May 2007 Archives

We've been down this road before with claims of a Vonage workaround to get past the Verizon patent issue, only to have our hopes dashed. But now word comes today late yesterday from Bloomberg that Vonage has a patent workaround that could save its VoIP service from being shutdown over the Verizon patent litigation. Apparently its new technology can be installed through software downloads and shouldn't be costly to deploy, according to Jeffrey Citron, CEO of Vonage.

"We will begin rolling these workarounds out shortly, hopefully in the next few weeks, and we believe they will work," Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Citron said on a conference call today.

I would really like to know how a software download helps bypass the Verizon patents and why didn't Vonage think of this before? And what precisely is Vonage installing on customer's ATA (analog telephone adaptor) that supercedes Verizon patents? I have to review the Verizon patents, but I believe one of them involves mapping an IP address to a phone number. Currently, Vonage does this in a centralized fashion using their centralized servers. So when someone calls a Vonage customer, the Vonage servers map the PSTN call to the customer's IP address and then route the call over IP to the customer's ATA device. It is highly plausible that the Verizon patent specifically mentions this query process as being performed in a "centralized" fashion. So it is my hypothesis that Vonage is getting around the patent issue by moving from a centralized query method to a decentralized query method.

There are two possibilities for this. One, Vonage could be downloading to each ATA some sort of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology that moves the query database down to each subscriber's ATA device. This is a bit risky from a security and reliability standpoint and I don't know if this could scale to millions of users. Though Skype is an example of a large-scale fairly reliable P2P network. I'm also not sure each ATA's firmware could handle this type of upgrade. Vonage literally has dozens of different kinds of ATAs or phone devices, such as a the Cisco ATA-186 to stand-alone Vonage phones such as the Uniden Vonage phone, as well as all-in-one wireless routers with Vonage capabilities such as the Linksys WRTP54G.

The second option is that Vonage is downloading to each ATA the ability to query a third-party ENUM server, such as ones run by Stealth Communications, Verisign, and NetNumbers. ENUM, is a standard protocol for resolving phone numbers into IP addresses. It was originally developed to link consumers' phone numbers to various IP services, but the protocol is being used extensively to interconnect carriers’ VoIP networks. No doubt Verizon uses the technology to interconnect with other carriers. Verizon would be hard pressed to sue Vonage if Vonage switched to a 100% ENUM environment considering all the carriers use ENUM.

Whether it is P2P or ENUM to skirt the Verizon patent issue is still a hypothesis on my part and I apologize for not researching Verizon's patents in more detail since I've been working on some other projects. There could be a third option which escapes me at the moment. I'll try and do some more research and post what I find here. Stay tuned...

Beginning today, Xbox LIVE, the most popular online gaming network now works with Windows Live Messenger on the Xbox 360. We knew this was coming, but this is exciting news nonetheless. Now you can VoIP or IM your XBox gamer buddies as well as your non-gaming Windows Live Messenger buddies. I wonder if Yahoo! Messenger users will be able to communicate as well, since Microsoft and Yahoo have an IM federation pact. That would give XBox users access to over 350 million user accounts. Still waiting for them to interoperate with VoIP though. In any event, Windows Live Messenger will be installed on XBox 360s as part of the Xbox 360 Spring Update, which will connect people across Xbox 360 consoles, Windows PCs and Windows Mobile devices. According to the Microsoft employees' Gamerscoreblog:

Xbox LIVE members will be able to socialize with people on their unified friends list, including their contacts from the more than 260 million Windows Live Messengers across the world. With Instant Messenger, Xbox LIVE members will have the ability to:

• Chat via instant messenger with up to 20 contacts in a single conversation, and have up to six different conversations at the same time with people on PCs, mobile phones and other Xbox 360 consoles.
• Instant message while playing games, listening to music or watching movies or TV shows downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
• View at a glance if friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags and add them to a unified friends list.
• Utilize the virtual keyboard on the Xbox 360 to text chat or connect a USB keyboard to the console.  Launching later this summer, the Xbox 360 text-input device accessory will connect directly to the controller to support instant messaging.
• The ability to fast-forward, pause and rewind video as it is being downloaded on Xbox LIVE Marketplace
• Owners can now set their consoles to turn off after downloading content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace to help save energy, and download speeds have been increased.

The Xbox 360 Spring Update is free to all Xbox LIVE members. For more information, check out http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm.

The Windows Vista team has been working very closely with Apple to fix a problem whereby iPod's data becomes corrupt when you eject your iPod. Wow, Microsoft working closely with their arch rival to fix a bug? Considering Microsoft Zune's lackluster sales, you'd think Microsoft would not be so quick to fix this problem. Imagine if millions of Apple iPods start becoming corrupted. Precious MP3 music files and video files gone forever (if you don't have them backed up on your PC). Think of the user revolt and public relations backlash against Apple. Then again, Apple is pretty much immune against just about any sort of user revolt or attacks. Microsoft would be blamed even if it wasn't their fault, so it probably behooved Microsoft to get this fixed quickly. I have to say, Microsoft has taken a much "nicer" tact toward their competitors than they did in the 1990s where Microsoft used just about every trick they could to get people to use their products. Netscape and Real Networks could fill you in on that.

In any case, according to the Windows Vista Team site, "we're publishing at the Microsoft Download Center a recommended final compatibility update for users of Windows Vista and the Apple iPod; this same update will be automatically available via Windows Update on Tuesday 22 May.  The release is for users worldwide and works with the latest version of Apple iTunes to correct an issue that caused some iPods to become corrupted when ejecting them using Windows Explorer or the "Safely Remove Hardware" function in the System Tray.

The good news is that this problem only applies to Windows Vista according to the Microsoft KB article - "Consider the following scenario. You have an Apple iPod that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer through a USB connection. Then, you disconnect the iPod from the computer. In this scenario, the data on the iPod may become corrupted."

Download iPod patch

Rich Tehrani went down to Huntsville, Alabama to visit with Mr. Asterisk/Digium/Guru/God/Great One himself, Mark Spencer, along with some other folks from Digium. He captured some great photos of his trip, including Mark and Danny Windham, the CEO of Digium holding the "infamous" Linux penguin. These photos are taken from Rich's blog entry posted today.


Of course, I've got one up on Rich, since I got to hold the infamous penguin myself when I visited back in 2005, so nah!



What's this???? Mark holding a Microsoft XBox with a Digum logo on it? Microsoft, the arch-rival of Linux? Has Mark betrayed us and gone Microsoftie?


No worries - I'm sure Mark hacked his XBox and is running some homebrew software on it. I bet he even installed Linux or maybe even he installed Asterisk on his Microsoft XBox. Now that would be cool! Not as cool as Asterisk running on AppleTV mind you, but cool nonetheless!

According to Rich, Digium is building their new offices, as seen by these next 2 pictures. WOW! They must be growing like gangbusters since when I visited them in 2005 they just moved into that new building. Now just 2 years later and they've moving again. Look at the size of this place. Congrats to the Digium team!





What's this? I see Mark Spencer and TMC's Dave Rodriguez riding in Mark's cool roadster vehicle? I didn't get to ride this vehicle when I went to Alabama.  Would have been fun to compare this ride with my Viper. My news source tells me that Mark gets plenty of tickets with this vehicle, as do I, so we're in good company. You owe me a ride Mark!

I've written about SPIT or "Spam over Internet Telephony" a few times in the past. Well, now I have a story to share that Dan York shared with me about SPIT leveraging DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks to bring down a competitor.

The story begins...
ZZZ Telemarketing (not a real name) is locked in a heated fight with their bitter rival, YYY Telemarketing (also not a real name), to win a very large lead generation contract with Customer X. Customer X has decided to run a test pitting the two companies against each other for a week to see who can generate the most leads. The ZZZ CEO has said to his staff that it is “do or die” for the company. If they fail to win the contract, they will have to shut down - they need to do “whatever it takes” to win over YYY. A ZZZ staffer discovers that part of why YYY has consistently underbid them is because they are using SIP trunks to reduce their PSTN connection costs. But the staffer also discovers that YYY is using very cheap voice service providers who run over the public Internet with no security. continued...

Let me give you the Cliff Notes on the rest of the story.
- Bots on tens of thousands of zombie PCs are instructed to start slamming the SIP servers at YYY and its providers with enormous numbers of bogus SIP messages
- This "VoIP botnet" attacks and paralyzes YYY’s SIP server preventing calls from going though.
- Company ZZZ wins the contract since Company YYY was unable to make calls.

Fact or fiction?

According to Dan York, an expert on VoIP security, it's FACT. I didn't include the full story that appears on Dan's website, since I didn't want to steal his thunder, but go read it. It's an excellent and thought-provoking read.

Just as scary, Dan told me, "The sample code actually works well... I ran it on a Windows PC connected out to an IRC chat room and then issued commands."

Welcome to the era of "SPIT and Spam DDoS" to bring down your competitors!

Here's an exclusive sneak peek of a TMC Labs review of the SIP-based pbxnsip CS 410 IP-PBX appliance, which is scheduled for review within Internet Telephony Magazine. As hinted at within the review, the trend towards low-cost IP-PBX appliances <$1000 is quite apparent, which is good news for the SMB market looking for a cost-effective phone system replacement that has advanced VoIP functionality. Enjoy the review! And be sure to check out my full review of the pbxnsip standalone software, which runs on Windows and Linux.

pbxnsip 1600 Osgood St Bldg 20 Suite 223 North Andover MA 01845 Ph: 978-746-2777 Web site: http://www.pbxnsip.com Price: $999

RATINGS (0–5) Installation: 5 Documentation: 4.5 Features: 4.75 GUI: 4.75 Overall: A

TMC Labs got an exclusive peek at pbxnsip's CS 410 IP-PBX "all-in-one" appliance, which features a “mini” Session Border Controller(SBC) , built-in 4 analog (FXO) PSTN ports, voicemail & auto attendant, as well as support for up to 10 SIP-based IP stations (hardphones, softphones) and supports up to 10 simultaneous calls. The CS 410 actually includes all available features from the other pbxnsip PBX editions which run on Windows or Linux boxes. This includes standard features like voicemail, auto attendant or conferencing, but also advanced features like call barge in and call forking to cell phones. Like other pbxnsip versions, the CS 410 also supports advanced routing functions such as paging groups, hunt groups, and agent groups.

The pbxnsip appliance reminds us of two other popular Linux-based IP-PBX appliances in the VoIP industry, namely Digium's Asterisk Appliance and Fonality's trixbox appliance. Just comparing the appliances based on price alone, the trixbox appliance (4 FXO ports) is $1499, and the Asterisk Appliance (4 FXS, 2 FXO) is $2195, while the CS 410 comes in at just $999. Of course, each of the appliances has features the other two don't, so it really depends on what features you need. Even with the lowest cost, the CS 410 doesn't skimp on features and unlike the other two, it features integration with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 UM.

Targeting small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), the CS 410 is a solid-state appliance device with no moving parts, no fans, which results in very minimal heat to ensure long-term reliability of this phone system. In fact, we noticed very minimal heat when we touched the unit's plastic casing. TMC Labs took the CS 410 for a spin and were very impressed with its easy plug-and-play installation and ease-to-use web admin.

In lieu of a hard drive, the CS 410 appliance sports 256MB of Flash and 128MB of RAM running Debian Linux. This only gives you about 1 hour of voicemail storage, however, you can easily get around this 1 hour voicemail storage limit by leveraging Microsoft's Unified Messaging capabilities in Exchange 2007. The CS 410 can send all the voicemail to the Exchange 2007 Server. The CS 410 is unique in the industry in that it is the first IP-PBX appliance to directly integrate with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 leveraging SIP. The latest version of Microsoft's Exchange Server features built-in unified messaging capabilities, including voicemail storage/playback, text-to-speech reading of email/calendar, and more. Used in conjunction with each other, you can achieve a rich user experience. For example, we were able to dial into the CS 410 and then enter our extension, followed by * and then our PIN to logon to our personal mailbox. From that point we could playback voicemail, but also email using text-to-speech (TTS). Similarly, we also had remote access to our calendar which also leverages TTS.

We setup some Exchange 2007 extensions and configured the CS 410 to transfer these extensions to the Exchange Server (screenshot above). We simply had to configure a new trunk on the CS 410, set the trunk to “SIP Gateway” ,and point the IP address to connect to the Exchange Server. On the CS 410 we also had to define a new dial plan for routing incoming calls to the Exchange Server's built-in SIP gateway, which would then accept the call and play the extension's outgoing message. On the Exchange Server side we also had to create a new dial plan and configure the new Unified Messaging IP gateway (the CS 410's IP address or FQDN). Finally, we had to active Unified Messaging for each Exchange mailbox and assign an extension number and a PIN. Voila! We now had fully integrated unified messaging for each of the CS 410 extensions that we created.

Some other nice features of the CS 410 include paging and music on hold audio connectors. In fact, the system can also send RTP multicast traffic and use multicast-enabled devices for office audio paging, such as the snom 370 IP phone. Another security-related feature is full support for TLS and SRTP to secure the voice. pbxnsip mentioned to TMC Labs that they are thinking about adding a built-in firewall/router so they could support TOS tagging to ensure QoS for time-sensitive voice packets. Since the unit runs on Linux, they stated it wouldn't be too hard to add that functionality. The CS 410 also supports a built-in conference bridge, which is great for SMBs looking to save money by avoiding paid hosted conferencing services.

Another feature worth noticing is the agent waiting queues. You can record up to ten announcements and have the music on hold mix in these announcements. The queues also feature agent recovery time, call pickup from queue, call escalation, day/night mode, holidays, and web-based queue status display.

Other features:
- Plug and Play of popular IP phones including Polycom, snom, Aastra, and Cisco/Linksys.
- Web admin as well as SSH access.
- SNMP support.
- Voicemail triggers call to cell phone
- ENUM
- DID
- Dial by name
- Message Waiting Indication (MWI) support
- Call park, call pickup, call retrieve
- Last call return, redial
- Caller-ID blocking
- CDR export through SOAP interface
- Call Supervision: Call barge in, Training mode, Listen in

Conclusion
We really liked the Exchange 2007 voicemail integration. Even without Exchange Server 2007 integration, you can still have the system send you voicemail notification via email. We liked how this appliance integrates the analog telephone lines within the appliance without the need for a separate PC with telephony cards or a separate PSTN gateway. The dial plans are especially powerful and easy to configure. The dial plans allow SMBs to take advantage of VoIP’s low per-minute costs, while also giving SMBs the option to utilize their existing phone lines. For instance, local calls can be terminated through the FXO lines while international calls can be sent to an ITSP using VoIP. It's important to note that it has built-in session border controller functionality for connecting with remote offices. The CS 410 which supports 10 IP endpoints can also be easily upgraded to a CS 425 (simply by changing the license key), which supports 25 registrations and 15 concurrent calls. Overall, TMC Labs was quite impressed with pbxnsip's CS 410, which was easy to configure, a breeze to administer, and sports more features than IP-PBXs that cost four times as much.

NextAlarm.com on Tuesday will announce at The Cable Show support for two-way voice monitoring that not only works over the PSTN, it is also compatible with VoIP.  Two-way monitoring means it's possible for two-way voice to/from the dispatcher. Essentially when an alarm system sends a signal, two-way voice enables the system to patch in a dispatcher who can listen in on the home through microphones in the keypads and/or speak through the keypads and pass information on to authorities.  In addition, anyone at the site can easily speak with the dispatcher without having to reach for a telephone, which is certainly beneficial in the event of a medical emergency.

Many VoIP systems which compress the voice also compress the DTMF (touch tone) digits making alarm systems incompatible with broadband VoIP services. NextAlarm's two-way voice service is one of only perhaps a couple providers that offer alarm systems that are compatible with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and digital phone service.  (I've written about NextAlarm's VoIP compatibility, which you can check out here.)

NextAlarm's patented Alarm Broadband Network (ABN) allows customers to enjoy the benefits and cost savings of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service, while still allowing their alarm systems to accurately communicate with monitoring centers.  ABN operates over a standard cable adapter or DSL connection and works with any alarm system capable of sending signals using the contact ID format.  In addition, ABN requires no changes to a subscriber's existing alarm system.  All a subscriber has to do is simply plug the ABN adapter into their home network and plug their alarm panel into the adapter rather than into a regular phone line.

"We feel this two-way voice feature is going to be very popular with our subscribers," said Alex Elliot, NextAlarm's founder and CEO.  "The feature doesn't require a phone line and is available at a very reasonable price."

Greg Galitzine has an interesting post about a Pew report. According to Greg, "The Pew Internet and American Life Project have released the results of a survey entitled A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. The survey was designed to classify Americans into different groups of technology users so as to determine which groups were most inclined to take advantage of information technology as might be presented under the umbrella of Web 2.0.


You can even take the Pew Internet Quiz. to see which category you call under. Apparently, Greg is classified as an "Omnivore". I haven't taken the quiz myself, but after my Twitter bashing last week, my Web 2.0 score probably took a beating (assuming one of the questions asks if I use Twitter).

Late last week, I wrote about how I went into Best Buy and ran into an AT&T U-Verse sales rep pitching their U-Verse product. Well, over the weekend, I received an email from this same sales rep that I met at Best Buy when he used the contact form on my blog. During our brief in-person chat, I never told him who I was, so to say I was surprised to hear from him is an understatement. I mean after all, the Internet is a vast place, and as much as my ego hates to admit it, my blog is but a grain of sand in the vastness of the Internet U-verse - I mean Universe .

Well, apparently this AT&T rep does read my blog, since one of his follow-up emails said to me, "I bookmarked your site a while ago, well before I started promoting U-Verse. It's indexed well and great content!"

Wow, what a small world! I know several AT&T employees read my blog, but certainly didn’t expect my casual visit to Norwalk’s Best Buy and talking to one of many AT&T sales reps would result in him finding my article online.

Ron, the AT&T rep first wrote me to explain a slight inaccuracy in my post last week, which I'll share here:

I believe I was the guy at Best Buy Norwalk who spoke with you about U-Verse.

There is a chance you spoke with someone else, but your photo on your blog reminds me that I spoke with or saw you in Best Buy.

You are incorrect for quoting that [I] offered you 1 free year of AT&T Dish Network if you signed up for U-Verse now, even if U-Verse is not available for your area. This seems like a misunderstanding. We just do not offer that incentive. We are currently offering 1 free year of the AT&T Dish Network either alone or along with several legacy DSL choices and the top of the line All Distance phone package at an VERY attractive, indefinite price for those who cannot get AT&T U-Verse yet. $50, $60 or $70 per month.

However, I may have offered that if you sign up for AT&T Dish Network, you can easily swing into U-Verse when it's available without incurring any early termination fees before the required agreement expires. The free year of AT&T Dish Network requires an 18 month agreement. Alternately, one could choose any other AT&T Dish Network higher package for the same contract length and deduct $34.99 per month for one year!
(Current promotion)

My pitch would be to immediately switch to the AT&T Dish Network service within the first 20 seconds of finding that you are in an area where U-Verse is not yet available, and rightly so because it's a great alternative and a fantastic price!

It was a pleasure meeting you and I enjoyed our conversation at Best Buy!

So, according to Ron, the free DISH Network offer is good, provided you are in an area where U-Verse is available but not yet on your street or road yet. Thus, the free DISH Network offer has to be in an area where U-Verse is planned to be installed shortly. I was a little unclear on this on my original post. Additionally, customers who sign up for AT&T Dish, get 1 year of HD for FREE, free installation and more depending on the package. For instance, if you choose a plan higher, with more channels than the base AT100 package, you can deduct $34.99 per month for 1 year! Sweet package!

U-Verse is coming to my town soon, but I just signed up for DirecTV a few months ago, so I'm sure I'm locked into a 1-year contract with exorbitant cancellation fees or else I'd consider switching.

Related articles worth a look:
AT&T U-Verse offering 1 Year FREE of DISH Network
AT&T Lightspeed ahead! (NOT!)
AT&T U-verse Doomed?

According to the WallStreet Journal, T-Mobile plans on offering cellphones that can roam on Wi-Fi hotspots, with the goal of improving indoor reception and help customers save on monthly cellular minutes. When a user comes in range of a WiFi hotspot, a connected call is automatically transferred onto the Wi-Fi network, with no noticeable change for the user. This of course requires a dual-mode handset. The service, known as Hotspot at Home, has been in trial in Seattle. Phones for Hotspot@Home, supporting both Wi-Fi and GSM cellular, include both Nokia and Samsung. Of course, Wi-Fi is a well-known battery killer, even when a device isn’t in use, although T-Mobile claims they've licked the battery problem.

But here's the kicker - it's an additional $20/month to use the service, with a $5 additional monthly fee to add another family member. Who the heck wants to pay that much money just for the ability to be able to seemlessly roam to a WiFi hotspot and save on using your monthly wireless bucket of minutes? You'd have to be a very heavy cellphone user. In fact, you'd have to go above your allotment of monthly minutes often for this to make much sense. But if you do go above your monthly minutes and are paying the overage charges (high per-minute rates) you should be changing your plan anyway to include more bucket of minutes. In any event, Hotspot@Home is set to go nationwide in June. I think T-Moblile needs to make a more compelling case for this feature before they start charging such ridiculous pricing. Just MHO.

Rich Tehrani points out a cool $10,000 developer contest being announced at TMC's Communications Developer show. Rich says, "The contest will be formerly announced next week at the Communications Developer Conference and you have until July 31^st, 2007 to submit your application. The winner will be announced at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo this September in Los Angeles, CA." The contest is sponsored by Voxbone, but you can read more about it here, on Rich's blog.

Unfortunately, I won't be at the Communications Developer show, since Rich (my boss in case you didn't know) is keeping me busy testing products for TMC Labs. In fact, I just finished up a review of a cool Linux-based VoIP appliance. No, it's not the Digium's Asterisk Appliance and no, it's not Fonality's trixbox appliance either. It's scheduled to be published in the next issue of Internet Telephony Magazine, but perhaps I'll post a "sneak peek" on my blog today or tomorrow.

I will of course be at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, since I attend every single ITEXPO. As Dana Carvey would famously say in his President George Bush Sr. impression "Nope. Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent to miss ITEXPO!" 

I'm not eligible for the $10,000 grand anyway, but at least I'll get to see who wins when I attend the Los Angeles ITEXPO show in September, which will be here before you know it.

Microsoft's PR rep recently emailed me with the following:

Subject: Tom , Didn't Realize You Had 'Gone Hollywood'

I just heard a commercial for a new blockbuster movie coming out this spring called "Breaking VoIP Barriers" — Produced by Microsoft Unified Communications — and it's starring someone named Tom !!

Have you 'gone Hollywood' in your spare time... without telling any of us?!?!

To hear the movie trailer (it's really funny), click: http://www.voipwithoutbarriers.com/receiver.php?key=7A142D47B1AE16193E6CDDCEB73D8CAB

Yes, it's true - Microsoft and I have been secretly working on a movie production and I have the starring role. Microsoft approached me to star in "Breaking VoIP barriers" since I've written about Microsoft Communications Server 2007 several times in the past.  At first, I declined, but then Microsoft used one of my favorite movie lines of all time - from Young Guns -  "C'mon Tom. Yoohoo. I'll make you famous!" Me? Famous? Cool! So anyway, I accepted the movie role.


I am posting here an exclusive sneak preview of the movie. When you click the link you will hear a quite recognizable voice speaking - Don LaFontaine, also known as That Announcer Guy. According to Wiki, Don is famous for recording over 5,000 movie trailers, television commercials, network promotions, and video game trailers. His signature voice is ominous and has often been nicknamed "The King of Movie Trailers", "Mr. Voice," "Thunder Throat" or "The Voice of God".

Here's a transcript of the movie trailer in That Announcer Guy's voice:

melodramtic music in background.
 "In a land far far away called Connecticut there is only one engineer you need to know - Tom. By day he solves problems, by night he sings karaoke. But right now an email he never expected will reveal a unified communication power he never imagined. This Spring on his quest for voice over IP prominence - in his battle to streamline communications - one man with the click of a mouse and a simple download will unleash the ultimate tool - Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. From award winning director, Bill Gates, comes the year's nominated performance that's breaking voip barriers - Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Tom, to experience the blockbuster Download of the Year and be the superhero of your organization, boldly go to microsoft.com/UC and let the VoIP adventure begin. Microsoft.com/UC. This motion picture is rated I for all Intelligent lifeforms."
melodramtic music ends



HA! Good stuff. As funny as the text reads, you have to check out the site to get the full effect of the "The King of Movie Trailers" speaking. Good stuff!

Update: Looks like the link to my movie trailer (just audio) no longer works, so i will share it here. Click to download.

Finally, here's the movie poster promoting my film with Microsoft: (p.s. you too can star in this movie - since it's in pre-production. You can even have the famous movie preview guy speak your name, title, and more)

Packet8 has a planned maintenance tonight between 11pm and 3am. Talk about last minute notice! And it's a potential 4 hour outage? Ouch! Here's the email I received.

Dear Virtual Office Subscriber, We will be performing scheduled routine maintenance on Packet8 Virtual Office service on Friday 05/04/07 between the hours of 11:00PM and 3:00AM Pacific Standard Time. During this maintenance window, Virtual Office customers may experience intermittent service interruptions affecting dial tone or the ability to make and receive calls. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience. Sincerely, Packet8 Customer Service

China, not content to copy/rip-off electronics designs, router designs,  and is one of the larger counterfeit purveyors of software, has decided to ripoff Disney with a "clone" of Disneyland. Are you kidding me? Feel free to rip off all the electronics designs you want, but don't be copying an American icon. Some Japanese bloggers posted some photos, which you can check out here: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678
(site appears down at the moment)

Park officials deny their characters having anything to do with the official characters, claiming everything in the park is an "original design". The site even shows a photo of what looks exactly like Minnie Mouse, but the park owners claim "is not a mouse" but instead "a cat with very large ears."

Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave.



Source: Engadget

Yesterday, I was in Best Buy (Norwalk, CT store) walking past the TV section when I was approached by a guy standing by a table. He handed me some AT&T U-Verse literature and proceeded to pitch me on signing up for U-Verse. I mentioned that I didn't live in Norwalk, he asked where I did live and then he told me they didn't offer U-Verse in my area yet.

However, he stated that AT&T is offering a nice incentive - 1 year FREE of DISH Network service if I signed up now for AT&T U-Verse.

Correction - 5/7/07: The offer is good provided you are in an area where U-Verse is available but not yet on your street or road yet. Thus, the free DISH Network offer has to be in an area where U-Verse is planned to be installed shortly. It's also an 18 minimum month contract - so it's 12 months free, 6 months paid before you can cancel. This is still a sweet deal, available to perhaps millions of customers within the current U-verse coverage area.

I said, "Well, what if in one year from now you still aren't offering U-Verse in my neighborhood? Do I still get free DISH Network service?" He didn't really give a good answer to the question, but did say that AT&T is going gangbusters to rollout U-Verse in Fairfield County, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation and also very densly populated. So I asked "So you're focusing on deploying in Norwalk and Stamford first is my guess, correct?" He responded, "That's exactly right. We're targetting Norwalk and Stamford first, but plan on quickly moving to other towns." He briefly mentioned New York - not sure if he meant NYC, but that would put AT&T in Verizon's home turf with their FiOS service.

I expressed my skepticism that AT&T would reach their goal of 18 million homes back in March. However, when compared to the $20 billion Verizon is spending to rollout their FiOS fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service, AT&T's fiber/copper-hybrid rollout is a bargain. AT&T can more quickly recoup their investment faster than Verizon since Verizon has to dig fiber all the way to the home where as AT&T only needs to draw fiber to the neighborhood and then use copper the rest of the way to the home.

As I wrote previously, this hybrid fiber/copper approach gives AT&T a 20Mbps+ link to customers, enough to offer high-speed Internet, VoIP, and the company's IPTV service. The problem is getting towns to grant public right of ways for these massive 52B boxes, which hold DSLAMS, batteries, and cooling gear in rugged, weatherproof cases. Many towns objected or wanted AT&T to sign video franchise agreements. Lawsuits were filed, including cable companies that want to classify U-verse service as a "cable service" to force AT&T to abide by the same build-out rules, which has drastically affected U-verse deployment . In addition, the IPTV service uses proprietary set-top boxes from Microsoft, which had their own share of problems - mostly software related.

What is interesting is that today I read about Microsoft and Yahoo! are in talks for a buyout or merger to better complete with Google. So let me get this straight. AT&T and DISH Network have a deal. AT&T and Yahoo already have a close partnership deal with AT&T Yahoo DSL. AT&T is using Microsoft's software for their U-Verse set-top box.

Let me summarize:
AT&T - DISH Network
AT&T - Yahoo
AT&T - Microsoft
and now potentially
Microsoft - Yahoo

Which makes it a AT&T,  DISH Network, Microsoft, Yahoo conglomerate! That just might be big enough to take on Google. Might need to add in Walmart. Maybe Home Depot as well (just to make it a fair fight).

The brochure he gave me has 4 TV pricing models, titled U100 (110 channels), U200 (190 channels, 34 digital music channels), U300 (240 channels, 31 premium movie channels), and U400 (300 channels, 49 premium movie channels). For the data portion they have Express (up to 1.5Mbps), Pro (up to 3.0Mbps), and Elite (up to 6.0Mbps). Prices range from $59/month to $129/month. At $59/month for 110 channels and 1.5Mbps bandwidth is a steal! The brochure states you can record up to 4 programs at the same time. Wow! My DirecTV TiVO receiver can only do 2 programs simultaneously.

I asked the U-Verse rep about getting voice using U-Verse and he said you could bundle a traditional AT&T landline. I couldn't believe this, so I checked AT&T's website and this link says:

"Can I order phone service with AT&T U-verse?"
Answer: Please visit http://www.att.com for information on classic landline services and calling features.

What the hell is that? I'm getting high-speed internet from AT&T and yet I still need a separate landline? I could of course separately sign-up for AT&T CallVantage, a VoIP service, and use it over the broadband connection, but then I lose any sort of bundling or pricing reductions. This is ridiculous and once again reiterates my rant about AT&T and all the carriers doing a terrible job of bundling their services.

In any event, I'm not sure if  the 1 year free DISH Network service is being offered nationwide, but if you're interested in FREE DISH Network service, it can hurt to head over to your local Best Buy and see if an AT&T U-verse rep is there. Or you can call 877-MY-UVERSE.