TELECOM Digest Wed, 3 Nov 93 03:32:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 734
Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
Fire Update (Steve Lichter)
Fires at Will (Jeff Sicherman)
Book Review: "Globalization, Technology and Competition" (Rob Slade)
Telecom-Tech Mailing List (Tom Ace)
Canadian Internet Resources (Rick Broadhead)
LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Thaddeus H. Wood)
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Date: 2 Nov 93 16:16:42-0500
From: Steven Lichter <
[email protected]>
Subject: Fire Update
[Moderator's Note: This was written *before* Malibu ...and was delayed
in transmission due to Steve's difficult work assignment at present.
My thanks also go to the person at GTE who is faxing me updates; but
Steve's account below seems to be quite detailed. We'll have to
wait until later to hear what the scoop is on Malibu. PAT]
Posted: Mon, Nov 1, 1993 3:53 PM PST Msg: NGJD-5641-2522
From: M.AMADOR
To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, T.EDWARDS, P.MINER,
L.NIGG, M.FOSTER, D.FIASCO, T.WHITE, M.ESSTMAN, T.ZIEGLER
Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA
The following is another in a series of updates that relate
to the catastrophic fires in Southern California:
STATUS AS OF 9:00 AM PST - NOVEMBER 1, 1993
I. CUSTOMER FACILITY IMPACTS:
A. NETWORK SERVICES
INLAND VALLEYS DIVISION
The network has been fully restored. There are no
outages.
The Ortega fire area assessment has been completed.
There is no GTE facility damage in that area.
CENTRAL VALLEYS DIVISION
The network has been fully restored. There are no
outages.
OCEAN VALLEYS DIVISION
The network is fully restored.
B. NETWORK PROVISIONING
INLAND VALLEYS DIVISION
There are no reported problems in this division.
CENTRAL VALLEYS DIVISION
Division personnel worked over the weekend to restore
customer services in those areas impacted by the fire.
Laguna is comprised of several small community
divisions. In those divisions, the customers that are
out of service are not the entire community; but
spotty.
373 homes were destroyed. 91 customers have been
returned to service. Total restoration for customers
in this area requesting service and requiring outside
plant repair or replacement will be completed on 11/4
Customer impact: Approximately 100
OCEAN VALLEYS DIVISION
The areas of Mugu, Sycamore Canyon and Santa Paula have
all been fully restored.
Laguna Peak is restored and awaiting installation
request from the customer.
Carlisle Canyon is 40% restored. It will be 70%
restored by the end of business November 1. Total
restoration will be achieved by Thursday November 4,
1993.
Customer impact: 20 - 25 customers
Yerba Buena Canyon remains the most difficult area to
restore. It is in a mountainous and difficult terrain.
Complete restoration will require replacing 60,000 feet
of cable and at least 12 utility poles. Crews are
working to place poles in hard rock and elevated areas.
It is estimated the majority of the customers in that
area will be restored within 6 - 7 days. Total
restoration may take up to 2 weeks.
Customer impact: 200 - 250 customers
SUMMARY: The remaining restoration efforts are
concentrating on repair and replacement of outside plant.
Only 375 of GTE California's customers remain out of
service. This figure is down from the 2500 originally
requiring restoration efforts. There is no damage to GTE
buildings and all critical switching centers are operating.
Repair call volumes from customers are at a normal or
slightly lower than normal level.
II. EMPLOYEE ISSUES
Division personnel continue to work to provide service to
GTE customers. The Customer Disaster Center established in
Laguna Beach has processed over 100 orders and will remain
open until Friday November 5, 1993.
Ocean Valleys Division will augment the workforce in the
restoration of Yerba Buena Canyon once the poles have been
properly placed. At that time additional employees will be
required.
No employees have suffered a loss of their homes as a result
of the fires.
III. COMMUNITY RESPONSES
The coin trailers placed in response to the disaster effort
remain in the area and active. They provide free local and
long distance calling to victims in the fire areas.
Two of the trailers have been moved at the request of the
cities either to misuse (in Malibu) by non victims or to
improve accessibility.
The Division of Ratepayers Advocates has contacted
Regulatory to say they appreciated our periodic updates on
fire response and restoration at GTE.
Public Affairs continues to release internal and external
statements to keep GTE activities in the forefront of
employees and customers. Over 200 interviews have been
given to the media and Public Affairs is in the process of
drafting an advertisement to appear in local papers thanking
customers and employees during this period.
A $75,000 grant from the GTE Foundation has been requested
to donate to the Red Cross. It is in the approval process
and it is hoped the funds will be available for distribution
no later than Wednesday November 3, to capitalize on press
opportunities.
The next scheduled conference call is on Tuesday November 2,
at 9:00 AM PST. At that conference, attendees will receive
an initial report on expenditures and determine the need for
further calls.
All restoration efforts and work completed will be permanent
wherever possible. This will minimize duplication of
restoration efforts.
All charges of labor, material and labor are to be charged
to the open ended work orders assigned to this project. Any
questions from the field regarding the work order numbers
may be called to Valerie Clairmont at 805/372-8106, if you
are unable to resolve locally.
The Emergency Operating Center is closed for calls; but
personnel remain on stand by.
Any questions regarding the information in this telemail or
the Emergency Operating Center, other than the work orders,
may be directed to M. Amador at 805/372-7512.
M. AMADOR
Administrator - Emergency Preparedness
Posted: Mon, Nov 1, 1993 4:01 PM PST Msg: CGJD-5641-2791
From: B.J.BARBER
To: gtca, gtel
CC: l.higson
Subj: Fire Damage Update
The following is an all-employee bulletin
November 1, 1993
Final fire damage restoration underway
Approximately 375 of GTE California's 3.1 million customers statewide
were still out of service on Monday morning due to the fires that hit
Southern California last week.
As of this morning, the GTE network is 100 percent operational.
Employees continued to work throughout the weekend to restore service
to customers.
In the Laguna Beach area, more than 100 customers used the GTE service
center set up at the Laguna Beach central office. Cellular phones
were lent to 10 Laguna customers and a coin trailer was moved to the
Laguna Beach City Hall. A total of 373 customer homes were destroyed
in Laguna but work will be completed by Thursday to restore an
additional 100 customer lines that were out of service due to the
fire.
In the Thousand Oaks fire, employees are working to restore more than
20 customer lines that were damaged by the fire in Carlisle Canyon.
Most customers there will be back in service today. Complete
restoration is expected by Thursday. In the Yerba Buena fire,
employees are replacing a 60,000 foot cable, which includes stringing
cable over canyons and an extensive amount of hand digging. Telephone
service for 250 customers who were affected in that area will be
restored in the next six to 14 days.
"We are very service conscious and it is times like this when the real
GTE comes out," said Mike Crawford, Vice President General Manager for
GTE West Area.
There were no employee injuries and no damage to employee homes
reported from the fires.
GTE has waived payment of the basic monthly phone rate for 90 days for
Californians displaced by the fires. We also are offering fire
victims free local and toll calling from coin phone trailers located
in Malibu and Laguna Beach. AT&T, MCI and Sprint are providing free
long-distance service from those phones, excluding international
calls.
GTE also is providing customers with free remote call forwarding, so
they can be called on their usual phone number, which can be
transferred to another location within GTE or Pacific Bell. Customers
would pay only toll costs for this service. Or, displaced customers
within GTE can use Personal Secretary at no charge. After 90 days,
they would pay their basic phone rate, but could receive remote call
forwarding or Personal Secretary free of charge until October 1994.
To facilitate communications among firefighters, GTE has provided
mobile cellular phones to fire departments in Ventura County and
Laguna Beach. Additionally, GTE has provided phone lines to the
Ventura County Sheriff's Dept., and for the emergency services command
centers in Laguna Beach, Malibu, Thousand Oaks and Hemet. The company
also installed a portable microwave facility to serve the Laguna Beach
Police Dept. and is continuing to work with emergency agencies to
provide communications capabilities.
I sure hope you got this.
Things are starting to cook here again. The Hemet fire is still going and
now there is one in Woodland Hills.
Steven Lichter GTECalif COEI
[Moderator's Note: Steve's comment 'I sure hope you got this' is due
to the fact that the first transmission of this bulletin was lost
in transit. Little did he know (or maybe not, maybe experience has
already prepared him) that Malibu would become an inferno next. :( PAT]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Jeff Sicherman)
Subject: Fires at Will
Date: 2 Nov 1993 21:28:20 GMT
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
The latest blaze ... the Calabasas/Topanga/Malibu fire (choose one,
it'll be there before long anyway) is heading in the general direction
of Saddle Peak, which is -- according to news reports -- a major
installation site for PacBell, GTE, and emergency agencies
communications (relay) equipment. It might be cellular stuff; they
weren't too precise about it.
Jeff Sicherman
[Moderator's Note: A long time reader of the Digest wrote me Tuesday
evening to say he woke up Tuesday with the fire a mile or so away,
which I guess would make anyone jump out of bed in a hurry. It was
good luck for him though that winds were blowing the fire away from
him by that time. Maybe when he sees this he will write to comment
on Saddle Peak, what he knows about it, and if it is skipped by
the fires or not. What is going on in southern California? I mean,
*everyone* knows California has fires every year; it is in the
nature of things there. But this past week ... jeeze ... it seems
much more extreme than in my past memory. PAT]
------------------------------
Date: 2 Nov 93 15:13 -0600
From: Rob Slade <
[email protected]>
Subject: Book Review: "Globalization, Technology and Competition"
BKGLBTCH.RVW 980930
Havard Business School Press
Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163
617-495-6700 617-495-6117 800-545-7685
617-495-6444 617-495-6334 fax: 617-496-8066
or
McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne
300 Water Street
Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6
416-430-5000 416-430-5047 Rita Bisram, Marketing
fax: 416-430-5020
or
2600 Tenth St.
Berkeley, CA 94710 USA
415-548-2805 800-227-0900
"Globalization, Technology and Competition", Bradley/Hausman/Nolan, U$34.95
The inclusion of "globalization" and "competition" in the title, as
well as the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School indicate that
this will be other than a technical manual. At the same time, the
subtitle does give one hope that there will be some technical material
of interest. One should know better by now. When business and
technical interests clash, business always wins.
"Business" research, along with much of economics, reminds one of the
statement about much of educational research: if it isn't blatant
nonsense, it's stuff your grandmother knew. As they say in Russia,
there is no pravda in Izvetsia, and no izvetsia in Pravda (a pun on
the names of the two major papers, the "Truth" and the "News"). This
compilation of papers appears to have been taken from a single
symposium and made to fit into a book. The heavy preponderance of
professors from Harvard and MIT make the work seem quite
self-indulgent. The range of companies studied goes from big to big:
by the time you are finished you will know more than you ever wanted
about the International Stock Exchange, General Electric Information
Services, Saturn, Benetton, Wal-Mart and Rosenbluth Travel.
In the absence of a preface or foreword, chapter (or paper) one, with
the slightly reordered title of "Global Competition and Technology",
would seem to fill that role, particularly as it is the only content
of part one. However, after an initial laying of some foundations and
a seeming introduction to part two, this first paper drifts into a
mini-"Megatrend" essay which tries to touch all of the communications,
technology and globalization bases without much apparent structure.
The technical background is suspect in places, as where the authors
applaud the death of standards, suggesting that this will drive the
movement to open systems. This indicates a very profound lack of
understanding of the necessity of standards for the open systems
concept to even exist, and a limiting of the definition of "standard"
to "proprietary standards", itself almost an oxymoron.
Part two discusses organizational structures. If the aim is to
propose any suggested style for "global" organizations, it is only
scantily achieved. Malone and Rockart give us some rewording of
Naismith's "networking", structure with an organization (as opposed to
the hierarchical pyramid of traditional companies) with "adhocracies"
and "answer networks". However, they appear to be proposing that such
structures already exist within large corporations: their only
evidence is a "gee whiz" listing of some information technologies
already in use. Some idea of the framework under which a global
organizational structure could develop would be helpful. Eccles and
Nolan appear to want to give us that. Instead, we get a retreading of
the usual "policy vs procedure" model of delegation from management to
line workers (under the new phrase "superordinate design"). Tacking
an additional title onto an existing acronym (GIS, commonly known as
geographic information systems but here used as global information
systems), Konsynski and Karimi purport to help us to design worldwide
networks. Instead, we have vague business terms being applied to
complex networking problems; one admission that networks might be
limited by available technologies; and one "case study" which lists
applications which are, again, impressive but do not address current
major problems.
Part three purports to talk about the creation and restructuring of
industries. Whether this is supposed to be prescriptive (how to
restructure) or descriptive (what new industries *will* look like) is
left open. In any case, definitive statements about restructuring are
hard to come by. Bradley's article lists some new industries and some
restructured companies. But the role of information technology is not
directly linked to any changes. The promised examination of the value
and cost justification is limited to two paragraphs stating that
measurements of return on investment for networks are difficult,
seldom done, but should be done. Not very helpful. (In addition it
is very difficult, in the paper, to distinguish technical networking
from business, political or social "networking".) Hayter's chapter
discussing the changes wrought by the introduction of electronic
trading to the International Stock Exchange is fascinating but
somewhat limited by the lack of specific examples of change to
affected companies. The restructuring of a manufacturing industry is
examined in the case of a particular company, but the Jaikumar/Upton
paper goes to the opposite extreme and fails to give any account of
technology in this firm limited not only to one nation, but to a
restricted area within Italy. The Hammond article does study one
technology area ("point of sale" information) and one industry (retail
sales, particularly fashion) and produces the best of the bunch. More
detail would have been helpful. One example in the fashion industry
cites a six-week response time. That is half a "season" in fashion:
it would be interesting to see how to shorten it.
Part four is ostensibly aimed at the general manager who needs to
respond strategically to the changes of globalization and technology.
One would assume, therefore, that this section would be primarily
practical. Not so. A paper by Clemons again trying to cover the
whole field (and, again, demonstrating a basic misunderstanding of the
business aspects of computing by the statement that information
technology investments are feasible and not restricted to a single use
with a single partner), a presentation of an IBM study on
globalization that stresses "balance", and an interesting study of
GM's Saturn division which makes almost no mention of technology. The
one useful article details the international "expansion" of a travel
agency through alliances with "local" firms in other countries and the
use of technological assistance which supports and cements the
alliance.
The final section of the book is entitled, "Competing with
Technology". However you wish to interpret that, the three papers
have little to do with it. Hausman lists activities of various
telecommunications carriers overseas, while the other two articles are
two versions of peering into the future. The Marx article is quite
"blue sky" in its assessment. The Hald and Konsynski article is more
detailed but perhaps no more useful. The technologies it examines are
certainly interesting. However, the recent development of a
dependable replacement for the century-old gas meter design will
likely turn a seven hundred million dollar gas meter supply industry
into a twenty-five million dollar industry within three years (and
have an even greater impact on gas service.) This may not be as
"sexy" as virtual reality, but it will affect business much more over
the next five years.
The conference that prompted this book may simply have been a bad one.
In all likelihood, though, this is a fair representation of current
business thinking with regard to technology. Fuzzy. I would
recommend that managers with a technical background study this book.
My reason is the same reason I would give for studying BASIC. In self
defence, it behooves you to know what the brass is being fed, and,
what nonsense you might have to deal with.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKGLBTCH.RVW 980930
Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM
Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups.
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer
[email protected],
[email protected], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact:
[email protected]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 93 14:43:26 PST
From:
[email protected] (Tom Ace)
Subject: Telecom-Tech Mailing List
If (like me) you don't have a news feed, you can now read and
participate in the discussions in alt.dcom.telecom, as it is now also
available by mail as a digest. To quote from the heading of a recent
issue:
The Telecom-Tech Mailing List is an unmoderated forum for the
discussion of the various technical aspects of modern and historical
telecommuniations. Major topics include switching, physical means of
transmission of analog and digital data, wireless communications, and
methods of control and distribution of services. Discussions of
legislation and regulation as they directly affect technology are also
welcome.
Telecom-Tech is bi-directionally gated to the newsgroup alt.dcom.telecom.
Please send subscription requests and changes to:
[email protected]
Please send your articles to:
[email protected]
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Date: Tue, 02 Nov 93 18:11:47 EST
From: Rick Broadhead <
[email protected]>
Subject: Canadian Internet Resources
Calling all Canadian Internet users!
Rick Broadhead and Jim Carroll are working on an Internet book called
the Canadian Internet Handbook. The Canadian Internet Handbook is
expected to be the first Internet book with a Canadian perspective.
To help us make this book truly Canadian, we are asking Internet users
to send us information about Canadian Internet resources.
Specifically, we are collecting the following types of information for
the book:
(1) Internet resources ** where the subject matter pertains to Canada **
(these resources don't have to be located in Canada)
e.g. mailing lists, Gopher resources, telnet sites, FTP files,
Canadian library catalogs accessible via the Internet
(2) Internet resources located in Canada
e.g. Gopher servers, IRC sites, telnet sites, FTP sites,
archie sites, finger sites, and other Internet services
available in Canada
(3) Canadian organizations doing interesting work that involves the
Internet
(4) Canadian organizations that offer courses/seminars on how to use
the Internet. Canadian organizations that do Internet training and
consulting.
(5) Statistics and interesting facts about the Internet in Canada
(Canadian Internet trivia)
(6) Anecdotes about how people and organizations are using the Internet
in Canada. Do you have an interesting story to tell? How has the
Internet helped you or your business/organization?
We need your help! Here's how to submit information for the book:
For items (1) and (2), please complete the enclosed form and return it
to
[email protected]. For items (3), (4), (5), and (6), please
send the information directly to
[email protected]. All
contributions are greatly appreciated!
Name of Canadian Internet Resource:
Brief Description (1-4 sentences):
How to Access the Resource (please provide instructions):
Thank you for your contribution. For more information about the
Canadian Internet Handbook, please contact the authors, as detailed
below.
Rick Broadhead, FAS, York University | Jim Carroll, J.A. Carroll Consulting
Internet:
[email protected] | Internet:
[email protected]
Voice: (416) 487-5220 | Voice: (905) 855-2950
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Thaddeus H. Wood)
Subject: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression
Date: 2 Nov 1993 05:47:36 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
Okay. Here's my thought-dilemma. It's my intuitive belief that a
file maximally compressed with a non real-time LZW algorithm, such as
used in pkZIP or lha, should not be able to be compressed with a
real-time algorithm such as v.42bis. This seems logical to me. If
anyone can say otherwise, please do.
Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one
should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1
start and 1 stop bit per byte.
Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed
file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a
throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second.
My mind tells me that this compression ratio should not be possible in
a real-time environment on already compressed data.
So, my question is what am I not taking into account here, if my
suppositions are correct? And if they are correct, then why hasn't
anyone implemented a non real-time v.42bis implementation to compress
those "uncompressable" LZW compressed files? Should save considerable
HD space, no?
And, of course, if this message seems totally ludicrous to you, please
be forgiving. It's been a long day.
Thaddeus H. Wood 715 Washington St. Suite D Santa Cruz, CA 95060
[email protected] -- +1 408.423.8733 --
[email protected]
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End of TELECOM Digest V13 #734
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