Any traffic here?

White Red Black Yellow Violet

But did Violet give willingly?

Well, that's a different Violet! She belongs with the Bad Boys and our Young Girls!

Some people around here are as old as I am. Ever hear of the color code:

white/ bk-bn-rd-or-yl-gn-bl-vi-gy black/ bn-rd-or-yl-gn-bl-vi-gy brown/rd-or-yl-gn-bl-vi-gy red /or-yl-gn-bl-vi-gy

and so on to a single pair vi/gy

Ran across this rehabbing the wiring in an ex-secret ex-Air Force facility. Was the verticle wiring between floors.

That's an interesting cable! 45 pairs if I figured it out correctly! Because it follows the RETMA color code for resistors/capacitors I'd guess it wasn't a telephone-related cable but rather something a computer company might have used. Belden and others make lots of cables with "odd" color codes (odd to a telephone guy, anyway), frequently used in various control or audio functions!

I worked for a computer company for a while that used all white conductors in their equipment. They didn't hot-stamp or print markings on them either! The claim was that manufacturing was less costly that way (only one wire type to stock!). But it was hell for maintenance, if you had to replace a switch or anything with lots of wires on it!

It might be Stromberg cable.

I've been compiling a little list of things to read before bed time, every night before bed

I've added this.

mk5000

"As you know in fashion, one day you're in. And the next day, you're out. "--Heidi Klum

crickets, wind, a creaking door. Where are the people?

z!

No traffic here in comp.dcom.voice-over-ip either!

I filter all crap posts from google groups, so might be missing some good one also.

No news, is not a good news :(

Netnews is dead.

Killed by "The Web."

RIP Netnews.

This is an unusual group in that if people have nothing to say, they don't say it.

Ask a reasonable question, you'll get responses.

R's, John

When is the last time you saw a reasonable telecom related question?

By my review, it's been several months since what I'd rate a "reasonable" question or even informational post has been made. A decade ago, this group would get 10s or even 100s of reasonable questions a day.

It's this way on all the newgroups I read / lurk. Everyone one of them is a pale shadow of their former selves.

I believe that anyone under the age of 40 doesn't know about netnews (usenet, or whatever you call this), or if they do, they don't care. It's all blogs and forums with cool graphics and counters and iPhone interfaces now. Face it, NNTP is dead. It's all over except for a few old farts like me and you.

-Gary

^^^^ ^^^^

Huh. I wonder if there is a relationship between reading/lurking and the lack of interesting/on-topic discussion in a newsgroup. It seems that all too many Usenet users are waiting for someone else to start discussion they would read but won't start any themselves.

A corollary to John's position: If no one starts interesting, on-topic discussions, there can be no responses.

No, I don't think the problem is too many passive completive. I believe the problem is too few participants, period. I think the reasons for the drop off of users is twofold. The first is the is the Internet usage patterns of the younger generation issue I've already described. Most of them don't even know "news" exists and aren't reading or lurking. Can't get them to participate if they don't even see it.

The second is Google. Many of the types of questions that used to be asked in newsgroups can now be answered faster with a Google search. For example,

15 years ago, if you wanted to know how to wire up a 110 or 66 block, you'd ask here. At the end of the day, you'd have a bunch of answers. Some would address your questions while others would have veered off into related issues such as how the blocks were used in various installations and what it was link to work on them, or even all the way to politics (which always seemed to leak into discussions...)

Now, a few minutes with Google will get you to sites with descriptions, handy pictures, and maybe even a link to buy tools and parts at competitive prices. Very little off-topic banter to filter through (although I miss this, I wonder how many other people do). Why bother asking in a newsgroup and hoping to get a decent answer in few hours when Google will provide answers in seconds?

-Gary

Isn't that what I just said? Lurking doesn't count as participating. It takes just one user to post an interesting, on-topic message, to get discussion going.

Nothing else that you've written concerning the users of other media of communication is the least bit relevant to the situation on Usenet. Either people are going to participate on Usenet, or they're not. That they are doing something else in lieu of participating on Usenet, who cares.

It's the choice of the regular users of this newsgroup to decide if it lives or dies. If the regulars choose to lurk, choosing not to post, then their choice is entirely independent of all those other people out there who aren't Usenet users.

Usenet is alive and well, well somewhat anyway. Some newsgroups are very active, take ba.broadcast and soc.motss, for instance. Others are rather quiet.

Many of the regulars of ba.broadcast insisted on leaving it for ba.broadcast.moderated.

Well, here you go. :-)

Instead of banter, the web offers pop-ups, banners, logos, buttons, procrustean frames and panels, animated dingbats, 50K pictures of the

5-byte word "Index", music and javascript intended to justify the paycheck of the "web designer". If it's a corporate website that (purportedly) wants to sell you something, there are multiple strata and reticula of pages featuring all of the above to wade through while you look, often fruitlessly, for useful info on a particular product.

Of course, you don't get personal sneers from the techier-than-thou regulars, such as, "This group is about The C language, not about compilers so FOAD" or "Version 3.2.1 has been replaced by version 3.5. Don't even *think* about asking a question here until you upgrade." But an occasional sneer from a snotty hacker is better than "503: We do not support your browser. Please upgrade to [whatever]" from a robot.

The shape of the Usenet landscape has changed but there are still oases and local optima despite growing regions of wasteland and toxic sumps.

Back to the subject line: I'm mostly a lurker. I have no expertise to answer telecom.tech questions and have a question of my own only every few years or so. Most of the time, my 2500 sets work on my land line without a problem. :-) But I learn new stuff from lurking on several groups where I'm not competent to offer much.