved noise immunity.
The multiplexed bus with parity offers greater efficiency and reliability and
it supports burst or sequential data transfers for maximum transfer rates,
adds Sherrod. And, Multibus supports distributed bus arbitration that
implements advanced multiple bus master configurations efficiently and includes
will-- defined secondary buses for optimum data, message and control transfers.
:::::::::::::::::Information provided by Swingline Edison:::::::::::::::::::
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SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS STEP UP ANTI-PIRACY ACTIONS IN CANADA:
Through civil and criminal actions, software publishers are stepping up
efforts to curb unauthorized copying of software in Canada. On Jan. 8, 1987,
Canada Judge Paul Rouleau ordered Montreal-based C&D Data Systems to pay
36,000$ in damages to Concept Omega Corp. of Somerville, New Jersey, for
illegaly reproducing copies of Concept Omega's Thoroughbred Software for
PC-DOS, Unix, and Xenix systems.
In addition, Judge Rouleau ordered C&D Data Systems to provide Concept Omega
with a list of all illegal copies made and to replace unauthorized copies with
legitimate copies, according to Roger Sparks, vice president of
marketing for Concept Omega. Many customers did not know they were buying
illegitimate copies of Thoroughbred, Sparks said, adding that C&D had sold
both legitimate and illegitimate copies of the program.
Concept Omega filed charges in Dec. and received a search and seizure
order for its attorneys to enter C&D's offices and obtain evidence, Sparks said.
The search and seizure was similar to an action recently taken by Lotus
Development Corp., the Software Publishers Association, and six other software
publishers against softsave Information Services Inc. of Cancouver, British
Columbia ("Canadain Rental Firm charged with Copyright Infregement," Feb. 5, 1987).
The pursuit of illegal software copiers is not limited to civil actions
in Canada, however. Recently, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials in
Toronto brought criminal fraud charges against three rental firms in Toronto,
according to RCMP Constable Pierre Riopel of the Toronto trademark copyright
unit. The RCMP raided the firms to collect evidence and shut down the
operations, Riopel said.
Charged in the raid were Softcity of Scarborough, Ontario; Photo
Insurance of Toronto; and Brent Muray Radbourne of Toronto, Riopel said. Fraud
charges were filed because criminal copyright laws in Canada permit a maximum
fine of 200$, Riopel said. Under fraud charges, defendants face stiffer fines
and possible jail sentences.
Radbourne's attorney confirmed that his client had allowed customers
to come to his business to make copies of the software for a fee. "The question
is whether he did anything illegal," said Hy Bergal, a Toronto attorney.
"The question is, are there proprietary rights to that software that belong to
somebody else?"
Canadian appellate courts are considering cases related to copying of
BIOS code, which might clarify the illegality of unauthorized software copying
in Canada, said Robert Brouillette, partner at the Montreal law firm of Clark
Woods, which represents Concept Omega.
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HYBRID PHONE SYSTEM:
There used to be a sharp division between the kind of Telephone system you
found in a small business and the kind you found in a large corp.
To put it simply, small businesses had key systems and large businesses had
private automatic-branch exchanges. The electromechanical key system can have
as few as two lines and four telephones (a 2 x 4 system), but seldom has more
than 15 telephones (or stations or sets). Each station has a button for each
line that blinks when the line is busy. With this arrangement, often called a
squared system, each user knows which lines are in use and can answer any
ringing line if the receptinist is busy.
Electronic key systems, priced around 500$-600$ per station, have a
similar config. They have a few additional microprocessor-controlled features
like speed dialing and conference calling. You cn add more lines, but that
meanes:1W-Kk:Ul4RkKWUQQ=9-Y
At the other end of the monetary scale in the private branch exchange or PBX.
At a cost of around 800$-1,000$ per sation, it can accommodate hundreds of users.
You can expand it even further by adding modular circuit cards. Users do not
know what calls are coming in because the receptionist fields them all at the
front desk and switches them to the appropriate station.
Private branch exchanges are microprocessor controlled and have considerable
memory-GTE's Omni is equipped with 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM. and a 20MB hard disk.
That opens the way for all kinds of data processing capabilities: integrated
voice-data transmission, networking within and among company locations, to name a
few. Some manufacturers incorporate a telephone and data terminal in the
individual station units.
::::::::::::::::::Information provided by Ascii Py-Rat X:::::::::::::::::::
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LAWMAKER'S PROPOSAL RETRICTS COMPUTERIZED CALLS:
A funny thing happened to a man named Lakin the other day that boosted
his hostility a bit: He got a call from a computer named John who, by all
accounts, simply would not get off his telephone line. As a result, said Lakin,
a free-lancer who does commercials and celebrity interviews for radio stations
around the country, he missed a telephone interview that he had spent two weeks
setting up.
You thus can understand how Lakin's interest in the political process has perked up since he learned that Sen. Allan Spear, DFL-MN, introduced a bill
in the Legislature to regulate these computerized forays into our living rooms.
His complaint was that he tried to hang up, but that John the Computer
held onto the line for what Lakin estimated was about 3 minutes. How ever,
Central Telephone Co. which serves Lakin's, contended that its spiffy, up-to--
date, good-as-Bell's electronic switching gear could not have allowed that to
happen.
The equipment is designed to force a disconnect within 15 seconds after
the person being called hangs up. Most Bell companies use a 11-second lag.
The delays are necessary because new telephone features -- call waiting and
forwarding, for example -- are operated by the switch hook.
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If there is any question to the information in this file, contact the
author. Now can be found on the Private Sector 20 Meg, 3/1200 baud
system at (201) 366-4431 (2600 Magazine Bulliten Board).
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This concludes this transmittal No. 10 provided by:
The Sensei of The Syndicate Report
Released April 16, 1987
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