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Securities dealer group warns about text-messaging scam

Stock-touting alleged in bid to sway prices

Associated Press
Published December 14, 2005

WASHINGTON—Securities regulators are warning investors about a new twist on the "pump and dump" stock-fraud scam that uses text messaging on cell phones to tout stocks.

The National Association of Securities Dealers, the brokerage industry's self-policing organization, issued an "investor alert" Tuesday advising people to ignore such messages with "hot" stock tips on their cell phones.

In so-called "pump and dump" schemes, the perpetrators tout small, thinly traded stocks to investors to inflate the prices and then sell their own shares at a profit. Ordinary investors can suffer losses when the stock prices tank during the share dumping.

During the stock market boom of the late 1990s, the touting often was done by posting e-mails about companies on Internet message boards or with write-ups in financial publications. In recent years, telephones and faxes also have been used.

Last May, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges in an alleged nationwide fraud scheme that used voice mail messages made to seem like they were mistakenly left on people's answering machines to pique their interest in stocks.

"The emergence of text messaging offers fraudsters another cheap and easy way to reach large numbers of potential investors," John Gannon, the NASD's vice president for investor education, said in a statement. "Now more than ever, investors need to be vigilant about doing their homework before investing and taking the necessary steps to reduce the likelihood of falling prey to these scams."

A cardinal rule of investing is never to rely solely on information from an unsolicited source, be it a cell-phone text message, e-mail, fax or phone call, the NASD said.

Unwanted text messages can be stopped by registering one's cell phone number on the national do-not-call list or opting out of third-party offers when setting up cell-phone accounts.

People who receive text messages touting stocks are asked to send the messages to the NASD at regtips@nasd.com.

Source: Chicago Tribune

IMlogic Spots Interactive Instant Messaging Worm

2:21 pm on December 7, 2005

Instant messaging security firm, IMlogic released a warning on Monday, regarding a new type of malicious IM bot that can pose as a human being, and send messages.

The threat, called IM.Myspace04.AIM infects a user’s computer, then starts sending messages to people on their AIM contacts list. The bot sends a link, and encourages receivers to click on it with messages such as “lol no its not a virus.” Once a user clicks the link, their computer also becomes infected, and begins spreading the program.

So far, the program only appears to be propagating, and not otherwise affecting users’ computers. The scary thing though is that such a program could easily be used to spread spyware, keyloggers, and numerous types of malware.

“What we’re seeing with some of these worms is they vary quickly, so the initial one may be a probe to see how well it infected users, and then a later variant will be one that may put a spybot out,” said IMlogic’s European directory of services, Sean Doherty. “The initial worm could be essentially a proof of concept coming from the malware writers.”

Source: TeleClick.ca

Carter Blumeyer

From: carterblumeyer@socket.net
Subject: Update for your readers
Date: December 15, 2005 8:52:25 PM CST
To: brad@braddye.com

Brad,

It was a pleasure talking with you last week, and thank you for all the complements.  So in response to our conversation I would like to update your readers on myself and the operations down and around Louisiana.  I have been in the radio/pager (messaging) business for the past 17 years and have seen all sorts of changes in the market just as you and your readers have. There are many different things I see the messaging/pager business doing but will forward that next week in another e-mail. I wish to help educate your readers on the FEMA US&R program and what I have seen first hand in communications around disasters.  The National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Response System, established under the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1989 is a framework for structuring local emergency services personnel into integrated disaster response task forces.

These task forces, complete with necessary tools and equipment, and required skills and techniques, can be deployed by FEMA for the rescue of victims of Structural Collapse, Water Rescue and WMD events. Missouri Task Force One is one of these teams and has been deployed on such events as the World Trade Center bombing, the Columbia Shuttle Disaster, and Hurricanes Charley, Isabel, Ivan and Katrina.  I and four others make up the communications section of the team.  I have been with the team since its inception 10 years ago. Our team’s primary means of communication is by UHF radio. The team is also equipped with Nextels, Globalstars, GSM service, analog cellular, and 2-way pagers.   

In a disaster, communications is the last thing people think about and the FIRST thing that they criticize. I and the others on our team believe in one motto during this time . . . “NOTHING WILL WORK” so plan three deep. Meaning that for every person and place that we want to contact, we will need three ways to communicate with them. Most of the general public now a days rely on their cell phones for communications—but the majority of the wireless providers rely on the general landline carrier to connect their systems together. If the landline carriers breakdown in the disaster area due to overload or just system failure—the wireless carriers go down as well. During a disaster the provider or providers will bring in COWs or “Cellular on Wheels” to help with the bandwidth or coverage. These units are hooked up via satellite to another place way far away from the disaster area. Bandwidth is the biggest issue that affects carriers in a disaster. That’s why people get a busy signal during a disaster—all the bandwidth or lines are taken up. Voice and Text messaging all use the same bandwidth to deliver or send data to and from the device. 

In the disasters that I have seen or been involved with, I rely on two things when in the disaster area, a satellite phone, and a ReFLEX 2-Way pager. Just as the COWs rely on the satellite for the communication to take the information away from the area so do the paging towers. The cellular phone and Blackberry systems are so overloaded with the public trying to communicate they lockup and slow down to a snail’s pace. Just like if you went from high-speed Internet access to dial-up speed, and that dial up speed is 300 baud not 56K. It takes forever to receive messages and to make calls.  The mayor and other people stated that their blackberry device worked very early in the morning and then it stopped as the day started. That’s because most of the public is asleep and not using the network.  Our team members used their ReFLEX devices to communicate when the telephone and other systems failed.

Now the paging service, although it was working down in New Orleans, still had some issues just as the other wireless carriers had—that issue was electricity. With the flood, the cellphone and paging systems operated on generators and batteries until the resources ran out. In the first 72 hours the pagers would work in and around buildings downtown.  After the external power source ran out our coverage was street level only—but it still worked.  The system is robust and can handle the data traffic.  During the beginning-days of the disaster I was contacted by Gary Ash, a VP at USA Mobility. He had a mobile paging tower that he wanted to bring down to the parishes to help the teams and the public communication.  I want to thank Gary and all the people at USA Mobility for their ongoing efforts to help the USAR and FEMA teams.

Paging to me has always been the last and most reliable means to communicate with a small or large group of people. With the advance of the ReFLEX networks we are able to communicate back home in the time of need. For myself, I recently resigned my position with Missouri Task Force One and the US Forest service to take a better job in my field. I now work for FEMA/DHS in the communication MERS unit.  I am responsible for the Land Mobile Communications (LMR) for the US&R, NDMS (National Disaster Medical System) and DHS.  My duties include the radio and interoperability missions for the government.  I am very excited about my new position and hope to make a difference in the way the government communicates. Thanks again for your newsletter and everything that you do to the industry. If your readers have not seen or read these articles, they explain why the system works when others fail:

• http://braddye.com/homeland_security.html
• http://braddye.com/B_NPCS%20comparev8.pdf
• [Ron mercer's paper on the same topic has recently been updated, and is very good as well.]

You or any of your readers can contact me anytime as I am always willing to talk. Till next week, take care.

Carter

P.S. My first day at work they tried to give me a Blackberry . . . I said, “No thanks I will keep my 935”

Carter Blumeyer-Telecommunication Specialist FEMA\DHS
COMS (US&R), COML/COMT (US Forest Service)
573-268-3000 Cingular • 301-573-5578 Nextel • 866-227-6582 USA Mobility
carterblumeyer@socket.net
carter.blumeyer@fema.gov

Finagan Seeking Position

From: finagan@flash.net
Subject: Long time no hear from
Date: December 16, 2005 10:34:16 AM CST
To: brad@braddye.com

Hello Brad, Chris Finagan here,

It's been a long time since we have spoke, you may not even remember me from the WebLink days, I was the first Project Manager for the Two-Way side, and the one that built-out the beta system in Dallas. Well I hope that long drawn out information helped you remember me.

Hope all has been good for you, since I was let go at WebLink, I have worked for a WiFi type company, and also running my own Lawn Maintenance company, which as everybody knows is very slow at this time of year.

I was speaking with somebody that you know this week, Campbell O'Keeffe, he is a recruiter now. Campbell ran across my name and called me in regards to a position he thought I could fill, and while we were talking, he mentioned that I should make contact with you to see if you knew of anybody that I might gain employment with.

I probably would have done this a long time ago if I new how to contact you. I have attached my resume in case you know of anybody that might find interest in it.

Hope to hear from you soon, and wish you a Very Merry Christmas and New Year!

Sincerely,
Chris Finagan

Resumé here

Two VoIP Services Challenge Skype

December 07, 2005

Skype is currently the frontrunner among peer-to-peer VoIP services. Two new services, Gizmo Project and PeerMe, are prepared to join the race.

By George Jones Courtesy of InternetWeek

Let’s be frank: Until recently, it was easy to file Skype, the popular VoIP service, into the category of interesting but only marginally useful.

However, if the adage that competition is the root of innovation holds any truth whatever, the VoIP client category appears ready to undergo a remarkable transformation from “marginally useful” to “downright indispensable.” Over the next 12 months, an unprecedented wave of new products and developers will enter this burgeoning market. While a number comprehensive commercial VoIP services such as Vonage provide full-fledged telephone service via a router that is plugged into a network, there has been a boom in smaller peer-to-peer VoIP services such as Skype, Gizmo Project, and PeerMe.

Utterly dominated by Skype over the last two years, client-side VoIP services have begun to flourish during the second half of 2005. This competitive rush makes sense when you consider that there are currently over one billion Internet users worldwide, only 40 million of whom subscribe to Skype.

In recent months, Gizmo Project and PeerMe have launched new VoIP client services. Additionally, Google has released its own service GoogleTalk, while AOL has announced plans to evolve AIM into a brand new platform named Triton. Even Sony is getting into the act with IVE, an Internet phone service with an emphasis on videoconferencing. Meanwhile, Skype isn't standing still: It has released a beta 2.0 version that includes free video calling.

The Mission: Beating Skype
Regardless of the competition, Skype (which was reviewed back in July) remains the 18-ton gorilla in VoIP, with an outstanding combination of ease-of-use, voice quality, and extra features/services that transcend other narrow peer-to-peer VoIP services that preceded it. (The fact that its basic service is free doesn't hurt either.)

For example, the SkypeOut service allow you to quickly and easily make phone calls to anywhere around the globe at extremely affordable rates. (Example: A 60-minute call to Barcelona would cost only a little more than two bucks.) Additionally, by setting up a SkypeIn account, you can set up your own telephone number in any area or country code you desire. Skype also offers conveniences such as voice mail and conference calls.

Furthermore, in recent months, Skype has begun to market itself even more aggressively, with outreach programs at major retailers such as Radio Shack, and Skype conversion kits that allow you to use your normal phone for Skype calls.

So the billion-dollar question is this: Given Skype’s head start and market dominance, can anyone beat it? To find an answer to this question, I investigated and tested two high-profile VoIP upstarts: Gizmo Project and PeerMe. Each group has Skype targeted squarely in its sights. Each has a singular offering that it hopes will set it apart from the competition.

(If you're already signed up with Skype, or plan to try another VoIP service, you may want to check out our evaluation of several different USB headsets and an interesting array microphone.)

Gizmo Project
Launched in July 2005, Gizmo Project stakes its dreams of VoIP superiority around one key concept: That users should have convenient, easy-to-configure access not just within their network, but also across multiple VoIP networks and SIP-based PBX systems.

This isn't a big surprise, given that the development team behind Gizmo Project is made up of members of the development team responsible for building the open-standard SIPphone VoIP platform. Because Skype and all other VoIP platforms use proprietary VoIP systems, their subscribers can only connect with other members of the same platform when using conventional peer-to-peer VoIP services. By adhering to the SIPphone platform, Gizmo Project allows its users to contact anyone with a SIP number, including users of Vonage and other VoIP networks.

This is a potentially massive advantage, although admittedly the relative convenience of tapping into a larger network via open-source standards will largely depend on the adoption rate of VoIP-based services by homes, corporations, and universities. It’s important to note, however, that the migration to VoIP networks is growing both domestically and abroad, which is a possible indicator that Gizmo Project is on the right track.

Jason Droege, president of Gizmo Project, states that this open-source conformity allows users to quickly and easily connect their main phone line to a VoIP router (such as those made by D-Link and Linksys) in order to map Gizmo’s services to a conventional home phone.

Although Skype also offers a similar functionality, Droege insists that the proprietary nature of the Skype network means more effort is required to make the connection. With this said, Skype is beginning to partner with Internet- and communications-oriented manufacturers to release easy-to-use Skype conversion kits for home phone lines.

Another advantage Droege claims over Skype is that while Skype utilizes the CPU cycles of users’ home computers to route calls, Gizmo Projects uses its own servers and computers to do the same. To be fair, during usage tests of Skype, I noticed little impact upon overall PC performance.

So, How Does Gizmo Project Work?
Beyond the open source conformity, one of the biggest surprises about Gizmo Project is how refined and functional the service’s client software is, particularly given that it launched only half a year ago.

As an example, its CallOut service offers the same SkypeOut functionality of dialing out to mobile/land lines, and the CallIn service allows users to set up their own phone line across Europe and North America. An elegant interface makes pertinent subscriber information—such as CallOut funds available, contacts, and more—available.

In fact, in several ways, Gizmo Project actually exceeds Skype’s feature set. One of the most notable advantages is the ability to record a call with the click of a button. Additionally, voicemail comes free with all Gizmo Project accounts, while Skype only offers voicemail as a premium service. Finally, the ability to generate conference calls involving more than 10 people represents another advantage over Skype (which only allows five participants), although setting up these calls in Gizmo requires more effort than in Skype.

On the downside, Gizmo Project’s CallOut service to most major international metropolitan areas costs about 1.5 cents a minute more than Skype. And the service’s audio quality was consistently inferior to Skype's by a slim margin in both peer-to-peer calls and calls to outside mobile/land lines.

But Gizmo Project’s potential as a Skype-killer is clear. While this upstart VoIP service still needs to make tremendous strides in 2005 to catch up, the adherence to open standards and the rapid deployment of such a sleek, powerful VoIP client should have Skype greatly concerned.

PeerMe
Launched in September, 2005, and still in the initial phases of development, PeerMe is oriented in a completely different direction than the traditional VoIP usage model embraced by Skype and Gizmo Project.

PeerMe Founder and CEO Tom Lasater says that the competition’s focus on Internet telephony as a “cheaper, better phone call” is misguided and misses the bigger picture of the communities that VoIP can graft onto and enable. This emphasis on community forms the foundation of PeerMe’s roadmap. “Our view is that this is not a phone call,” Lasater states. “We’re allowing anyone in the world to talk to anyone else in the world, but you can’t tie a phone to a database or a Web site.”

Currently targeted primarily towards the Asian markets of Japan, Korea, China, and India, PeerMe’s emphasis is on the integration of voice functionality and Web sites. As such, it is reaching out to Web developers and database administrators across Asia. A common example Lasater uses to illustrate this connectedness is a blogging site where readers can immediately reach out and speak to their favorite bloggers.

In the future, the company hopes to generate revenue by tying their service to online databases. Lasater offers up two examples of services that will add value to users’ experiences: a dating site where users can pay an extra price for voice contact with potential matches, and a language exchange where users pay a small fee on a monthly basis to find people across the world who are interested in practicing languages they’re learning.

Another important aspect of PeerMe’s blueprint for success is the point of convergence between the Internet and mobile devices. According to Lasater, the company sees a future where mobile phone users will use PeerMe to gain easy access to the types of communities described above, as well as more traditional content such as games, music, and more. Considering the walled-in, proprietary content monopolies that mobile providers currently embrace, this is an interesting prospect. However, it’s not a slam dunk, which makes it even more imperative that PeerMe makes a name for itself.

So, How Does PeerMe work?
PeerMe has a completely different approach to its VoIP client service than the competition. Unfortunately, while this may explain the service’s limited functionality, it did not reduce the disappointment we experienced while using what can only be described as a bare-bones service. As far as VoIP clients go, PeerMe feels more like Google Talk voice-chat than Skype or Gizmo Project.

Currently, PeerMe users only get the most basic peer-to-peer voice communications, with no bells, whistles, or extra features. If you’re looking for an elegant interface, call notifications, voicemail, the ability to dial out to mobile/land lines, or to receive calls from mobile/land lines, look elsewhere. This is consistent with the company’s approach of keeping voice chat simple and absent of complicated and intimidating features.

At least the audio quality is good. While using the service, I was consistently impressed with the full, rich tones and voices coming through my headphones. In the future, PeerMe users can expect a few small-scale additions such as voice conferencing and text conferencing.

Because the key to PeerMe’s success is integration with established Web presences, the company’s road to success will likely be less public and consequentially, more difficult. However, at this point in time, it is the only VoIP service that is attempting to carve out this particular space for itself.

Conclusions
For those of you keeping score at home, it’s clear that, right now, Gizmo Project is a serious contender for Skype’s VoIP crown. It has a strong client, a knowledgeable development team, and the ability to more easily connect its VoIP client to others around the world.

However, Skype has gotten off to a considerable head start. Its base of 40 million subscribers is a formidable obstacle that any new VoIP service will have to reckon with. And the reality is that, despite such advantages as open architecture and the ability to dial out to land/mobile lines, the most convenient VoIP connection continues to be a call to a contact within your chosen network. This means that Gizmo Project, along with the swath of other new entrants, desperately needs to find innovative ways to build up its subscriber numbers. After all, if all your colleagues are on Skype, why would you use Gizmo Project?

With this said, the ability to record calls and the availability of free voice mail are outstanding features that could make Gizmo Project more useful and more valuable right now. Will Gizmo’s developers be able to keep up their relentless addition of new features and extras? Time will tell, but I'll be watching closely.

I'll also be watching PeerMe with keen interest. If the company is able to successfully make the partnership deals that will allow it to bolt its client into a wide range of service-oriented online communities, databases, and Web sites, it will tap into an immediate source of revenue that will fuel future growth.

And then there’s Sony, AOL, and Google, all of which have announced new plans for Voice-over-IP services. With the exception of Sony, each of these services will enter the game with large numbers of existing subscribers.

And how about Microsoft? Given the company’s newfound emphasis on Internet services, I wouldn't be surprised to see VoIP or videoconferencing built directly into Windows Vista, or released as a Windows XP add-on via Service Pack 3. I also wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of acquisition before the end of 2006.

One final note: Across the board, acoustic quality exceeded my expectations. But I did experience slight but noticeable variances that were the result of the quality and proximity of the mic on the VoIP-oriented headsets I tested. A word to the wise: If you’re going to be spending a lot of time VoIPing, make sure you get a top-notch headset that features comfortable earphones as well as a mic that rests close to your mouth. This will ensure maximum possible clarity.

Source: NetworkingPipeline

Yahoo Offers E-mail linked VoIP Service

By Dave Porter

December 10, 2005

(AXcess News) Mountain View, CA—Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) is launching a voice-over-internet-protocol , or VoIP, service that links to Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Instant Messenger in 180 countries, the search engine company said.

The fact that Yahoo VoIP service will link with its e-mail and messenger service gives it a distinct advantage over competitors such as Skype.

Yahoo acquired DialPad last year and the technology that links the e-mail, messenger and Internet telephone service was developed by DialPad's engineers.

The Yahoo VoIP service will charge one penny per minute for calls from user's PCs to US public switched telephone network subscribers. Calls from the PC to foreign telephone locations will cost 2 cents per minute. There are no costs if calls are PC to PC.

Another Yahoo VoIP feature called "Phone In" costs about $30 a year and enables a subscriber to receive incoming calls after picking a phone number.

The market for VoIP telephony is booming. Earlier this year, eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion. Skype is the largest provider of VoIP services in Europe and boasts 68 million users. AOL and Vonage also offer VoIP services, claiming a million US subscribers each and telephone companies are beginning to launch their own VoIP plans as well.

As consumers become more accustomed to VoIP and its ease of use, more Americans will switch to the web phone service. Companies like Yahoo! will play a major role in developing that market as well and competition will come in the form of more bundled services that should benefit web phone subscribers.

Source: AXcess News

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

BY Dibya Sarkar
Published on Dec. 8, 2005

Standard approved for VOIP 911 calls

A major standard enabling voice-over-IP telecommunications providers to deliver enhanced 911 (E911) service has been approved by a non-profit organization promoting implementation of the three-digit emergency phone number system across the nation.

The board of directors of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) earlier this week approved the Interim VOIP Architecture for Enhanced 911 Services (i2) standard. The approval is considered the first step of a major system redesign around IP.

The standard, which was published Dec. 6, is a transitional measure that allows VOIP calls to be routed via existing legacy systems to 911 call centers known as public safety answering points (PSAPs).

Roger Hixson, NENA’s technical issues director, said numerous stakeholders from industry, the public safety community and others have participated in developing i2 since the initiative began more than two years ago. While the standard is not mandatory, NENA officials said major VOIP providers have been implementing some of its elements in the past six months.

“A number of major providers were involved in the committee work and probably had a pretty good picture of what the solution was going to include and needs going to be,” Hixson said. “So to a large degree those vendors used this as a major resource point.”

Hixson said there are hundreds of VOIP providers who use private IP networks or the public Internet to route calls. Many of the private IP network providers have been offering E911 for some time because they have been providing service to a fixed type of subscriber, he said.

However, Internet-based VOIP providers have a tougher time because the service is largely nomadic, which means subscribers can make telephone calls from a fixed location or other locations through the Internet, he said. Those are the providers that really need the i2 approach, Hixson added.

Patrick Halley, NENA’s government affairs director, said the organization is continuing to work on developing the i3, or next-generation standard, through which calls from VOIP phones will be routed over an IP system to PSAPs.

“We can’t stress enough the importance of implementing 911 in a coordinated and standardized approach,” he said.

Hixson said i2 is preliminary to the next-generation standard, which is likely to be published in the first quarter of 2006.

VOIP represents a significant improvement among other technologies, he said.

“Wireless was sort of like a [propeller-powered] plane in terms of speed,” he said. “VOIP is like an SR-71 Blackbird [jet]. It really moves along at a much faster cycle in terms of service and implementation.”

Source: FCW.com

FCC chief backs Net phone taxes

By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: December 14, 2005, 2:09 PM PST

WASHINGTON—Imposing new taxes on a wider swath of Internet phone users is likely to be one of the Federal Communications Commission's top priorities next year, Chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday.

The policy at issue is the thorny question of which phone service providers are forced to contribute to the Universal Service Fund, a multibillion-dollar pool of money that's used to subsidize telecommunications services in rural and other high-cost areas, schools and libraries. The mammoth fund—$4.7 billion was distributed during the first nine months of this year--has been beset by charges of mismanagement and fraud during its seven-year history.

Right now, long-distance, wireless, pay-phone and telephone services are required to contribute a fixed percentage of their revenues to the fund, which they do by tacking additional fees onto their customers' bills.

But it still remains unclear how those taxes apply to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. Some of those companies—particularly larger ones—already contribute to the fund, either directly or via the telephone companies whose wires they use to provide their services. Vonage, which has more than a million subscribers, imposes a "regulatory recovery fee" of $1.50 on each customer phone number.

But without a mandate in place, government regulators and politicians say they fear that as technology like VoIP becomes more widespread as a traditional telephone replacement, the fund will shrink.

"We need to move to collection for the Universal Service Fund that is technology-neutral," Martin said in a wide-ranging luncheon question-and-answer session here hosted by Comptel, a trade association representing communications service providers.

Martin did not say whether he wanted the Universal Service Fund to be expanded to VoIP systems like Skype or voice-enabled instant messaging that do not rely on telephone numbers. If those services prove to be increasingly popular, the fund could dwindle beyond its current billions-a-year figure—a prospect sure to alarm librarians and other interest groups that benefit from the government largesse and will lobby to maintain it.

Martin said he supported a "numbers-based approach," wherein taxes would be levied on all phone numbers, regardless of what kind of technology does the calling.

"I think telephone numbers are a good, easy mechanism to begin to address those issues," he said.

Congress is expected to mull its own changes to universal service reform next year. One draft rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act calls on the FCC to determine whether VoIP providers should have to contribute.

And just before Thanksgiving, two U.S. congressmen released draft legislation that proposes an even broader approach than that advanced by Martin: levying the new fees on any provider that uses telephone numbers or IP addresses to supply voice communication services.

Martin said the FCC would welcome more explicit direction from the legislators in that and other policy areas, noting that "the commission is really inherently a creature of Congress."

Source: c|net News.com

	Just in time for Christmas presents—for the whole family. Wireless Messaging T-Shirt Click here to order. It has been reported that wearing this T-Shirt cures feeblemindedness, envy, impure thoughts, and a multiplicity of other ailments. Results may vary.

Lest we forget . . . I have included the Wikipedia encyclopedia definition of Christmas below. While some may be switching over to "holiday tree" I prefer to say "Christmas tree" because—for me anyway—it is still a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's OK to say "Merry Christmas!"

With best regards,	Brad Dye Wireless Messaging Consultant P.O. Box 266 Fairfield, IL 62837 USA
	Skype:	braddye		WIRELESS MESSAGING
	Telephone/Fax:	618-842-3892
	E–mail:	brad@braddye.com
	Web:	Consulting page  MAY I HELP YOU?
Christmas From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. According to the Christian gospels, Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem, where she and her husband Joseph had traveled to register in the Roman census. Christians believe that Jesus's birth, or nativity, fulfills the prophecies of Judaism that a messiah would come, from the house of David, to redeem the world from sin and bridge the separation between God and mankind. The precise chronology of Jesus' birth and death as well as the historicity of Jesus are still debated. In predominantly Christian countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year, and it is also celebrated as a secular holiday in many countries with small Christian populations. It is largely characterized by exchanging gifts within families, and by gifts brought by Father Christmas or Santa Claus, a big jolly man with a white beard, or other folk figures. Local and regional Christmas traditions are still rich and varied, despite the widespread influence of American and British Christmas motifs disseminated through literature, television and other media. The word Christmas is a contraction of Christ's Mass, derived from the Old English Cristes mæsse and referring to the religious ceremony of mass. It is often abbreviated Xmas, probably because X or Xt have often been used as a contraction for Christ. The English letter X resembles the Greek letter Χ (chi), the first letter of Christ in Greek (Χριστóς transliterated as [Christos]). Crimbo is an informal synonym used in British English. Xmas is pronounced the same as Christmas, but most people just say X-Mas.
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