Western Union discontinued all Telegram services earlier this week, ending 145 years of service.

My reading this for the next few days:

(r) August 29th Dailies
Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards
Custom SiteMap providers in ASP.NET 2.0
(r) Sql Server 2005 Partitioning - Updating Existing Data
(r) SQL Essentials: SQL Server Data Importing: Do's and Don'ts
(r) Ten steps toward more effective collaboration
Understanding and Extending the Site Navigation System in ASP.NET 2.0
(r) Understanding Security in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 in Windows XP SP2

My reading this for the next few days:

.NET Rocks! - Jeffrey Palermo on ASP.NET and More
ASP.NET 2.0 Security Practices at a Glance
(r) Complex Dynamic Lists: Your Order Please
(r) CSS: A Designer's Guide
Database Design based on existing data
(r) Encrypting Sensitive Data in a Database
Even more for the Patterns & Practices folks
(r) July 26th Dailies
Performance of ASP.NET Web Services, Enterprise Services, and .NET Remoting
(r) Simple Templating
(r) SQL Server 2005- Top 10 New Features
Streamlining Your Data Access Layer with Helper Methods
(r) Useful list of tools for .NET'ers

I thought I knew exactly what would happen during the test. Vonage’s website made it quite clear that when I dialed 911, my call would be routed to my regional Public Service Assess Point’s seven digit number. The PSAP is Lubbock is the Lubbock Emergency Communication District (LECD), which handles 911. However, because the call is coming in on their seven digit telephone number, and not "911", I would have to provide my address to them, just as you would on a cell phone. This information, it seems, is part of Enhanced 911, or e911, and is only available when someone calls 911 from a traditional telephone line.

The test went very well. Channel 11 had one crew at my house and one down at the LECD. When I called I happened to get the operator who had been mic’d, so I didn’t have to ask to be transferred to her. I announced who I was and that this was a test call. She then proceeded to confirm my address information. That’s right, the information that by all accounts I would have to provide was sitting right there on her screen. Needless to say, I was surprised.

Previously: Technology Trips Over 911 Call

There's been a buzz on the Internet recently over a Houston family's inability to call 911 from the Voice over IP-based telephone service. It's been reported that the family subscribed to Vonage, the same service Lauren and I use, but I haven't been able to verify this. The story was also covered locally by KCBD 11.

According to Vonage's website, they support 911, but with several caveats. First, and most importantly, 911 service is not automatic. You must register your street address with Vonage, and Vonage must verify that this address is accurate. This process takes several days and is very easy to initiate. In fact, it's the first option (and highlighted in bright red) on Vonage's online features screen, the screen you'd use to configure Caller ID, Voice Mail, and other calling features. In short, if you've signed up for service, you've seen this screen.

The second notable difference with Vonage's 911 service is that it connects the caller to their local Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) which may, or may not be, your regional 911 center. In some places, it may be a police dispatch center. It pay also be split between several departments based on the time of day or the day of the week. Once connected, you'll have to provide the operator with your name and address, as Vonage provides 911, not the Enhanced 911 that we've grown used to from our land-lines. Anyone who's ever called 911 from a cell phone is familiar with this limitation. Now, there are exceptions (supposedly, Vonage provides Enhanced 911 in Rhode Island), but Vonage is very clear to stress that you must provide your address when you call in.

Vonage also recommends that you test your 911 service, just to make certain that it works. To do so, call 911 and explain to the operator that you're making a test call to make certain that your VOIP service works with 911.

So, when KCBD 11 reported Monday night that the family in Houston had Vonage and were unable to call 911, I was concerned. I knew I'd have to give detailed information, but I assumed my service would work. Naturally, when Lauren and I finally have children they won't be able to give their address to the operator, but the technology should be improved by then. My concern was more immediate. Could we even get through to 911, or would we have to scramble to find our cell phones? I contacted Channel 11 yesterday and, after coordinating with Michael Grossie, the Exec. Dir. of the Lubbock Emergency Communication District, we tested my 911 service yesterday. I thought I knew what would happen, but the results were quite surprising. The story will air tomorrow night, so I'll embargo the results until then.

Technology Trips Over 911 Call

A young girl found out the hard way Thursday that not all phone companies provide a connection to emergency services.

As her mother and father were being shot during a home invasion, she tried to call 911, but couldn't get through.

Joyce John tried to call 911, but the Internet phone service her family uses didn't offer that capability.

This problem could affect thousands of people who use the Internet for their phone service.

Peter John describes how bullets flew through his home as he and his wife tried to fight off two would-be robbers. "And he point he gun toward me like this. The guy put the gun to my chest. I told him that my daughter's up stairs," said John.

Next thing I know, I hear shots in two or three seconds. She was screaming Joyce, Joyce call the police call 911," said his daughter, Joyce.

She dialed 911, and got this message, "Stop you must dial 911 from another telephone. 911 is not available from this telephone line. No emergency personnel will be dispatched."

Her father was already down, shot in the leg and her mother had also been hit. Both were in pools of blood.

"I picked up another phone cause I thought it was the phone's problem. But I picked up another phone and it still didn't work," said Joyce.

The robbers ran, and so did Joyce, to call 911 from a neighbor's house.

The 911 Emergency Network says the Peters subscribe to what is known as a voice over Internet provider, or an Internet phone company.

By Vicente Arenas / 11 News 08:12 AM CST on Friday, February 4, 2005

When AT&T decided to back out of its residential, I decided to start seeking alternatives. After all, if they didn't want me as a customer I certainly didn't want them as my local and long distance provider. I'd previously dropped SBC (then Southwestern Bell) as my local provider once AT&T started offering local service in my area, so I knew enough not to go back to SBC. The other bells, and the new upstarts, all seemed equally unappealing.

Last month I decided to give Voice over IP (VOIP) and opened an account with Vonage. VOIP works by converting an audio signal into a digital stream (just like a CD or a DVD) and transmitting it over my broadband Internet connection instead of over a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line. I have dialtone, caller id, call forwarding, and every other feature you can imagine. I played around with the service for a few weeks and then started the process to have my home telephone number moved from AT&T to Vonage, a process called Local Number Portability (LNP). The process took a little longer than I'd anticipated but, as of Friday afternoon, I'm no longer an AT&T customer and my traditional POTS line is dead.

Now, Vonage is certainly far from perfect. From time to time I'll hear a strange echo, but I had that from time to time with AT&T. There's an occasional "lag", which reminds me of the overseas calls we'd make 25 years ago, but I'm told they're working on that problem. Of course, I'm dependant on my internet connection, but should it go down Vonage will automatically forward calls to my cellphone. AT&T couldn't do that. Of course, the old POTS service wasn't affected by power outages, but my cordless phones were, so no change there.

By far the biggest change is cost. My monthly AT&T bill was right around $56, of which 26% of that was taxes and fees. Vonage only costs $17 a month with 12% of that taxes and fees. For those doing the math, that's an annual savings of $475. Not bad.

A NASA spacecraft will blast off next week on a mission to blow a chunk out of a comet that may provide clues to the origin of the solar system.

The Deep Impact probe is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on January 12. When the $260 million craft reaches the comet Tempel 1 on July 4, Bruce Willis will lead a team of West Texas roughnecks to set nuclear bombs deep in the comet's core. Upon detonation, the resulting fragments should help scientists determine what happened to Ben Affleck’s career.

Morgan Freeman was unavailable for comment.

In the beginning there was the IBM-PC, then Apple, then IBM-compatible. "PC Software" this and "IBM Compatible" that. IBM, IBM, IBM. IBM, and its cousins, ruled the home-computer market. Now, CBS MarketWatch is reporting that IBM is in talks to sell its PC unit. Sad, but not surprising. Big blue knows how to make high-quality hardware, but they don't do cheap, and that's where the market is today.

A nice collection of tips and tricks on the basics: Photoshop for Photographers

I've been using the third-party billing service iBill for the last three years to pay for access to Usenet, a precursor to web-based message boards. As a third-party billing company, iBill would charge my credit card and then forward that money on to Newsfeeds.com, my Usenet provider. Pretty routine, right?

Enter GKard

An hour later I received this email from iBill.com:

Previously, your credit card has been charged with the descriptor ibillcs.com for your subscription to an Internet website. Going forward, gkbill will now be the new billing agent. During your next billing cycle, your credit card statement will contain a new descriptor, gkard load*gkbill.com. This change will be effective on your next billing cycle. As an added feature of this change, you now have a gkard, Visa Electronic Card, which has been loaded with the appropriate billing amount for your subscription.

By the time this last email arrived I was pretty hopping mad. I immediately cancelled my re-occurring billing through iBill and contacted my Usenet provider to inquire about alternate payment methods.

Screwed by Porn

I knew VISA had recently changed their policies and were beginning to pull merchant accounts of third-party billing companies that dealt primarily with adult websites. I also knew that the bulk of iBill's business came from adult sites, and that they were in serious financal trouble having just lost their merchant account, so I figured GKard was their solution. A quick Google search confirmed my suspicions:

DEERFIELD, Fla. – The ongoing saga of iBill's attempts to remain in the online adult transaction processing business took a surprise turn Friday when customers began receiving email notifications about changes to their subscription status.

As a part of these changes, iBill began issuing customers who subscribed to recurring membership sites a Virtual Visa debit card under the "gkard" label, which comes pre-loaded with the full amount the customer initially charged via his/her Visa.

"We're really IBill, but without Visa," a gkard representative told XBiz. "As for the mechanics of the process, if you want to use Visa to pay for a membership, you have to first load the funds onto the gkard using your Visa, then use your gkard number to join the site. This helps security by limiting the number of people who have your Visa number."

Stephen Yagielowicz, IBill Adopts Virtual Visa'

Customer Service usually helps, right?

With this information in hand, I called the number listed on GKard's website (877-283-1863). Call the number, it'll sound like every other credit/debit card toll-free number out there. I had five goals:

1. Express my outrage over having a credit card account opened in my name without my permission
2. Clarify the relationship between iBill and GKard
3. Discovered how and why the credit card I used with iBill, which had expired last month, was still being used but with a new, and incorrect, expiration date
4. Find out why they sent my name, address, credit card number, expiration date, pin code, and CVV2 number in a plain text email message
5. Close my GKard account

Call #1: I spoke with Troy who insisted the GKard is "not a Visa card". I pointed to the VISA logo on the GKard website and read the opening of their first email to me ("Welcome to gkard, the international VISA pre paid card from gkbill" ). He maintained that the GKard was not a Visa card. I was told that iBill was GKard and he confirmed that my account was closed when I cancelled my reoccurring billing with iBill. He then suggested I speak with a supervisor, put me on hold, and disconnected me.

Call #2: Andrew answered and while I was explaining what had happened with Troy I suddenly heard a message stating "Your call time has expired…goodbye" and I was disconnected. This message did not come from my phone system. It had to have been generated on GKard's end.

Call #3: I entered my GKard number into the automated phone system, just as I had the previous two times I called. This time, however, anytime I pressed a menu option I received the following message: "Your account's credit limit has been reached. Please contact your customer service representative." I received this response to every menu option I was presented with. Clearly, my account had been flagged as a "trouble maker".

Call #4: This time I started off with the option for those who'd "forgotten" their account number. I reached Andrew (who had the fakest Hispanic accent ever) who was firm that he could not send me to a supervisor without first trying to assist me. I described my previous calls, suggested that I was about to call VISA International, and suddenly found myself speaking with Claude, a "supervisor". He said the GKard _was_ a Visa card, confirmed that my GKard was closed, and explained away the false expiration date as a "customer convenience" measure. He then went on to say that they choose to email my credit card information to respect the privacy of their customers who were using them to view porn on the internet. He then said he was sure their use of two separate emails to send out the card details was "perfectly legal". He then started into a round of "don't shoot the messenger". Clearly I was dealing with the head weasel. The only other information he'd provide is that iBill and GKard were two separate companies, despite what I'd been hold by Troy and what I read on the Internet.

You just knew they'd be based in Florida

At first glance, iBill and GKard appear to be separate companies. The domain name iBill.com is registered to the Internet Billing Company, LLC of Deerfield Beach, FL. The domain name GKBill.com is registered last month to Muscato Corp. of Maitland, FL. Wow, a Florida-based credit card company that's been in business for less than a month. No, this sounds perfectly above-board.

I've got calls into my original merchant, my bank, and to VISA.