Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: gutierre@calvin.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Gutierrez) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: "Columbo" TV Episode, 6/10/90. Message-ID: <8841@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 11 Jun 90 01:58:51 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Robert Gutierrez Organization: NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center Lines: 67 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 426, Message 2 of 9 Hello, There was an episode of "Columbo" that was aired on 6/10/90 (Saturday) which starred Patrick McGoohan and Arthur Hill. It was about an attorney who killed a friend-turned-nemisis who was asking one too many favors. Why am I discussing TV shows in comp.dcom.telecom/TELECOM Digest? Well, in tracking down clues to the killer (McGoohan), Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo used and analyzed a number of TELECOM related items. First, the victim had faxed a letter to his wife, who was staying at a Hawaiian hotel. In asking the deceased's secretary when the fax was sent, the fax log was printed out to show time/date/pages, etc. Does anyone know which fax machine was used (out of curiosity?). More importantly, would there have been a way to forge a fax log, internally, in the machine. Is the "fact" that it is very hard to do a forgery of that type convincing enough to a judge to have the fax log admissable as evidence in a criminal case. Is there any precident pro or con? (ie: does LEXUS or Westlaw have such a subject in their database?). I don't get alt.fax (or alt.anything here), so this is the only other place I could think of asking. Second. Lt. Columbo was amazed by the amount of buttons on the phone of the victim's desk. As a matter of fact, so was I. I never saw so many buttons on a Merlin set before (or what I _thought_ was a Merlin). Columbo wanted to know if there was a way to see what the last call was made to (can you say: Last Number Redial?). After Columbo was (again) amazed by the latest TELECOM technology, the viewing public got to see that the telephone set was....an AT&T ISDN set! (a model 7352 or 7532 ?). Yes, we know ISDN isn't available to individuals, much less small businesses, but, is this what a typical ISDN set is going to look like (or at least an AT&T vision of an ISDN set)? I mean, it has more buttons than a Northern Telcom SL-1 Operator's Console! I would envision that a 'personal' ISDN set would be less intimidating ... or maybe not? Your views on this? Third (and last), Columbo was able to get the calling records of the victim the very next day (local telco records, it appears). The suspect was amazed on how fast he got those records, and again, so was I. I seem to remember discussion here on how hard it was obtaining telephone records (a court order and 10 levels of management were mentioned), but in the case where the records involved were a victim's (and a dead one's at that), is the telco more readily willing to make those records available to a police agency "in the intrest of justice", or some gobbledy-gook like that??? Thanks. Robert Gutierrez Office of Space Science and Applications, NASA Science Internet Project - Network Operations Center. Moffett Feild, California. "If cartoons were made for adults, they'd be shown during prime time." (The Simpsons [4/29/90]) [Moderator's Note: Actually, the time-stamp on FAX messages is not that hard to spoof. Whoever maintains the FAX machine (the 'key operator', as we are sometimes called) in their office controls the time clock inside the machine. Set it for whatever you like, as well as the sender's ID, which is also programmed very easily. Which makes me wonder, are the FAX ID messages now illegal in PA in the wake of the court's ruling? Maybe some FAX user doesn't want to risk having the recipient know who sent the message. PT]