Posted on No Comments on P2P: If you are going to share be smart

P2P: If you are going to share be smart

I just came across an article on Foxnews.com. An employee for a defense contractor installed a P2P program on their computer that by default shared all of the contents of their computer on the internet. Many programs (such as Kazaa and Limewire) do this. People do not realize that by doing this they are sharing everything on their computer. In this case the blue prints for Marine 1 were found on a computer in Iran. Most likely some one on Iran typed in some very sensative words that came up with files on this eployees computer.  If you have any of these dreadful programs on your computer go to search and type in tax, taxes, bank, sensative and some other wonderful key words. You will be surprised at what people out there share. Again if you are running any P2P programs that share your contents with the web be very careful on what you let the system share.

Would you want the world seeing all your private data ?

/D

Posted on No Comments on It’s all about service

It’s all about service

I was at a client today that wanted to know how to make money in the very competitive market of VoIP. He mentioned that it is hard to make money on minutes since there is a lot of fierce competition. I explained to him as I have explained to others that clients that are coming to you for the price per minute (generally speaking) are not worth it. If they get a rate of $0.015 per minute to the US from you today and some one else tomorrow will offer them $0.013 they will leave in a moment. It’s all about service. There are plenty of clients out there that are willing to pay for service. People don’t just need low rates but the need features (IVR’s, Call recording, Queues, real time statistics etc.). I tend to work with such people since they are willing to pay for the serivce and they wont nickle and dime you for everything. Know what your worth and sell yoru self accordingly. Never undermarket yourself.

Posted on No Comments on True Connectivity

True Connectivity

I drove down a bit ago to southern Israel. The highway cuts through the desert. Coming for the United States I did not expect to have any coverage in the middle of the desert. I was proven wrong.  Through out the the four hour trip I was connected on my laptop via my cellular card and I was on the web browsing @ 1.5 mbps with no issue. I was also making VOIP calls with no issues over G711U !!!  When will the US catch up ?

/D

Posted on No Comments on Some of the best start up’s were born in some ones basement

Some of the best start up’s were born in some ones basement

I have been looking around the internet and noticed that a lot of the “big boys” were started to solve problems that people have had or as a goof. For instance eBay was started because some one had a lot of stuff that he wanted to sell. Coming from a telecom background I have created several telephony apps to help myself with simple tasks. Others have been the results of bets.

Here in Israel the Exchange rate of the Shekel against other currencies (such as the Dollar, Euro) play a big role in a lot of peoples lives. A friend of mine that lives in Israel that gets paid in dollars likes knowing what his money is worth locally. We had a bet if I can have a hot line up under an hour that would tell people what the exchange rate was against the dollar. I got busy with asterisk + PHP + and some scripts. Within 45 minutes I had working number that gave the rate. I told a few people about it and now the line is getting lots of calls. Who knew ? You can call in and hear it (still didn’t have time to get professional recordings).

Call in to it and let me know what you think.

From the US: 646-335-0424

From Israel: 078-818-7400

/D

Posted on No Comments on How many IP devices are too many ?

How many IP devices are too many ?

Today I went out and bought myself a network switch because I ran out of ports. All the devices are in a range of 10 feet.

1) Dell Laptop on my desk.

2) Dell desktop under my desk

3) Snom 360

4) Sipura SPA-841

5) Samsung Q1

6) Roommates Laptop

7) WiFi Phone (Via WiFi so it doesn’t really count 🙁 )

This all runs off one power outlet which also has on it 1 router, 1 network switch, 2 fans, and 3 external hard drives (250 Gig, 500 Gig and 500 Gig), and five cell phones (three of mine and two of my room mate) . Is this enough ? What are you running ?

/D

Posted on 1 Comment on Jimmy Justice is the man

Jimmy Justice is the man

It is pretty much well known that police and other government officials do not always respect the law. If they park in a bus zone who will ticket then ? For this reason many park illegally, make illegal maneuvers etc. The game is now changing. There is a man out there who calls himself Jimmy Justice. He walks around Brooklyn and filming government workers violating all sorts of traffic laws. From illegal U-Turns to parking a bus lane so they can get their coffee. Don’t get me wrong I have the highest respect for New York’s finest however they should if not more than the average citizen should know better. They write the tickets. What kind of message are they showing ? Click here for some of his clips that are on YouTube . Rock on Jimmy and keep doing the great work that you are doung.

/D

Posted on No Comments on Goverments – Stick to what you are good at

Goverments – Stick to what you are good at

XM and Sirius are in the process of a merger. John Kerry said that he would like to see the new units have atleast 50 channels of HD radio (which isn’t even really HD it’s just digital). Does he realize he is asking that a company open them selves up and invite the competition right in ? It’s like saying that Honda must use advertise Toyota ? Would Honda go for that ? Of course not so why should XM and Sirius have to do it ? This makes me wonder if some one is paying him off or is helping him out in some way for this. Johnny boy – stick to what your good at (which is raising taxes and making our lives out). You are not a salesman. Stop making it harder for people to earn money !!!!!

/D

Posted on No Comments on Rant: We are people not crab

Rant: We are people not crab

I can’t understand how ISP’s are getting away with offering us the same features as they did yesterday and charge us more. My current ISP worked great for VOIP and recently started getting real bad. I called them up and explained my issue’s and they told me I would need the “gamers package” which was optimized for gamers who need a fast steady connection. A month ago it was working fine and now I must pay for “good internet”. I don’t get it. Treating your customers like S*** and expecting them to more to keep up the same level over service does not work out there. What did I do ? I simply switched ISP’s. So far things are working well. It’s a matter of time before my new ISP starts creating issues and I will be forced to move on or pay a premium price for the same lever of service I was receiving a short while earlier. Oh well it seems they are treating us like crab. They boil us down slowly so we don’t see it coming until it’s too late.

/D

Posted on No Comments on Thank you Mark Spencer

Thank you Mark Spencer

There are a lot of us out there that owe a big thanks to Mark Spencer (creator of Asterisk). Until Asterisk was released pretty much the only PBX’s out there that were legacy systems. Mark came along and opened a whole new market for both sellers and buyers. From a sellers point there are a lot more out there to offer and it is very easy to configure and maintain Asterisk (assuming that you know Asterisk 😉 ). All one needs is a good knowledge of Linux and you are off. From the end user’s point it is great as well. Gone are the days of paying $3,000.00 to have your system work with SIP. I had a client who told me that his system was “SIP Enabled”. We were trying to figure out how to connect to the system since there was nothing in there that pointed to SIP. He called his phone guy and was told to have SIP capabilities he would need to purchase a VOIP card for his PBX that would run him $3,000.00. With asterisk it’s just writing a few lines of code (OK some times more than a few). Gone are the days of paying extra for every feature. A while back I was in a company who purchased a PBX from 3Com. They went with them for the name. They spent a little over $45,0000.00. I could of done the same for them for about $2,500.00 (using good hardware). All that would have been required was some research on working with Asterisk. It amazes me that some people are still scared to use it because it is open source.

To sum it up I think many of us owe our jobs to Mark. He has done something great for many of us.

/D