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Sat-ND, 13.9.96

Sat-ND 96-09-13 - Satellite and Media News

This service is provided free of charge for personal use. It may be
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"(c) Copyright 1996 by Sat-ND, http://www.sat-net.com/pck/"
Please send money, news releases, contributions and comments regarding
Sat-ND to
Peter C. Klanowski, Fax +49-451-5820055, pck@LyNet.De

This issue is sponsored by TELE-satellite, Europe's Satellite Magazine 
Have a look at their homepage! >> http://www.TELE-satellit.com/ <<

Yesterday's Sat-ND unfortunately didn't make it through to the mailing
list subscribers. This time, I probably have to apologise on behalf of
my access provider whose post office just wasn't open (Friday 13, you
know.) I hope you don't mind me resending yesterday's issue together
with this one even though it is available on rec.video.satellite.europe
and alt.satellite.tv.europe.

=========================================================

Ariane launches JCSAT 5
As expected (Sat-ND, 11.9.96,) Japan Satellite Systems Inc. (JSAT) and
Arianespace today officially announced that a contract for the launch of
the JCSAT-5 telecommunications satellite was signed. It will be the 12th
Japanese satellite to be launched by Ariane.
JCSAT-5 is the second satellite entrusted to Arianespace, after the
launch of JCSAT-1 in March 1989. Using an HS 601 platform built by
Hughes Space & Communications of El Segundo, California, the satellite
is equipped with 32 Ku-band transponders. Positioned over the Pacific
Ocean, the spacecraft will provide telecommunication and data
transmission services for Japan, Hawaii and the entire Asia-Pacific
region. The JCSAT-5 launch from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French
Guiana is set for late 1997 or early 1998.
Following the signing of this contract, the 15th of 1996, Arianespace's
order book now stands at 41 satellites to be launched.

NBC lauches Taiwanese servive
There are many NBC versions around the world, and now there's even one
for Taiwan. The new satellite feed is part of NBC's efforts to "localize
its products to suit the viewing needs and tastes of individual Asian
markets," the broadcaster said in a statement.
NBC Taiwan will carry 19 hours of Chinese subtitling a day. So far, NBC
Asia reaches 1 million Taiwanese households. The network also operates
an Asian version of CNBC. 

China buys ground stations from NEC, STS
China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has announced the
country will add 13 new satellite ground stations to the 24 existing
ones in order "to boost internal telecommunications links." A company
affiliated to the Ministry has signed import contracts with Japan's NEC
and STS Company of the US. News agency Xinhua reported that the stations
will be located in 13 cities including Jinan, Nanjing, Nanchang,
Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Yichang, Yinchuan and Taiyuan, adding more than
50,000 high-speed telephone lines to the country's public
telecommunications satellite network.

Hyundai supplies NetHold boxes
NetHold, the international pay-television group soon to merge with
Canal+, has signed an agreement with Hyundai Electronics America (HEA)
as a major partner to manufacture digital IRDs (integrated receiver
decoders), also known as set-top boxes, for supply by the end of 1996.
Under the agreement, Hyundai will supply up to 60,000 decoders per
month[!] for all the territories where NetHold has, or is about to
launch, digital television. 
Digital platforms, offering a wide selection of national and
international programming, have already been launched by NetHold via
satellite in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and will soon also be
offered on cable networks in Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands, along
with a new near video-on-demand service.

Robin Clark's Observations
Italian Radio on Canal Plus Horizons on EUTELSAT Hotbird 1 (13°E,) 7.38
MHz. Unknown name.
Independent Radio News is using 7.38 MHz on Travel Channel on INTELSAT
601 (27.5°W.)
Also, Viva 2 has started its proper full teletext service.
Robin Clark <R.Clark-1@plymouth.ac.uk>

MCM Africa to switch satellite
MCM Africa is moving from INTELSAT 603 to INTELSAT 601 (3,650 GHz RHCP).
The signal on the 601 satellite is a bit stronger than on the 603.
Has anybody got an idea where M-net is gone?
Juergen Stichler <just0000@stud.uni-sb.de>


Zeroes and ones
By Grandpa "Uncle" Zheng

Don't Panix
Somebody out there doesn't seem to like a US-based company named Panix,
the NY area's oldest and largest Internet Service Provider. By attacking
the company's computers, a hacker has managed to virtually cut off the
company's computers from the Internet.
"It means 25 people could shortly be looking for work," said Panix
president and co-owner Alexis Rosen. Panix connects over 1,000 companies
to the Internet and maintains World Wide Web sites for dozens of
companies. Attacks have been made against different computers on the
provider's network, including mail, news and web servers, user "login"
machines, and name servers.
Every second, the company is bombarded with requests for information
which contain bogus return addresses. While computers normally cope with
a few fake addresses at a time, an attack like this is just too much. It
started last Friday and has continued ever since with the exception of a
few hours over the weekend, probably making the longest attack of its
kind. 
Rosen blames the structure of the Internet for blocking his machines:
"Until all people start filtering their traffic to assure there are no
forgeries in the packets, this attack can continue unabated," he said.
Miraculously enough,  I managed to get through to their statement on the
issue which is available at
http://www.panix.com/panix/statement.html

Duitsland Censureert XS4ALL! (Germany censors XS4ALL?)
Yesterday, we had nationalists on the Web. Today, we'll have a look at
the autonomous left.
A few months ago, Sat-ND reported that "German Internet access providers
exert self-censorship on themselves in order to avoid legal restrictions
[...] A so-called Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) will be able to
either cancel unwanted postings or even bar whole newsgroups from
access." (Sat-ND, 17.6.96)
Not only that. Members of the ICTF have started blocking access to
XS4ALL, one of the Netherlands' foremost Internet access and presence
providers, following advice of German prosecutors. ICTF members were
told that their users could "call up the entire edition of the pamphlet
entitled 'radikal Nr. 154'" which is currently being investigated by the
Public Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice. Among other
things, the magazine provides instructions on how to sabotage railway
lines. Prosecutors consider it to be terrorist propaganda.
Idiotically, some morons happening to be members of the OCTF
subsequently blocked access to the incriminated site in the Netherlands
by tweaking their name servers. This is, of course, by no means
sufficient to screen users from any material they shouldn't read. One
could simply use another name server, e.g. those of CompuServe or
T-Online, who have not reacted to the prosecutors' note that threatening
them "you may possibly make yourself subject to criminal prosecution for
aiding and abetting criminal activities if you continue to allow these
pages to be called up via your access points and network nodes."
Today, Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office officially announced it was
investigating a number Internet access providers because they were
giving subscribers access to the radical left-wing electronic newspaper.
A case of censorship? Yes and no. No, it is no state censorship at all.
Yes, it is self-censorship by some, but not all, German Internet access
providers who just haven't got the guts (or the money) to stand their
case. 
German prosecutors actually have done the autonomous left a big, big
favour. Their magazine, so far known to just a few insiders, is now
known around the world. What's more, there are -- as usual -- dozens of
sites available world-wide that mirror the content in question. And in
case they all are blocked, which is more or less impossible, you can
still have "radikal Nr. 154" delivered to you by e-mail (just send a
empty message to radikal@xs4all.nl.)
A very good starting point, offering loads of links in English, Dutch
and German:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal/
In case it doesn't work, although XS4ALL has reacted by rotating its IP
addresses to counter any censorship, try anyone from this list of mirror
sites I downloaded from XS4ALL today. (My access provider
[http://www.lynet.de/] actually seems to support free speech.)
http://burn.ucsd.edu/%7Eats/RADIKAL/ 
http://www.jca.or.jp/~taratta/mirror/radikal/ 
http://www.serve.com/~spg/ 
http://huizen.dds.nl/~radikal 
http://www.canucksoup.net/radikal/index.html 
http://www.ecn.org/radikal 
http://www.well.com/~declan/mirrors/ 
http://www.connix.com/~harry/radikal/index.htm 
http://www.ganesa.com/radikal/ 
http://www.denhaag.org/~radikal 
http://www.knooppunt.be/~daniel/radikal 
http://emma.unm.edu/radikal 
http://www.tacacs.com/radikal/" 
http://www.dsvenlo.nl/~vvd/radikal/ 
http://www.why.net/home/static/radi 
http://users.abcs.com/dockmstr/mirror/radikal/index.htm 
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeroenw/radikal/ 
http://home.ipr.nl/~radikal/ 
http://www.dreamy.demon.co.uk/occam/ 
http://www.ibmpcug.co.uk/~irdial/live_free/ 
http://zero.tolerance.org/radi/index.htm 
http://www.meaning.com/library/radikal/ 
http://www.xs4all.nl/~irmed/radikal/ 
http://www.walli.uwasa.fi/~tviemero/radikal 
http://www.sko.it/~sfede/radi/index.htm 
http://www.bart.nl/~sz/index.html 
http://bellp.med.yale.edu/index.htm 
http://www.euronet.nl/users/funest/radi/index.htm 
http://fine.com/radikal 
http://www.lab.net/radikal 
http://www.charm.net/~gbarren/radikal 
http://login.datashopper.dk/~pethern/radikal/

PS: Do I get jailed now? Please!

=========================================================
Copyright 1996 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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