It's times like this I wish I wasn't on the naughty list.
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December 2006 Archives
I am back at the Eden Roc today but only because all other gyms in the area are closed. The bar at the hotel has Starbucks coffee and the best bar staff around. The gym staff is hit or miss. Today I will miss again.
The weather was much better than expected but very humid. The bar mitzvah was perhaps the most extravagant party I have ever seen. It was quite amazing.
Surprisingly virtually all the stores in Miami Beach are open today - just not the gyms.
The lobby of this hotel is really nice as you can see from the photo.
I am very surprised at how light my email volume has been. I am sure it will be in full swing again tomorrow.
I was down here for Thanksgiving and South Beach was dead. Today it was quite busy. I am looking forward to going back down there later tonight.
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My wife is from Argentina and so is Dulce de Leche. If you don't know what that is you are missing out. It is like caramel but much better. Yesterday we ate very large quantities of dulce de leche desserts.
Today I pay for it. The treadmill is extra painful for some reason. I am late for the Bar Mitzvah which will no doubt entail more eating.
Oh and by the way the Eden Roc hotel charges $37.50 to use the gym. It is a great gym but not at that price. I much prefer Crunch which is cheaper and better.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And of course have an extraordinary Festivus.
Blogged via wireless handheld - on the treadmill!
I just learned of a major management shakeup at testing leader Spirent. I rarely see something like this happen -- a wholesale replacement of so many managers and executives. The last year or so has been quiet for this company from a PR and marketing standpoint and many people were wondering what was going on with the company. It would seem now according to this article the company may be broken up into pieces. The testing market has a bright future but it seems this past quarter may have been underwhelming for a few players in the industry.
There is nothing like a late sushi lunch. I hope everyone is
enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Happy Hanukah and Merry Chistmas to all.
So far the weather has been great. Not too hot or cold. Just a few clouds. Weather.com seems to predict some weather nastiness soon. Hopefuly the site is wrong.
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Tom Cross over at TECHtionary has come up with a new best practices series - VoIP Business and Sales/Marketing Strategy Tools For Getting-In & Staying-In the VoIP Business. The offering consists of multimedia best practices tutorials to help dealers, VARs, agent, resellers and manufacturers understand the issues critical to success in VoIP.
Here is the course outline:
The Top 10 Parts of IP in VoIP
1 - Voice to digital to packet transmission
2 - Optical Fiber Bandwidth
3 - Transmission Concepts - T-1 - PRI
4 - Integrated Access Services - Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation 5 - Introduction to Internet Protocol
6 - Back to basics - cabling
7 - TCP/IP and other Protocols & Layers
8 - Hardware Routers- IP, Switches-MAC & Protocols - H.228, H.323, MGCP & SIP
9 - Desktop "Softphones" and Toolbars
10 - IPBX and Hosted bringing it all together
I haven’t had a chance to try the tutorial but I know from experience Tom is one of the most knowledgeable guys in the business. The graphics on TECHtionary aren’t always the best but the content sure is great.
We had a great secret snowman/secret Santa gift exchange this afternoon. I got a gift certificate for Cosi a great restaurant chain with a location a stone's throw from TMC in Darien.
As you can see from this photo Rachel received a gift from someone with exceptional taste in wrapping paper. Very nice.
From there it was off to the TMC holiday party where we all had a great time. I unfortunately had to leave early as I am off to Miami for a Bar Mitzvah. My flight is delayed by about an hour but what can you do -- I am used to it.
I purchased a new Garmin GPS unit which arrived today and I hope to break in on the trip. At least now I have lots of time to read about it and see how it works.
--
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.26/594 - Release Date: 12/20/2006 3:54 PM
IMS Forum Meeting at ITEXPO Following up on the SIP trunking conference taking place at ITEXPO I wanted to bring everyone’s attention to the IMS Forum meeting also happening at the show. If you aren’t a member of the IMS Forum, you should consider joining if you are a service provider or a vendor to the IP communications market. Michael Khalilian and his team at the IMS Forum do a great job as spokespeople for the industry.
Details:
The IMS Forum January 2007 Meeting is being held on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
IMS Forum January 07 Meeting Information:
Meeting Registration
If you would like to attend the meeting please send an email with your contact information to Debbie Hetland
Meeting Logistics
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Time: 1pm - 4pm
Location: Broward County Convention Center - 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
Phone: (954) 765-5900
Meeting Room: 209-210
(Subject to change - Please check the front desk and reader board)
Agenda
State of the industry – IMS (Guest speaker industry analysts)
IMS Forum Plugfest review and future roadmap (Certification)
IMS Forum Technical Working Group update and roadmap
IMS Forum Media and Marketing update and initiatives
IMS Forum industry partnerships update and roadmap
IMS Forum Plugfest review and future roadmap (Certification)
IMS Forum Technical Working Group update and roadmap
IMS Forum Media and Marketing update and initiatives
IMS Forum industry partnerships update and roadmap
I have had an IBM laptop at home for a few years and its performance has deteriorated over the years. I haven’t installed much new software save antivirus, adware and spyware tools. Other than that I have upgraded the OS and kept up to date with patches, etc. Anyway the performance makes the computer virtually unusable and I have spent hours, defragging and doing everything else I can think of. Often the hard disk churns for no reason. Eventually I decided to try Registry Mechanic and you know what? This thing worked. The computer is much more speedy. It is not a rocketship but it is more usable anyway. It kept me from throwing the IBM into a wall which I guess makes it worth the money I spent on it.
Ingate received rave reviews from their SIP trunking session at the last ITEXPO in San iego. They are at it again and will hold a free conference titled “The SIP Trunking Series: Everything you Need to Know” at ITEXPO in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida next month.
Companies who will be participating in the education so far are:
Ericsson, ObjectWorld, Pingtel, ShoreTel, Sphere, BandTel, CBeyond and Levl3.
Here are the details:
Wednesday, January 24 – Professional Development Day
- Introduction to SIP Trunking and the Value Proposition
- The Service Provider Network
- Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture
Thursday, January 25 – Solutions Tracks - SIP Trunking in Latin America
- Case Study: Sterling Bank
- SIP Trunking Solutions
Friday, January 26 – Solutions Tracks - SIP Trunking Solutions
Attend one or all three days of SIP Trunking seminars.
WHERE:
Broward County Convention Center
Internet Telephony Conference & Expo
Room 114
For more information and a detailed schedule, visit www.ingate.com/SIP_Trunking_seminar.php
Pre-registration required.
Get more details on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
Skype is beginning to charge more for services or start to charge for services which were once free. Fist there was unlimited calling to the US and Canada for $15 and now there are connection fees being added.
This is great news for the IP communications space as it raises the bar for providing service a bit. It also shows Skype is feeling pressure to generate more revenue. Expect to see Skype look for new ways to generate large amounts of revenue from its user base.
This is great news for the IP communications space as it raises the bar for providing service a bit. It also shows Skype is feeling pressure to generate more revenue. Expect to see Skype look for new ways to generate large amounts of revenue from its user base.
MySpace is experimenting with the print medium through a partnership with UK style magazine Marmalade. Marmalade’s March issue will feature cover-to-cover MySpace content submitted by users, who can submit their work here by Jan. 26.
My take? This could be really big. It’s worth keeping an eye on this experiment.
Greg’s update on the FCC and cable competition is certainly worth a read. This FCC ruling is good news is for the phone companies as they will have a standard set of nationwide rules to adhere to instead of a hodgepodge of disparate ones.
AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Federal Relations, Bob Quinn, issued the following comments today:
“The FCC has wisely determined that the pace of video competition and broadband deployment should not be held hostage to the administration of a franchising process created for monopoly cable providers.
“We are heartened that the FCC, just as 9 states, has recognized that the existing local franchising process limits consumer choice and investments in broadband infrastructure. The FCC has taken steps towards streamlining the franchising process by establishing reasonable timeframes within which local franchising authorities administer their responsibilities
Until now I thought immaculate conception was only happening in religion and Star Wars. Now, the komodo dragon of all things has been shown to reproduce asexually. I would imagine this is huge news for the world of science and it also means the movie version of Godzilla finally makes sense.
Update:
The following has come to my attention. I am no religion expert and thanks to Joe Fabiano for pointing the following out.
The Immaculate Conception is often confused with the belief that Jesus was a virgin birth. However, the Immaculate Conception actually is the belief that upon Mary’s conception in her mother’s womb, God removed the stain of original sin… It actually has nothing to do with the belief that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus…
Ericsson is looking to compete more effectively against Alcatel Lucent by purchasing Redback Networks is an up and coming edge router player. The rapid growth in the M&A market is unprecedented these days and it seems the insatiable appetite to build larger and larger companies will never stop.
Although Redback is publicly traded and could have remained a public company, many private companies need to be acquired to bring liquidity back to their investors.
The IPO market is getting a bit better but until Sox regulations get less onerous, it may be a while before smaller companies look to the public markets as an alternative M&A.
