December 2006 Archives

Yes, I do believe it's worth a moment to pause and reflect on what Al Shugart (founder of Seagate) and his invention of the hard drive meant to the whole world of gadgets.

Obviously, a key component in the rise of the PC, but look what it spawned with hard drives of various sizes, shapes and technologies residing in Oh! so many gadgets that we know and love today -- from MP3 players to cell phones to digital cameras to ... and the list goes on and on ...

Nicknamed Maverick, Spin Doctor, Computer Pioneer and the Disk Drive King by industry journalists, he was renowned for his unconventional thinking and straightforward manner.

Check out another tribute here.

With video games going more and more mainstream -- and with plenty of demographically prime mid-20s players -- it should come as no surprise that TV viewership honcho Nielsen is planning a service to gauge who's playing games.

Next year, Nielsen Media Research will launch its GamePlay Metrics service, which will collect ratings for video games. The numbers should help add greater credibility to the developing in-game ad market, which is forecast to reach $730 million by 2010, according to The Yankee Group.

That's a lot of quarters ...

 

Today Kapanga did the beta launch for Kapanga Mobile Edition. According to their release, a 30-day trial beta can be downloaded for free from Kapanga Softphone's website (http://www.kapanga.net). Once installed, Kapanga Mobile users can establish simultaneous voice and video communications through a software PBX or VoIP provider using the mobile device's 802.11 WiFI connection. Kapanga Mobile can also communicate directly to another SIP client device. Supported codecs include G.711, G.729 and AMR for voice and H.263, H.263+ and H.264 for video.

"We believe the future is in mobility", said Martin Cadirola, President/VP Business Development of Ecotronics Ventures LLC. "We are now launching a public beta after a year of successful field tests with large OEM clients. Our strategy is to become part of the family of solutions available to Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Triple Play players in the VoIP industry and Kapanga Mobile will be one of our key offerings in 2007", he added.

Kapanga Mobile Beta on certain devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 (Smartphone and Pocket PC editions) namely, the Qtek 9100, Cingular 8125 and T-Mobile MDA among other smartphones, and the Dell Axim X51v Pocket PC PDA. Support for other devices is planned for 2007.

Seems like a pretty neat app. The H.264 video is pretty cool. I wonder if it interoperates with SightSpeed, which I believe also supports H.264. Maybe I'll ask Peter or Andy... I'd like to check Kapanga out myself whenever I find the time. Tis the Christmas Season for sure, the busiest time of year (as well as the happiest season of all).

Remember when video eyewear looked like huge black things right out of a 1950's horror movie? You know what I mean -- really large, really noticeable and really strange.

(Who would wear these things?)

Now we are finally starting to see the introduction of video eyewear that is almost three times lighter. And while it stills looks a bit outer spacey, it's a heck of a lot less noticeble.

You might even say it's a bit like designer sunglasses, but with a strong hint of geek added to the mix.

However, many gadgeteers don't know about the existence of such video eyewear and their various uses. Moreover, even when those interested are aware of the product, it's not easy to choose the right one due to the difficulty in correctly assessing all of the product specifications.

(That holds true for any gadget.)

Ideally, before purchasing a pair, try them on and do a live test run.

Seeing is believing.

The new generation video eyewear has a number of other important advantages aside from less weight:

• Virtual screen has increased in size -- almost 4.5 feet at a distance of 6 feet
• VGA resolution is higher than any home analog TV can provide
• More mobile video content
• Mobile telephones with a TV-out function, such as the new Nokia N93

With all of this in mind, the relaxView 4.0 weighs less than 3 ounces and includes simple adjustments of the nose support to optimize comfort levels. Another advantage is that the smaller size let's you see your "real" reality by focusing either above and below the video screen. (Sort of like bi-focals.)

Price: Approx. $595 (direct)

Calling all gamers (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)!

www.relaxview.eu

 

Everybody wants to rule the world ...

(Tears for Fears, anyone? But wasn't "Mr. Roboto" a Styx song?)

Anyway, looking beyond Microsoft, Bill Gates is now discussing converging technology trends that he believes will make robots a nearly ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives in the not-too-distant future, just like he viewed PCs 30 years ago.

(All this in the January issue of Scientific American!)

To help robot developers achieve this vision, Microsoft is releasing a new product called Microsoft Robotics Studio. A Windows-based development environment for creating robotic software, Microsoft Robotics Studio will help solve one of the most difficult challenges that the robotics industry faces today -- the lack of a common development platform that makes it easier to create robotic applications for varied hardware platforms.

Now let's see where that is going to lead us ...

If you want more, check out the Microsoft press release here.

According to TMCNet.com Skype today announced that it is offering U.S. and Canadian consumers the new Skype Unlimited Calling plan, a paid annual subscription service that allows registered users to make 12 months of unlimited SkypeOut calls to any phone within the U.S. and Canada. This is the first time that Skype is making an annual subscription calling plan available.

The Skype Unlimited Calling plan is available for a flat rate of $29.95 per year. People who sign up for the new plan before January 31, 2007 will receive a special discounted introductory rate of $14.95 per year - 50 percent off the regular price. Sounds like a sweet deal, right? Wrong!

The new pricing plan follows Skype's free SkypeOut promotion in which calls within the US and Canada are free until December 31, 2006. Thus, Skype users that got used to free SkypeOut calls to U.S. and Canadian numbers will be in for a bit of a surprise come January 1st. Ok, maybe not "surprised" since this was a limited promotion, but still perhaps a bit disappointed.

Also, customers who purchase the new Skype Unlimited Calling plan before January 31, 2007 will get a discounted pricing of $14.95, as well as a bonus offer of 100 minutes of SkypeOut credit for making international calls and over $50 in discount coupons for purchasing Skype-certified hardware products.

Does Skype's move from "free" U.S./Canada calling open the door for a competitor to offer free calling and take some of Skype's market share? Certainly companies like Jajah, Raketu, and others already offer free calling. What do you think?

MyTVPal.com is the world's first 1080P HD streaming Video on Demand (VOD) and IPTV service for PC Player and IPTV receiver set top box (STB) clients.

(How about that description!)

The service starts with more than 700 free IPTV channels from more than 70 countries, including Standard Definition and HD channels to any broadband user with 1.5 Mb/sec speed or higher.

A wide range of VOD titles will be offered for a low monthly fee in the months to come with new TV channels and VOD titles being added each month. User-uploaded content and DVR features will be available as a software upgrade for PC and STB clients next year.

MyTVPal.com is targeting 10 million users over the next 5 years and is currently making its PC Player available for a free trial for those that register at www.MyTVPal.com.

(That's a good deal.)

A scratched DVD can certainly leave you frustrated, especially if it's one of your favorite movies, but at least the DVD can be replaced. Now imagine the scratched DVD is a home video of your most cherished family memories and you have no backup copy. This is pretty bad. Now imagine the scratched DVD is your wedding video, you then try the backup DVD and the backup DVD also fails with sector errors. Both of these wedding DVDs are the originals provided by the professional videographer. Oh for the love of humanity!

I did have my own 3rd backup copy of our wedding which worked, but this was the "beta" version and not the finalized version which had more footage. I discovered the sector errors on the wedding DVDs when I attempted to watch the video and the DVD player choked on the bad sectors. "If my wife finds out that our wedding DVDs are screwed up and I didn't keep a digital copy on my hard drive, I'm a dead man," I thought to myself. I actually had the wedding DVD on my hard drive, but it was taking up 4GB of space and I was running out of room. I figured I had 2 copies of the wedding DVD, so why take up valuable hard disk space? So the wedding ISO image was deleted. Word to the wise - megabytes cost pennies, so buy another hard disk rather than trust burned DVDs.

A DVD-ROM drive or DVD player utilizes a laser beam to read the metal layer. This laser beam crosses the plastic layer and reads the metal layer. If the plastic layer is scratched, the beam will be unable to pass through it, resulting in a read error. In other words, the data to be read are still on the DVD, the trouble lies in the layer of plastic refracting the laser beam. Since the DVD's contents are still there, a scratched DVD can be recovered by polishing its surface. But I wasn't about to start messing with the physical disc itself just yet, since once you do, there is no turning back.

Thus, I proceeded to try and rip the wedding DVDs to my hard disk to see if I could re-burn them. First I tried DVDFab Decrypter, a free ripping utility that can ignore sector errors while ripping. It also removes all DVD protections (CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying, though my wedding DVD wasn't copy-protected. After about 8 hours of ripping the DVD it finally finished (takes longer due to sector errors), I was finally able to at least rip whatever content was still available. I played the DVD image from my hard drive and I noticed that parts of the wedding video were messed up. Frustrated that I was missing portions of the wedding video, I thought perhaps if I tried my secondary (slave) DVD-ROM drive and another piece of software called ISOBuster, I might be able to read these bad sectors. I rarely use the secondary DVD drive since it isn't a burner, so its laser might be more "fresh" than the primary DVD drive.

After several hours, ISOBuster was able to rip the DVD, but it too had to skip some bad sectors. I was able to recover about 95% of the DVD, but when it comes to your wedding DVD, you want 100%. Who knows what that missing 5% contained? It could have been a priceless moment in our wedding. Undaunted, I tried to find a utility that can rip a DVD image to a hard drive, skipping bad sectors and marking the sectors it couldn't read so you can try and re-rip the DVD on another DVD drive to try and read these bad sectors. I also had 2 identical copies, so in theory, I could rip the 1st DVD to an image, then run this utility again to read the "missing gaps" from the 2nd DVD. The odds that both DVDs had bad sectors in the same location were pretty small. Now if only such a utility existed...

But wait!!! It does exist. After some creative Googling, I came across a German DVD utility called h2cdimage that purports to do exactly what I was looking for. It can rip a DVD, mark the bad sectors, remember which sectors were read with an accompanying "flag" file, then let you try to read the bad sectors from another DVD drive (or using another identical DVD disk). Woohoo! Excited, but still not sure this was going to work, I proceeded to download the software. In my case, I had two DVD drives to try on the same PC. However, if you have a network you can put the ISO image and flag files into a shared folder and then use multiple DVD drives on the network to try and recover the DVD disc. What's nice about the software is that you can interrupt it with Ctrl-C and then continue whenever you want. I should point out that Read errors are often a thermal problem or a problem with the drive itself. Often opening then closing the drive or putting the disk in the freezer could help rescue some sectors.

In any event, I ran the h2cdimage utility as follows:
c:\h2cdimage\\h2cdimage.exe 1:0:0 dvdiso -i
c:\h2cdimage\h2cdimage.exe 1:1:0 dvdiso

Note:
0:0:0 is primary master
0:1:0 is primary slave
1:0:0 is secondary master
1:1:0 is secondary slave

The first command above creates the dvdiso image filename due to the -i parameter and it uses the Primary Master. The second command reads from the Secondary Master and fills in any gaps it can by attempting to read just the bad sectors that the Primary Master could not read. Unfortunately, the software is written in German, so the results of each command returned the results in German, thus, I couldn't initially determine if a portion or all of the bad sectors were read. So I headed over to AltaVista Bablefish translation and copy/pasted the German text and converted it to English. The first time it ran it told me that 95% of the sectors were read. The second time it ran, it told me that 100% of my sectors were successfully read and I now had a 100% working wedding DVD. Great Scott! This software is the greatest thing since I got my first home video gaming system (Atari 2600).

Words can't express the relief I felt when I was able to successfully restore my scratched wedding DVD. I still can't believe my wedding DVDs failed in the first place. They are "burned" copies and not professionally "pressed" DVDs. Pressed DVDs are supposed to last decades. However, I have read that the die in burned DVDs can sometimes only last 2-3 years, especially for "cheap" DVD media. Apparently, this is the case with my wedding DVDs since they are only 3 years old. Wish I knew that 3 years ago or I would have had my wedding video professionally pressed

Soon after I recovered my DVD I decided to write about my experience and in my research I came across another DVD recovery software, called ISOPuzzle, that is based on the same concept as the German h2cdimage software. Only in this case, it is coded in English, and instead of a command-line it has a GUI. According to some forum posts I read, the author of ISOPuzzle is familiar with h2cdimage and he compared them by saying, "This one - I hope - is more user friendly because of it's GUI, it's 'GiveUp' and it's 'shutdown' function and it takes the filenames from the disk automatically (which could be a useful feature late at night). I also tried to find a faster an more efficient retry strategy with pausing or spinning up the drive after some read errors." I tried ISOPuzzle and it certainly seems like a more powerful version of the h2cdimage.exe utility, with some logging features, shutdown features, and more. I like how the log window shows how many reads and failures it makes on each pass.
 
Here's a screenshot of it running on my PC:


Here are some other suggestions I found on the Internet for fixing a scratched DVD you may find useful.
1) Use a yellow highlight marker and draw it over the scratched area. Careful, dry tips can scratch the disc.
2) Sprayable "silicone oil" - sold in Europe as "cockpit spray". I read it has a good affinity to the hydrophobic plastic material and a similar refractional index, which is the point!
Similarly, silicon spray will work. It should look like a mirror finish, but if you use too much the disc will be unreadable. Try spraying a tiny bit on and rubbing it over the surface with paper towel - you'll see it 'hide' the scratches as you rub. If you put too much on, it comes off pretty easily with eye glasses cleaner or other mild glass cleaning agent.
3) Toothpaste, with its abrasive particles can work their way into the scratches. Use a small pointer to rub it into the scratches to bring them closer to the surface and more even with the rest of the disc. Just make sure to clean off the disc when done. You don't want toothpaste flying around your DVD drive.
4) Try cooling the disc. If that doesn't work, try heating it. This trick will often help you get some more sectors read.
5) Some have had success with car wax or car polish. Worth a shot if all else fails.

I hope you find this info useful.

One of the pains of most current ATA devices is that you lock you into a specific vendor by password-protecting the firmware. So even though the ATA is SIP-based, you can only use it with the VoIP provider you initially chose. If you ever want to switch, you're left with an ATA brick. Even if the ATA isn't locked, unless you are a VoIP geek and now how to configure SIP settings, you might be a bit daunted to try and switch providers and leverage your existing ATA investment.

Fortunately, some ATA manufacturers have seen the light. For example, Zoom has an interesting online wizard utility that helps you figure out the settings for your SIP provider and it will automatically configure their VoIP Freedom Model 5800 ATA device for you. It simply asks you to pick one of dozens of VoIP service providers and then it asks your Zoom ATA's MAC address, which it then auto-configures. It's too bad Vonage doesn't lock their ATAs. I have a Cisco ATA-186 formerly provisioned by Vonage sitting in my garage right now.

In addition, Zoom told TMC something interesting: "Zoom releasing the product is important. We currently sell DSL modems in all Staples, CompUSA, Fry's and Micro Center stores in the U.S. We also have retail penetration in international markets. Zoom has significant retail presence and literally decades of experience at retail. Vonage has muddled the VoIP hardware market in the U.S. and UK retail markets, with heavy slotting fees creating a very artificial model. That will continue in the UK and US as long as Vonage follows their current course. In the markets where the slotting fees are not available, we think VoIP Freedom will be the ascendant model."

In any event, check out the news for yourself which hits the wires tomorrow.

Zoom Introduces VoIP Freedom

Low-cost product lets users choose from dozens of VoIP services

Zoom Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOOM) has begun shipping the Model 5800 Zoom VoIP Freedom, a revolutionary product that lets a user choose from dozens of VoIP service providers with an easy Web-based Chooser utility. Most VoIP services lock a user into their service with inflexible hardware. Zoom VoIP Freedom maximizes customer choice by letting the customer review and choose the service best suited to his or her needs, and then automatically configure the Zoom VoIP Freedom device to work with the selected service.

The Chooser includes VoIP services from the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with Web-based menus in languages that include English, Spanish, German, and Vietnamese. Once a customer finds an attractive service, selecting that service automatically configures the Zoom VoIP Freedom device. Changing the service is just as easy, so the customer maintains freedom of choice.

Zoom VoIP Freedom lets customers use their favorite phones. A customer can plug a normal phone into the VoIP Freedom's Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), and then make or receive calls using that phone. A customer can even plug in a cordless base station, so that the customer can make and receive Internet phone calls with a cordless phone.

VoIP Freedom's Web-based Chooser currently allows selection from a list of 25 VoIP service providers. Zoom invites service providers supporting the industry-standard SIP protocol to register their service for use with the VoIP Freedom ATA at www.zoom.com/partners/itsp . There is no charge for registration.

Zoom VoIP Freedom customers can decide whether to retain conventional landline telephone service along with their VoIP phone service. If they do, the ATA lets them easily make and receive calls through either their VoIP or landline service. Two different calls can take place simultaneously over the VoIP and landline telephone services, providing a "second phone line" capability. Emergency calls, such as 911 calls in the US, are automatically sent over the landline phone service to help assure proper emergency response to the correct location. In the event of a power loss that disables VoIP calling, the VoIP Freedom ATA automatically connects ATA-connected telephones to the landline phone service.

"Two-thirds of broadband connections worldwide are provided by ADSL", said Frank Manning, President and CEO of Zoom Technologies. "Nearly every ADSL line has landline phone service available at little or no additional cost. Zoom VoIP Freedom makes use of that landline phone service to properly handle emergency and alarm calls and to provide powerful enhanced features. For instance, someone with a mobile "cell" phone can easily escape the high cost of calls to other countries. That person just calls the Zoom VoIP Freedom device, which provides VoIP dialtone and bridges the mobile phone user to VoIP. The VoIP Freedom device can even use caller ID to decide which calls it answers; so it answers calls from the appropriate family or business members, but does not interfere with other incoming calls."

Zoom VoIP Freedom has an estimated retail price of $59. Anyone can explore the wide range of VoIP services already available with Zoom VoIP Freedom by going to www.zoom.com/chooser

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned ... hey, not that Nero. I'm thinking about Nero because Roxio is alway bumping heads with that company when it comes to more than all-in-one suites that offer CD and DVD authoring, burning, photo, video and music applications.

Roxio's Easy Media Creator 9 is a substantial upgrade to that company's comprehensive suite, including more than 100 new features and trend-anticipating capabilities such as mobile entertainment support, Blu-ray Disc (BD) recording, Microsoft Windows Vista compatibility and HD video creation tools.

Easy Media Creator 9 comes at a time when more people are interested in working with digital content and even creating their own content. (Like me!) With portable media devices, music players, low-cost video cameras and still cameras, people have more content than ever to work with and more platforms to show and distribute it. Creator 9 is part of a new generation of tools that fosters creativity and enjoyment.

Let's take a look under the hood at just some of the capabilities.

Within Creator 9's Media Manager, the application used for quickly organizing and accessing photos, music, video files and multi-media projects, you can now upload selected content to multimedia mobile phones through a USB or Bluetooth connection. Photos and video clips can be sent to phones to create mobile digital albums -- or music segments can be uploaded as personalized ringtones.

Creator 9 also allows you to record to both single and dual-layer BD discs and archive as much as 50 GB of personal data – or 12,500 music tracks, 50,000 photos or four hours of raw HD video. (Now, that's data!)

Creator 9 also enables you to span large projects across multiple BD discs and secure content through disc encryption. In addition, Creator 9's Drag-to-Disc packet writing software offers the convenience and efficiency of dragging and dropping files to a Blu-ray Disc in the same way these files would be placed on a hard disk or flash drive.

New music enhancements include Audio Capture Widget, which is a desktop application that enables you to easily record any audio playing on your computer, such as Internet radio programming. The Capture Widget includes a unique Pre-Roll feature that can automatically record and store audio even before the record button is selected. Acting like a Personal Video Recorder for audio entertainment, the Pre-Roll feature ensures that you never miss a moment.

Easy Media Creator 9 includes a rich selection of authoring and video editing tools that offer the perfect blend of automation and hands-on control. For creating professional-quality videos, you can use the HD-enabled, 32-track timeline editor with advanced video overlay tools and fine-tune editing controls.

The enhanced CineMagic 2 takes raw video footage and a favorite song and automatically generates a polished production complete with professionally-stylized video introductions, special effects and appropriate transitions that are all synchronized to the tempo of the selected music.

Creator 9 also includes an enhanced version of MyDVD, which gives you the power to generate blockbuster-style DVDs with professionally designed menu styles that include matching scene menus – coordinated with the CineMagic styles.

You can choose to enter the MyDVD Assistant, which will guide you quickly through the production of a personalized DVD, or enter the advanced editor and take complete creative control. Advanced features include motion menus, menu-to-menu transitions and animated buttons.

There's a lot more, too!!

MSRP: $99.99 (Roxio owners and owners of select competitive products may be eligible for special upgrade offers.)

www.roxio.com

While the iPod and iTunes are inevitably linked (they're both Apple products, right? and they are linked on the Apple web site), interesting New York Times article today on the ratio between the number of songs downloaded from iTunes as compared to the number of iPods sold.

Anyone care to play the guessing game?

What's your answer to the question? Is it:

A: 1 to 1

B: 5 to 1

C: 10 to 1

D: 20 to 1

Talkster today announced that their closed/invite-only beta is now open the public. Talkster essentially lets you place free calls from your regular cell phone to instant messaging clients such as MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and Gizmo Project. What's nice about Talkster is you don't have to have a telephone number to reach someone - you simply use their buddy (contact) name. Further, Talkster is convenient because it consolidates 3 popular communications services people and allows you to leverage them to make VoIP calls to any of these services using your mobile phone. In fact, during this now public beta, calls to instant messaging services are free. I talked with James Wanless, president and chief operating officer of Talkster and asked him why Yahoo! Messenger was notably absent since I knew they were SIP-based. James mentioned that Yahoo has put in several security layers to block anyone from connecting to their network. Wasn't Yahoo blocking Trillian and GAIM years ago? They're still playing these stupid games?

I asked about Skype and James acknowledged the importance of Skype and he pointed out that they have a desktop application that would allow you to view the presence of Skype users and make/receive calls. However, he stated, "In terms of providing a service, having to have people run clients on their PC and have to rely on the fact that the PC is always on and hasn't leaked memory or crashed  - that's not a good thing. It's really a bad thing. There are some services that have been looking at ways of replicating the desktop environment into a server and run many many Skype clients together, but that still is a really clunky non-scalable way of building out a service. Skype is a company who already has a SIP layer which sits on top of the Skype network. You know when you have SkypeIn and they give you a number, that is coming from a VoIP provider, but they've just chosen not to open it up right now."

I also asked about a native SIP client so there is no need for a callback or dialing into a local gateway and James mentioned that their network can support it today and stated  they he was looking forward to the day when these phones support open standards such as SIP and have the added processing horsepower to handle SIP calls. But he also pointed out "Yes it (SIP calls) works when it works, however there are a lot of issues with it disconnecting and not reconnecting."

There are two ways that calls can be connected using Talkster. Most services call you back, however Talkster can also dial a local gateway on an outbound call and then connect you to the far end. This local gateway method is important in Europe where the EU is in the process of regulating the cost of roaming by the Summer of 2007. This will enable a person that is traveling outside their home country to make a call to a local gateway while traveling and the roaming costs will reduced. When someone picks up the phone and goes to another country using Talkster's you can save substantially on the cost of the call. James wrote an interesting blog post on how the new rules will impact VoIP arbitrage.



From the web interface (a fat-client software application will be available next year) you can view the presence for any of your contacts. When you view the details for any of your contacts you have the option to call using four methods, including IM, mobile, PSTN, and VoIP. No doubt comparisons will be made between Talkster and Jajah, Talkplus, or Rebtel. One obvious difference is that Talkster supports both call back and dial-in methods, but another important differentiator is that Talkster is focused on the enterprise market, while the other solutions focus on the consumer market or special verticals such as dating using a second phone number.

The concept of using a person's buddy name instead of their phone number is not new. However, I do like how Talkster consolidates various popular IM platforms. This got me thinking what the future may hold. Right now Talkster, Jajah, Rebtel, Talkplus, and all the other interesting Voice 2.0 providers leverage the existing carrier's infrastructure both for the PSTN and the IP connectivity. The carriers have been slow to adopt Voice 2.0 or provide cool applications to their customers and instead have left it to upstarts. For instance, I can envision AT&T/SBC, which is already a huge Yahoo partner offering similar Voice 2.0 solutions, but in a more integrated fashion, since AT&T/SBC owns their own network. SBC offers packages of local and long distance, Internet, wireless phone and satellite TV (through DISH Network). Add in the fact that they are a Yahoo partner, and I can envision some intriguing Voice 2.0 possibilities. Then again, since when do carriers offer a nice integrated and feature-rich product without charging you an arm and a leg for it.

Back in 1998, TMC had a publication called CTI Magazine which covered the convergence of the Computer and Telephony - or Computer Telephony Integration. At the time, Richard "Zippy" Grigonis worked for Harry Newton's publication CT Magazine, TMC's arch-rival publication. Zippy was like my Newman (Seinfeld's arch-rival). Similar to what I do for TMC Labs, he wrote some reviews and did a good job writing technical articles on CT/CTI.

At one point Zippy called me and said that CT Magazine was interested in hiring me away from TMC. In fact, I recall the conversation went something like this, "Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy." I responded, "I'll never join you. I will never join the dark side!" CTI Magazine eventually became Communications Solutions and then was folded into Internet Telephony Magazine. CT Magazine on the other hand was renamed to Communications Convergence and soon after died.

Zippy, an expert in telecom & VoIP was no longer "zipping" out good quality content for one of our main competitors. I no longer had to worry about a competitor cranking out good detailed & technical articles. Soon after, Zippy went to work for a new VoIP magazine startup called VON Magazine, a direct competitor to Internet Telephony Magazine, and reprised his role as Newman. Jerry Seinfeld: Newman!!


Now Zippy was once again working for one of TMC's main competitors and was once again my counterpart on the opposing side. However, as of a few months ago, Zippy left VON Magazine joined the TMC team and order was restored to the galaxy. Now Jerry and Newman are co-workers - our friendly rivalry was no more.

But all this talk about the history of CTI/CT and how CTI evolved into VoIP reminded me of an interesting article I wrote back in 1998. One of CT Magazine's editors or perhaps Harry Newton himself wrote an article claiming that "CT" (computer telephony) was not the same thing as "CTI". I argued in a follow-up article that people were using the terms CT and CTI interchangeably. In fact, in that 1998 article I wrote a humorous poem - a take off of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in my Cc: column to illustrate the point.

Although CTI has had its hey-day, and VoIP technology has essentially superseded CTI/CT, I thought my humorous poem was still applicable since CTI Expo is now IT Expo and it's an enjoyable read this holiday season. CT/CTI were essentially the precurors to the ultimate convergence - voice onto the IP network. Enjoy everyone and Merry Christmas!

How The Grinch Stole The I In CTI
With apologies to T.G., the good doctor.

Every I
Down in CTI-ville
Liked CTI a lot…

But the Grinch,
Who lived just south of CTI-ville,
Did NOT!

The Grinch hated the I in CTI. The whole I in CTI he despised
Now, please don't ask, "Why?" Many have speculated and surmised.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on right.

It could be, perhaps, that he simply lacked foresight.
But I think now that he had carved out his niche before the nation,
He feared the calls for the realization of integration.


I've heard many theories, why the Grinch hated the I,
Rumor upon rumor across the Internet would fly.
Could it, could it be that his friend named I betrayed him,
Or was it some nasty little troll that did persuade him,
That wherever there is CT, there is no need for integration?
While others theorized that it was the Grinch on that Grassy Knoll,
Calling out for all to hear, CTI is only call control.
And while more conspiracies than who shot Kennedy abounded,
The Grinch cried out, "I hate CTI!" and on a table his fist he pounded.

But most think it was greed that made the Grinch hate the I in CTI,
He was always thinking of himself, always alone when night grew nigh,
For the Grinch was always saying "What about me?" "What about I?"
And so the Grinch thought he had exclusive rights to the letter I.

He could not, would not be integrated into society,
That was something upon which all in CTI-ville would agree,
So one final theory is that the Grinch hated integration,
Because he lived alone, so far removed from civilization.

But whatever the reason, we knew the Grinch hated that word, integration,
And so he set about his mean plan to forever stop its implementation.
He stood there on the eve of CTI Expo, hating all the I's,
Staring down from his hill at them through his tunnel-visioned beady eyes.
And all the while sunlit San Jose shone, for CTI Expo was in town,
The only emotion to be seen on Grinch's face was his big grouchy frown.
From far away you could not see his seething anger, just his one large protruding tooth,
For he knew all the I's down in CTI-ville were busy preparing each exhibit booth.

"And they're preparing for a great show," he snarled with a sneer,
"Tomorrow is CTI Expo, the time is growing near."
The Grinch was upset, he fumed, he was really bumming,
"I must find a way to stop CTI Expo from coming!"

And all the CTI men and women would wake bright and early,
They'd rush to the show, creating a great hurly-burley.
They'd hustle in to see the most exciting CTI stuff,
But the Grinch was pretty cocky, as he sat there on his bluff,
"I must stop the I in CTI, this CTI show will I stop.
"I say to you, 'enough is enough,' without the I's it will surely flop."

"Oh that show floor will be bustling with people wanting to buy,
"People pushing and shoving to see the latest in CTI.
"Oh that show floor madness, everyone so busy, it drives me mad,
"Don't they know this CTI thing is nothing, it's just a fad.

"Pushing and pushing, just to get a peek at the latest in CTI.
Oh how they'll jostle en masse, crowding vendors at each booth, to learn and to buy,
Don't these people realize I'm doing it for them, that CTI is evil,
Especially that I in CTI. Just one letter behind all this upheaval."

The noise would rise up slowly from below, down at CTI Expo
Every CTI man would cheer and clap at the close of the show.
And then the Grich would shrink from the words he had come to fear most of all!
"Another resounding success," they'd say, "We had an absolute ball!"

They'd clap! And they'd clap!
And they'd clap! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
And the more he thought of what the I in CTI would bring,
The more the Grinch thought, "I must put a stop to this whole I thing."
Then he thought, "I know just what I will do: The I, I will eschew.
"I'll tell people the I in CTI is evil, the term CT will do."

And so the night before the show's opening,
Through San Jose he went interloping.
The Grinch snuck into the convention center, evil on his mind,
"I'll blot out all the I's," he said, "each and every one I'll find!"

A paintbrush in one hand, and a bucket of paint in the other,
Grinch to himself thought, "This sure is going to take awhile… Oh brother!"
For he saw hundreds of CTI signs everywhere he looked,
Every last scrap, every inch of floor space must surely be booked.
The Grinch painted all night long, painting over the I's, one by one,
It was early next morning before the Grinch was finally done.

But he missed one gigantic CTI sign
There was one he simply did not find,
It could be seen for miles and miles, just outside the convention hall,
Hanging down outside the building, it could be seen by one and all.

After climbing up a ladder with his final target in sight,
The Grinch's heart swelled up with the most sinister of all delights.
But before he could paint over the I, hanging on the outside wall,
Someone yelled at him, "What are you doing?" causing him to slip and fall.

Off of the ladder he slipped, and down to the pavement he headed most gravely,
When to the rescue came this mysterious figure who caught him safely.
Thankful at having escaped such a sad end,
"My God," exclaimed Grinch, "an angel did Thee send!"

"Not quite," said the mysterious figure, "Why don't you recognize me, Mr. Grinch?"
"No I don't," replied the Grinch. "Are you some sprite or fairy from near Ballynahinch?"
"It's me CTI guy!" Now the Grinch was quite confused how his mortal enemy could save him. "Why did you save me, CTI guy - you could have let me break every limb?"

He continued, "You know I hate CTI, especially that I."
CTI Guy responded,
"Oh Mr. Grinch, how misinformed you are, don't be so despondent,
"Don't you know you can make millions in CTI?
"There is so much technology they need to buy.
"Dataquest claims by 2000, a six-billion-dollar industry it will be.
"So many success stories, Mr. Grinch, just open your eyes and you will see!
"I've got a great idea for a product, I'm willing to give you a piece of the pie.
"Join me and become part of the industry known around the world as CTI."

And the Grinch lit up with dollar signs in his eyes, his eyes on the prize,
He shouted, "Did I say CTI was evil? Someone has fed me lies!
"Let's together, you and I, CTI Guy,
"Celebrate CTI products that everyone buys!"

And so our story concludes happily, and with a little luck,
Mr. Grinch will see the I in each CTI product,
Then joy will reign wide as it does among CTI VARs
So, like Mr. Grinch, just stick with the I and become a CTI star!

Signate is a provider of Asterisk-based solutions that apparently is going through major problems. I've been getting lots of emails asking if I know what is going on with them, so I did some research. Word through the grapevine is that they are about to go belly-up - but this is still unconfirmed. Their former CEO left and when I tried to reach their new CEO Paul Mahler and I got an automated voice message telling me to email Paul@paulmahler.com. It also mentioned that if I left a voicemail he would never get it. His work email also bounces back so I am guessing he is no longer with the company.

I then tried to reach an operator and was immediately put into voicemail. I talked with Joe Fabiano, one of our sales reps, and Joe emailed my pal Garrett Smith (SmithonVoIP) since Garrett's VoIPSupply.com company is a distributor of Signate. If anyone would know, a distributor would. Well, Garrett did some research of his sources and he told Joe, "According to my sources they are toast."

Is this a case of the Asterisk ecosystem growing too fast, with too many players trying to get into the Asterisk game? With free Asterisk offerings such as AsteriskNOW, trixbox, and inexpensive solutions from Fonality, Digium, and other providers - some hosted - some CPE, it will be interesting to see who survives and who doesn't. Considering Asterisk is an open-source solution, adding enough value and margin to Asterisk is a tricky business to remain profitable, especially when you consider that open-source advocates tend be very thrifty (cheap?) when it comes to paying for software.

Yes, the year of bad batteries continues!

Today, we have news from the New York Times that Sanyo (no, not Sony) is recalling more than 1 million handset batteries that could overheat.

All of this can make you kinda nervous  about anything with batteries as a power source -- and how many gadgets today don't rely on batteries?

Maybe time to rethink the holiday gift list?

Nah.