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laslocomm.net technical journal #2

review: lycos communications; article: small storage devices; article: elcotel grapevine payphones; article: N11 numbers; column: milwaukee area urban exploration

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in

laslocomm technical journal

· 9 months ago

laslocomm.net presents
the laslocomm.net technical journal

because some people see life in true 3d

volume 1, issue 2 | june 2001

in this issue

editorial comments
interesting news items
review: lycos communications
article: small storage devices
article: elcotel grapevine payphones
article: N11 numbers
column: milwaukee area urban exploration
call for authors
copyrights
redistribution

editorial comments

since the first issue, we've seen the free services continue either disappearing or becoming subscription based. tech stocks have been battered about, especially yahoo, who is going to start charging for yahoo phone (reviewed last issue). yahoo has announced a $4.95/month fee for yahoo phone. I'd say the five bucks a month is worth it if you have a need for toll free access to voicemail, especially if you want to send and receive messages outside of a boss's earshot.

also since that issue, the technical journal has been expanded to include more articles, and what will be a regular column dealing with urban exploration in the milwaukee, wi metro area. the information in this column will likely apply to other places as well, and if you're interested in being a guest columnist to write about what's happening in your area, please contact me.

hope you enjoy this issue. drop me a line one way or the other.

-laslo webmaster@laslocomm.net

interesting news items

review: lycos communications

lycos offers web based email (5mb storage), address book, spam blocking, filters, external mail checking, and integrated voice mail and instant messaging.

no real surprises on the web based email; lycos sticks with the fairly common interface used on yahoo! and many other web based email services. the address book, and setup for filters, spam clocking, and external mail checking were standard as well. judging by the url, lycos mail is actually powered by mailcity. lycos mail sticks to the basic features, lets you do things with a minimum of clicks, and in general is very clean, although not remarkable. I find it useful, but it does not rise above other similar services.

voice mail does not seem to be available for new signup; a premium services selection under email options says that "premium" services are no longer offered. my account's access phone number was recently changed to area code 978 after being a number local to 414, another casualty of free services not having a positive impact to the bottom line.

instant messaging is handled through a lycos version of aol im. although I didn't evaulate the lycos version, I saw nothing on lycos that suggested any new or expanded features. if you want aol im, download aol im and use that.

overall, I found lycos communications functional but very basic. if you need an email account for getting to external pop accounts, or a low maintenance account to keep as a spare, lycos may be for you. however, with the removal of 800 access to voicemail, there is no compelling reason to choose lycos over any other service.

article: small storage devices

since man first walked the earth, he/she has needed to keep track of random chunks of information. these days, this information is often sensitive, personal, and worthy of measures to keep things safe. with technology offering more options for packing data into small places, you can now carry important information with you in relative safety.

one of the most useful things to carry with you is a floppy that stores your PGP keys, preventing an attack on your machine(s) from revealing your private key and enabling you to access your keys safely on different machines. there are problems with the standard 1.44mb floppy, however: although it is designed to take abuse, dust, hair, and other debris can still get inside and trash your data. you are also limited to 1.44 megabytes of data, which for some applications is no longer enough.

fortunately, other options exist. the compact disc has begun to replace the floppy for many people (my mac doesn't even *have* a floppy drive, and I don't miss it), but its size and capacity are sometimes too much for some uses, especially when you only need to store a small amount of data. enter the "cd business card", a small cd about the size of a business card (58mm or 61mm) that holds 40mb to 50mb of whatever data you need to store. salespeople use these to present multimedia product information; individuals use them to store portfolios and resumes, and they can also be used to store data such as pgp keys. as I am writing this, I am looking at a business card size cd, along with a standard business card, in a clear plastic sleeve that has suffered no damage from being in my wallet for about two weeks. writeable versions are also available.

if you're interested in getting some of your data on business card sized cd's, one company that can help you is great lakes media technology, inc.[1] they also handle many other sorts of physical media.

another option is storage devices that are small enough to carry on a keychain. agate's qdrive holds 64mb of data, plugs into a usb port, and acts just like an extra hard drive. prices range from $70 for 16 megabytes to $200 for 64 megabytes.[2][3]

the usb diskonkey from m-systems[4][5] contains an arm processor that detects the operating system running on the host machine, and can handle windows, mac and linux systems without configuration. the diskonkey is available with 8, 16 and 32 Mbytes of storage, with larger capacity available in 2001[5].

I'll leave it to you to find uses for these little gems. ;) a final note, you can find them online through dell.[6]

footnotes

[1] great lakes media technology, http://www.glmt.com
[2] http://www.forbes.com/2001/01/29/0129tentech.html
[3] http://agatetech.com
[4] http://www.forbes.com/technology/2001/05/18/0518tentech.html
[5] http://www.diskonkey.com/
[6] http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/search.asp?Pageb4Search=search&searchType=AND&keyword=m-systems&category_id=4004&x=10&y=5

article: elcotel grapevine payphones

I was wandering around general mitchell international airport in milwaukee recently, collecting payphone numbers for the list when I encountered a plastic phone with a screen and menu buttons, data jack, credit card slot, and several interesting speed dial buttons. after looking around the phone a bit, I discovered I was looking at a Grapevine phone, manufactured and programmed by Elcotel[1]. this phone has some special features, which I will cover briefly. much more detailed information is available in elcotel's 2000 annual report[2] (which is available for download as a pdf).

the first thing you notice about the grapevine is the screen above the handset. the display software shows advertising, including *nnn codes that you can dial to reach advertisers such as taxicabs or hotels. the screen also presents you with a menu that corresponds to several buttons immediately below the screen, labeled "info", "ecom", "help", and "mail".

pressing "info" will get you a dropdown select list containing financial totals, horoscopes, maps (not available yet), and weather for select us cities. the button labels change to next, select, back, etc. when appropriate.

"ecom" and "mail" are apparently still being implemented.

on the right side of the phone are eight presets, including "suggestions", 1-800-conference, 1-800-ameritech, and ameritech customer service. there are two blank preset buttons. on the left side of the phone is a volume control.

during dialing, the mouthpiece is muted, suggesting to me that the dialtone is generated by the phone itself. a rather crabby female voice instructs you to "dial a number", and the screen echos the digits you dial. I was able to complete a local call after putting .35 in, but I was unable to make a 1-800 toll free call.

this is a short article, even though there is a lot to know and find out about these phones; most of the technical details are included in the elcotel annual report. you can reach one of these phones at gen. mitchell int'l airport at 414-747-9665; you'll get a carrier, which I assume is for connecting to the phone and updating advertisting and collecting accounting information.

drop me an email if you find these in other locations.

footnotes

article: N11 codes

N11 codes, for the uninitiated, are three digit phone numbers that are reserved for specific current or future uses. NANPA, the North American Numbering Plan Administration, lists the following codes and their uses:

--snip--

N11 CODE DESCRIPTION
211 Community Information and Referral Services (US)
311 Non-Emergency Police and Other Governmental Services (US)
411 Local Directory Assistance
511 Traffic and Transportation Information (US); Reserved (Canada)
611 Repair Service
711 Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)
811 Business Office
911 Emergency

In the U.S., the FCC administers N11 codes, and recognizes only 211, 311, 511, and 711 as nationally assigned.[1]

--snip--

these codes vary widely in their use, regardless of what the FCC says about them. for example, in 414, many cocots use 211 as a link to either customer service/coin refund or repair service. you may find some cocots that use the N11 code as a speed dial, which simply dials a regular phone number to reach the payphone provider's call center. in any case, I'll cover the uses of each.

211

a recent article in the milwaukee journal-sentinel[2] describes the debate over using 211 as a social services helpline, replacing the already established crisis and helplines. although the fcc has reserved 211 for such services, local and state governments and community agencies are required to find the funding and logistics for building such systems.

one example of a working system is united way atlanta (georgia)'s 211 database, which covers area codes 404, 770 and 678[3]. referrals to many different kinds of united way affiliated services are available in english and spanish simply by dialing 211. this service was created in a partnership with bellsouth.

an example of a 211 system in progress is the infoline of los angeles (california)[4]. according to their site, "Each month INFO LINE receives between 15,000 and 18,000 requests from individuals for referrals to health and human services programs."[5] more information about the initiative to establish the 211 code, and move the info line service to a 211 based service, are available at the California Alliance of Information & Referral Services (CAIRS) website[6]. you can also visit 211.org for nationwide service info.[7]

311

not to be confused with 311 (the band[8]), 311 is allocated for non-emergency metro services, such as chicago (illinois)'s "other helpline"[9] which includes information on everything from getting potholes filled to the lineup at taste of chicago. san jose (california)'s police department recently did a pilot project on using 311 as a non-emergency link to the police, in an attempt to reduce the number of non-life threatening calls to 911[10]. the pilot project did not include wireless access, and also required callers from payphones to pay (which really defeats the purpose). the sjpd's site does list 311 as an active number now so those policies may have changed.

411

I won't spend much time here; if you're reading this, you already know that 411 (or 1-411) gets you to some sort of directory assistance, which may or may not cost you.

511

511 once reached a test board within 414. today, 511 is in the process of being made into a traffic information source (also known as Intelligent Transportation Systems). the us dot has a website dedicated to the topic[11], so I won't beat it to death here. the basic idea is that when you dial 511, you get instant access to road traffic information that you probably couldn't get otherwise. again, this would be a locally constructed and funded system.

611

historically reserved by the phone company (ie, ma bell) for a quick connect to repair service, 611 might be used for other services in some areas. if you know of such uses, drop a line.

711

aside from being the world's only source of 44oz mountain dew slurpees (oh thank heaven)[12], 711 is allocated for use by telecommunications relay services[13], such as translating from a TTY for the hearing impaired to a person without a TTY.

811

811 will usually connect you to a business office for the phone company providing service to the phone, but you may also end up at the payphone provider, or someplace entirely different.

911

emergency services, as we all know.

in summary, there are a lot of places on the telephone network that can be reached by dialing three digits, and the number of available services is going to increase dramatically in the near future. since the N11 codes are not all specifically allocated, and since systems are being planned, tested, and in some cases built, you might find these to be interesting numbers to dial.

footnotes

211

311

511

[11] http://www.its.dot.gov/511/511.htm

711

[12] http://www.7-11.com/products.html
[13] http://www.fcc.gov/711/

column: milwaukee area urban exploration

this is the first installment of a column dedicated to the infiltrators, drain explorers, and just outright curious people who enjoy exploring the world above, below, and around them. my interest is in writing about places that most people don't know about.

I'll start the discussion with a drain that starts at the west end of madison park, on the border between milwaukee and wauwatosa wi. a creek runs to the south from timmerman field (100th & hampton ave), under hampton ave. and into the park, where it takes a turn to the west before disappearing into a 72" storm drain under 100th street. a layout of the park and location is available online[1][2].

following streets in the general direction of the drain takes you west on glendale avenue, eventually reaching highway 100 and webster park, a small park adjacent to the menomonee river. following one of the paths in webster park reveals a marker for a 72" buried storm drain, which I'm assuming is the same as the one in madison park. I was not able to find an outlet for the drain, although the menomonee river is a likely destination. I estimate the distance from the start at madison park to the marker at webster park to be about a mile.

on another note, fox 6 news in milwaukee covered some of the tunnels under downtown milwaukee last night, mentioning the wepco steam tunnels, along with tunnels connecting city hall with other buildings and an interconnecting link between two of matc[4]'s buildings.

finally, several people that attended the 2600 unofficial biweekly meeting in waukesha last week did some above ground recon in the downtown area, and discovered wepco tunnels starting at the rotunda and expanding in two directions from there.

there is some interest in exploration at uw-milwaukee[5] at the next regular 2600 meeting[6]. be there.

footnotes

call for authors

the laslocomm.net technical journal is open to ideas from others. if you wish to have an article or column included in a future issue, please send your submission, article idea, or wacked news item via email (plain text is fine, don't *even* send it in word) to webmaster@laslocomm.net or use the submit form at http://www.laslocomm.net/submit.html.

copyrights and credits and shouts

all copyrights and trademarks mentioned in this issue are the property of their owners.

yo: wi2600.org, mukharbor, the studdly one, kilroy, textfiles.com, jolt cola, the discovery channel store, the world of cryton. also, p.a. over @ ati for mentioning the ltj in a recent issue, sinic, doc, and anyone else I forgot.