It’s my blog and I’ll post as I want to

The title of this post is suppose to be a take off on the old Lesley Gore song ‘It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want to’. Not sure if it registered to some of you, but that’s my story.

Another month is coming to and end as is the the summer of 2006. It’s been a good one in some ways and a bad one in others. I’m sure many of you have that same feeling.

Anyway the real reason for the post title is to explain the post that really has nothing at all to do with technology, but everything to do with me.

My birthday is today, the 30th. It’s not one of those big ones, I’m still 2 years shy of the next big one that ends in a 0. You can guess which one.

But also I want to let you all know that while I enjoy giving away the free advice that I post and have no reason to end, I like everyone needs to make a living. I am a technolgy consulting and my web site is www.estechnologyconsulting.com. If you enjoy the posts, you could donate to me via paypal with payments to estechconsulting@verizon.net.

I also write an American Revolution history blog that can be found at http://thisdayarp.wordpress.com/ also I have an ebook available on the American Revolutionary Period.  You can email me at sgatkinson@verizon.net or go to the mentioned blog for more information.

Any comments and suggestions are welcome

Stay tuned for more technology tips.

A few updates – Batteries, FET Tax Refund and Pluto

Since I’ve written some of my posts additional information has come up.

I wrote about batteries a couple of days ago and since I wrote that post Apple Computer has decided to join Dell in the recall of some Sony manufactured portable computer batteries.

http://tt4sb.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/should-you-be-concerned-about-batteries/

All of the batteries recalled are Lithium/Ion. And I’ve learned that Lithium has a very low boiling point, which I would imagine is one of the reasons for the possible fires caused by the batteries. If the batteries get too hot they burn and since Lithium has a low boiling point, I can see cause for concern. Maybe one of the concerns should be not to use Lithium in batteries.

Also there seems to have been added discussions on a Telecommunication board I monitor about the IRS and there decision not to collect Federal Excise Tax (FET) on Long Distance calls.

http://tt4sb.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/information-on-the-repeal-of-an-old-telephone-usage-tax/

As I understand the IRS still hasn’t finalize their plans on refunds. And there has been lawsuits file saying that the refunds shouldn’t start at March 1, 2003 but earlier, the date that they lost their first court case. this would extend the date by around 4 more years.

And as for Pluto, the ruling about Pluto not being a planet is not 100% correct. Pluto as well as a large asteroid called Ceres, which for a while also called a planet and a newly discovered body bigger than and beyond Pluto are now classified as Dwarf Planets. I also heard there may be as many as 35 other bodies that would also make that classification. Not sure about how the kids in school may feel, but I’d sure rather have to remember 8 planets and not over 40. But who knows they may also have to learn the Dwarf Planets too.

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

This just in – There’s only 8 planets

The old saying “One thing for certain, things will change” is now confirmed.  One of the things that I learned in school, many years ago was that there were 9 planets in the solar system.  Well, I guess I now need to unlearn a few things since the body meeting to discuss planets and such has now determined that there are only 8 planets and Pluto is actually just a Disney character.

What does this have to do with technology?  Nothing really unless you say that the decision was made due to technological advancements. If it wasn’t for technology the new body nicknamed Xena and bigger than Pluto wouldn’t have been discovered.  Nor would have the possible planet/moon of Pluto Charon.

I guess the solar system is really like life, what was popular yesterday is old fashion today.

Here are some news articles on the change.

CNN 

Time 

National Geographic 

The Death of the CRT – Part 2

A while ago I published a post relating to the death of the CRT. It was written in reaction to Apple Computer discontinuing their last CRT system. You can read the post here, http://tt4sb.wordpress.com/2006/07/19/the-death-of-the-crt/.

I’ve just read a report talking about the sales of LCD televisions. In the second quarter of 2006 LCD TVs accounted for 22 percent of the total TV market. This is up from 17 percent in the first quarter.

The report can be found at http://www.displaysearch.com/press/?id=860.

The CRT may not be dead, but looking at these figures it sure does seem as if they are slowly dieing. I imagine that some of this is are because of human nature to jump onto a bandwagon. And another may be due to space and energy requirements. I’m just not sure whether I’m totally convinced to jump that way. I just replaced my 20 year old TV with a new CRT model. I’m not sure any of the LCD sets or Plasma will last anywhere near that long. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

Should You Be Concerned about Batteries?

If you look around, you may be amazed with the amount of equipment that uses batteries. They are in things as small as Remote Controls and as life saving as Fire detectors. But how safe are we from batteries.

Recently Dell computer has recalled batteries in some of their portable computers. The batteries overheat and when they do they can cause fires. The batteries are made by Sony and Sony supplies batteries for many other portable computers than those made by Dell. So far there’s no over all plans to recall Sony batteries. In fact, Sony is saying the problem isn’t in the batteries, but with an incompatibility between the battery cells and Dell’s charging system.

One thing we all need to be aware, while batteries are a way of today’s life, they need to be used and disposed of properly. Batteries are made of chemicals and many of these chemicals can be dangerous and can cause a hazard to the environment. It’s best to recycle the batteries than simply to put them in the garbage.

Here’s some safety tips for use of batteries. These came from the Rayovac web site.

1. Fire – Never dispose of batteries in a fire. They may rupture, releasing internal ingredients.
2. Promptly remove dead or weak batteries from devices.
3. Never mix old and new batteries in a device. Battery leakage may occur. Replace all batteries in a device at the same time.
4. Never mix battery types in a device. Battery leakage may occur. Examples of battery types are alkaline, heavy duty, rechargeable.
5. Recharge batteries in the charger designed for the battery.
6. Carefully install batteries in the correct polarity direction ( + and -) per the device manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Do not leave battery powered devices switched “on” after the batteries are exhausted. Battery leakage may occur.
8. Remove batteries from any device that will be stored for long periods of time.
9. Store batteries in a cool, dry location. Avoid temperature extremes. Keep batteries in original package until you are ready to use them.

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

Acronyms – What do they mean?

Many times just knowing what the acronym means gives ones an idea of it’s purpose and how it’s used. Here is a list of some telecommunications acronyms.

Telephony Acronyms:
ACD (Automatic Call Director)
CDR (Call Detail Recording)
CLID (Calling Line IDentifaction)
CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit)
DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service)
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
LCR (Least Cost Routing)
LNP (Local Number Portability)
MAC (Moves, Adds and Changes)
NANP (North American Numbering Plan)
NPA (Number Plan Area)
SMDR (Station Message Detail Record)
TEM (Telecom Expense Management)
UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
WATS (Wide Area Telecommunications Services)

911 Acronyms:
ALI (Automatic Location Identification)
ANI (Automatic Numer Identification)
APCO (Association of Public Safety Officials)
B911 (Basic 911 Emergency Service)
CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch)
CAMA (Centralized Automatic Message Accounting)
ESN (Emergency Service Number)
ESZ (Emergency Service Zone)
E911 (Enhanced 911 Emergency Service
GIS (Geographic Positioning System)
MSAG (Master Street Address Guide)
NENA (National Emergency Number Association)
PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point)
SLA (Service Listed Address)
SR (Selective Routing)
SRDB (Selective Routing Database)
Tandem (E911 Network Routing Switch)

Want to find more information on these acronyms? Stick around I’ll be giving more throughout the next weeks. But in the mean time if you need more just go to your friendly search engine and enter the search term technology acronyms or telephony acronyms. There’s plenty of places that gives infromation, although at times I think some are vague.

Common Telephony Terms

Telecommunications is full of acronyms. If you don’t know what they mean not only will you be lost, you may end up making a decision based on a misunderstanding. Some acronyms just knowing what letters means explain the meaning others may need some additional explanation.

Here are some common ones as they relate to your telephone system and telephone carrier.

MLTS – Multi-line Telephone systems. This is any type of telephone system where a user has access to more than one line or one line may have many different users. These would be PBX’s, Key Systems and services provided by carriers that mimic these type of systems. It’s estimated that as many as half of the population is living, working or studying in locations that use a Multi-line system, since most banks, schools, business and libraries have this type of telephone system.

LEC – Local Exchange Carrier. This is the company that supplies service to your local location. On top of this there are CLEC and the lesser used ILEC. CLEC is Competitive Local Exchange carrier. Most locations in the US have their local service by one of the original Bell Operating companies. These companies are also call RBOC or Regional Bell Operation Company. These are also known as ILEC or Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. The RBOC that served your area when the divestiture of ATT in the 1980’s is your ILEC. Any company that supplies service but is not the ILEC is considered a CLEC. They compete with the Incumbent.

IXC – IntereXchange Carrier. This is your toll-calling provider.

LATA – Local Access and Transport Area. Part of the ATT divestiture created these area. It refers to a geographic region assigned to one or more telephone companies for providing communication services. Under the terms the Bell Operating Companies are generally not allowed to provide services that originate in one LATA and terminate in another.

The following terms may not be used as often any more as they once were. They were the basis of pricing on Long Distance costs.

IntraLATA – Refer to calls that originate and terminate in the same LATA.

InterLATA – Refer to calls that originate in one LATA and terminate in another. This term is seldom used if the calls cross state lines.

IntraState – Refers to calls that originate and terminate in the same state but in different LATA’s.

InterState – Refers to calls that originate in one state and terminate in another.

International – Calls to another country.

I’m sure you are aware that countries have country codes associated with them. Have you ever wonder what the US country code is. It’s amazing how many don’t realize it, but use it all of the time. It’s ‘1’.

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

What is Telecommunications?

Telecommunications as a word has its basics in greek. It’s a combination of tele which means ‘Far Off’ and Communications which is an ‘exchange of information’. In its simplest terms a far off exchange of information.

Early forms of telecommunication include smoke signals and drums. Drums were used by natives in Africa, New Guinea and tropical America. Smoke signals were used by natives in America and China. One may think these were used to announce the presence of a camp. But often they were also passing along infromation about the camp. Other early forms of telecommunications were signal flags and lights. More modern uses were the telegraph, telephone and even data transmissions. Even radio and TV are forms of telecommunications, television even has the same root word tele.
The basic elements of a telecommunications system are:

a.) a transmitter. This device will take the information to be communicated and produce;

b.) a signal to be transported.

c.) a transmission medium, this could be over a wire or over the air using the airwaves. The transmission medium, by its physical nature, is likely to modify or degrade the signal on its path from the transmitter to the receiver

d.) a receiver, which reverses any actions performed by the transmitter in the exact reverse order of the transmitter. The receiver can be designed to tolerate a significant degree of signal degradation.

Telecommunication can be point-to-point, from one transmitter to one receiver or point-to-multipoint which is also known as broadcasting.

Developments in telecommunications:

Signal lights – Ancient times
Telegraph – 1835
Bell’s Telephone – 1876
Telephone Switchboard – 1878
Telephone Switching – 1891
Rotary Dial – 1896
Touchtone – 1963
Nortel SL1 – 1970′s

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com