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Today, Dotcom-Monitor announced a new SIP monitoring tool to add to its portfolio of external monitoring services. It's similar to other web-based Monitoring-as-a-Service (MaaS) services which monitor the uptime of web servers and notify when a problem occurs. In this case, Dotcom-Monitor's SIP Monitoring service monitors on-premise or hosted IP-PBXs.

How's it work? Dotcom-Monitor's SIP monitoring service makes live intermittent SIP-based calls to VoIP devices, providing real-time monitoring, alerts, and performance reports regarding SIP component connectivity. When a problem is detected, the SIP monitoring notification feature sends an alert via phone, pager, email, or SMS. Basically ,it acts as a SIP end client, placing an actual telephone call to a specified number, and checking the results of that call.  The expected result of the call is setup as "Answer", "No Answer", "Busy", or an Error Condition (if there is an unexpected result).

According to their representative, "real-time connectivity status reports are provided via an intuitive online Dashboard interface offering sufficient detail to help pinpoint where the error condition is occurring. This reporting functionality also includes detailed historical reports and charts for managing VoIP systems and components, including Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance issues."

I'm going to talk to then next week to find out more. For now, check out the news release...

Dotcom-Monitor Enhances Unified Suite of Monitoring Services with SIP Monitoring for VoIP Systems
Easy-to-Use, Cost-Effective External Service Monitors and Analyzes SIP Systems or Infrastructure for Uptime and Performance

Minneapolis, Minn. − March 18, 2009 − Dotcom-Monitor, (www.Dotcom-Monitor.com), a leading provider of externally-hosted network monitoring services, today announced the addition of a cost-saving SIP monitoring service to the company's unified suite of monitoring capabilities. Today's announcement adds another critical tool to Dotcom-Monitor's portfolio of external monitoring services, which includes uptime and performance monitoring of websites, web applications, and Internet network infrastructure.

Dotcom-Monitor's new SIP monitoring service makes live periodic SIP-based calls to VoIP devices, providing real-time monitoring, alerts, and performance reports regarding SIP component connectivity. When a problem is detected, the SIP monitoring notification feature sends an alert via phone, pager, email, or SMS. Additionally, real-time connectivity status reports are provided via an intuitive online Dashboard interface offering sufficient detail to help pinpoint where the error condition is occurring. This reporting functionality also includes detailed historical reports and charts for managing VoIP systems and components, including Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance issues.

"Due to SLA requirements and hybrid VoIP traffic routes, it is important for VoIP monitoring to proactively mimic the end-user's perspective from external locations, rather than only relying on passive internal network analysis systems," said Vadim Mazo, founder and chief technical officer of Dotcom-Monitor. "Many organizations' VoIP monitoring and uptime needs are best addressed by a simple, cost-effective external system, rather than a large, expensive in-house system. Dotcom-Monitor's SIP monitoring service provides customers a unique, easy-to-use, targeted solution for quickly identifying and pinpointing VoIP connectivity error conditions," noted Mazo.

The new SIP monitoring service can be configured and managed with little or no IT expertise, which is ideal for the growing number of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with on-premise or hosted IP-PBXs. Its proactive monitoring ensures connectivity errors can be addressed before the errors become downtime problems for customers. Dotcom-Monitor's SIP monitoring service ensures SMBs can rely on their VoIP systems, Service Providers can monitor their VoIP infrastructure, VoIP Wholesalers can monitor Service Provider connectivity and reliability, and VoIP VARs and managed service providers can count on client uptime and revenue.

"As the VoIP ecosystem continues to grow in scope and complexity the need for simple and affordable SIP monitoring has never been greater," said Jonathan Fuld, CTO of SIP Print, the only provider of pure, affordable SIP call recording systems for SMBs. "In fact, SMBS and any cost-conscious organization that is dependent on SIP-based communications could benefit by investigating an externally hosted SIP monitoring provider like Dotcom-Monitor."

Dotcom-Monitor's SIP Monitoring is available immediately by visiting: www.dotcom-monitor.com

Hold the phone! Global warming has been canceled! A new study by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could cause President Obama to re-think Cap and Trade legislation that aims to reduce carbon emissions through a new "carbon" tax.

The article about the global warming study states:

The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.

However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down.

Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years...

"In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century," Tsonis said. "The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001."

More...

Synchronized chaos? Now that's some funky science. Sounds like something from Star Trek if you ask me. Scientists are going to examine the study to see if there is indeed some validity. If proven accurate, then maybe all that talk about humans causing Global Warming is wrong? We can all agree that Global Warming exists, as does Global Cooling. The question is whether it's a natural cycle or if human activity is having an adverse effect on the climate.

As for me, I'm all for less carbon pollution, including less carbon dioxide, a by-product of human breathing. Not sure I agree that a cap and trade tax is the way to do it though. Seems like just another government scam to come up with a new tax. The U.S. electric companies, which burn coal to produce 57% of U.S.'s electricity, will be hammered hard with this tax. But guess who pays for it? You the consumer. The cap and trade "sin" tax might work if it forced the electric companies to build "clean" power from nuclear power, but the U.S. hasn't built a nuclear plant since Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar 1 reactor was built in 1973. The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality and political wrangling has forestalled any nuclear power plants being built. So we stuck between a rock (cap and trade) and a hard place (no new nuclear plans) for America's future electricity needs. With more people using electricity-guzzling large screen TVs, multiple home PCs/laptops, gadgets, and mobile phones, America's insatiable demand for electricity is only going to get worse.

So for me, this cap and trade is just a smokescreen for the government to raise billions of dollars. Also, when I we start to get taxed for breathing carbon dioxide, then by golly, you will see revolts and protests that will make the Boston Tea Party look like a slumber party. Ok, no political party would be that dumb to "tax" breathing - certainly not if they value their political future. Still, the cap and trade legislation may not target human breathing, but once precedent is set for taxing carbon dioxide, we're one step closer to that end. Just imagine a future 1040 IRS tax form where you have to fill out the number of TVs, PCs, mobile phones, DVD players, gaming consoles so they can calculate your "carbon footprint"? Even George Orwell himself couldn't have imagined such a government intrusion.

"
Holy Two-Face, Batman!" The real Batman was denied a Facebook account!

Batman's got more friends/fans than Superman and Aquaman combined. How could Facebook Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg do this?

Do you really want to mess with the Batman? Do you really want to mess with this... Do ya?


Ok, so it's not "the" Batman I'm thinking of. It's even better - it's a female Batman!

OCS 2007 R2 won't replace your PBX just yet. However, their latest R2 version adds the ability to do direct SIP trunking, thus bypassing the need for an IP-PBX.

One drawback however is that Microsoft only supports direct SIP trunking with two providers, namely Global Crossing and Sprint. Well that's pretty lame, considering their are dozens of decent SIP trunking service providers and probably hundreds across the entire world.
Fortunately, Mike Stacy an OCS 2007 guru, over at Evangelyze Communications has some products that enhance OCS 2007 R2 functionality. One such product is SmartSIP which launches tomorrow. According to Mike, the first dot release due next month will add the capability to use standard SIP phones with OCS. Currently, you have limited options namely Tanjay or Snom phones, but with SmartSIP you can use a Polycom IP phone, an Aastra IP phone, or dare I say, a Cisco IP phone connected to OCS 2007 R2. With the Cisco SIP firmware load of course.

Om Malik sent a note saying Cisco CEO John Chambers posted a guest blog entry so I went to check it out.

John begins:

Now that President Obama has signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package into law, the real hard work begins: using that money to create jobs. If spent wisely, this package has a chance at fundamentally reforming the U.S. health-care system, making our economy energy efficient and providing Americans with the training and skills required to succeed in a 21st century global marketplace.

But the country can't accomplish these goals unless it has the infrastructure to support them. That's why the funding for broadband was so vital. Broadband is the ticket for entry to participate in the world economy. It is a fundamental technology upon which other things are built. It enables collaboration, innovation and operational excellence, and positions the U.S. to compete on a global basis.

Well, you probably already know my thoughts on Obama's broadband stimulus. I hate it! It's not that I wouldn't like 100% of Americans to all have high-speed broadband. I just don't think broadband is that vital that we need to spend billions of tax payer dollars when we are a fiscal crisis, the stock market is imploding, and the deficit is shooting through the roof. The "pie in the sky" idea that the government can just magically produce more money (and spend it) to do just about anything is partly what got us into this economic mess. What happened to fiscal responsibility? What happened to only spending what you have? Why are we mortgaging our children's future by throwing money around?

I support an economic stimulus to help spark the economy, but spending billions on broadband today when we won't actually reap the rewards for years... it just seems to me like the money could be better spent elsewhere for a more immediate economic impact. Believe me, I love my broadband and feel sorry for those that can't get it, but those billions of dollars could be better spent to help the economy in the near future.

And don't forget to factor in 'compound interest' and government waste. The government has never been good at investing money wisely, because it isn't their money. It's your money. It's so much easier to spend other people's money foolishly. So if it's a $40 billion broadband package, then expect it to cost the tax payer more like $120 billion.

I can see why John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco supports the broadband stimulus. It gives Cisco a HUGE windfall of revenue to help build out this high-speed broadband network. Cisco is obviously a huge benficiary of this broadband stimulus.

John ends his guest blog post with this:

As our policymakers work on maintaining U.S. competitiveness, they should keep in mind that broadband is the vehicle by which our citizens can be more productive, health care can be modernized, our economy can become more efficient and innovation can flourish. To continue our nation's growth, add jobs and drive innovation, we must invest in broadband.

I agree investments must be made in broadband. My beef is with who the "we" is. Is it the "we" tax payer or is it "we" the employees at Verizon, AT&T, Level3, and other ISPs that should 'invest' in building broadband networks. The web has only existing for about 14 years and in that time, U.S. companies themselves have brought high-speed broadband to 80-90% of Americans without a government (aka tax payer) handout.

We Americans complain about the banks needing billions of dollars in government bailout money to stay afloat, yet we're willing to hand over billions to corporations to "help" them build high-speed broadband without complaint? It doesn't make any sense. I guess because we all love our broadband so much and we want to "share the broadband love", we're willing to look the other way when the government gives OUR money to broadband providers.

If we had a budget surplus, I'd me more apt to say go ahead and give the ISPs money to build out their networks. But to me with all this spending on programs that won't stimulate the economy today, President Obama is being penny-wise, pound-foolish. Make that penny-foolish, pound foolish.

Apparently YouTube has decided to ignore the whole "fair use" thing. You know, the law whereby you are allowed limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. Fair use also allows for copyrighted materials to be used in spoofs, parodies, etc.

Many YouTube users create an original video using their favorite song as the audio in the background. They won't be able to do that any more, since YouTube has started muting any videos that use unauthorized copyrighted music. You will see a message at the bottom of the video that says "Notice This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled. More about copyright"

You can see examples here, here and here.

Now does background music mixed into a video constitute "fair use" or copyright infringement? That's a good question. Certainly, someone could strip the audio from the YouTube video and then upload to their MP3 player. Why they would do that is beyond me since the audio bitrate on YouTube isn't that great and often times the music is overlaid on top of people's voices speaking on the video.

But how far does this go? What if I capture a home video with my CD player playing music in the background with my 2.5 year old daughter dancing to it? Will YouTube "silence" the audio leaving my daughter dancing in eerie silence?

I think copyright holders need to get a grip in the digital age. Besides, people don't go to YouTube to listen to music for free. They go for the fun & entertaining videos. By removing the YouTube user's artistic license and replacing it with silence I feel as though my 1st Amendment right to "freedom of speech" has been silenced. Where's the ACLU when you need them?

via Mashable

I love CNET, it's one of my favorite technology, electronics, and gadgets sites. But I'm just not feeling the love. You see, I wrote a quick review of the just launched GizmoCall Flash-based VoIP service this morning. A few hours later, see in my RSS alerts another article on GizmoCall. Naturally, I want to see other people's opinions on it, so I click through and see that it's a CNET article. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10124311-94.html)

The CNET article had very similar sentiments to my own and performed the same test I did by dialing a free 800 number. I thought to myself what a waste of a click, it's basically the same thoughts I had and did the same test I did. How boring. I was about to close the window when I noticed my username (tkeatingtmc) on the CNET screenshot within the CNET article! WT-??

That's just fantastic, CNET! There goes my privacy. You just gave away my GizmoCall username. And what, no link love? You 'borrow' my image with my username in it and you don't link to the source? Bad form, CNET. Bad form!

Also, you would have had to have read the article in order to see the image. So why not say "Tom Keating also checked out GizmoCall. Here are his thoughts."

Here's a snapshot in case it is deleted:

Interesting message on The Pirate Bay today. At first I thought maybe the FBI, Interpol, or some other law enforcement entity took them offline. Or perhaps the plethora of Christmas downloaders had knocked them offline. Though, I'm not sure giving a gift of pirated music or movies burned to a CD/DVD is exactly the type of Christmas spirit that Jesus would approve of. See Commandment "Thou shall not steal."

I was getting an authentication window popup asking for username and password. The initial message said something about "Forbidden Planet". Now I see this message below that says "A username and password are being requested by http://thepiratebay.org. The site says: "Dont Panic! TPB will be back shortly. Dont enter":



Interestingly, this message only appears on one of my ISPs but not another. Much be some .htaccess rule they're playing with that blocks some IP addresses but not others.

As to why I was visiting a known pirate/warez site, well, I actually like their Top 100 lists for DVDs. It gives me ideas for what popular DVDs I should buy my family for Christmas. Call me a prude, but I don't download movies illegally. Least not any more...

Pastebud is a cool new service launching tomorrow that leverages javascript, web services, and bookmarks in mobile Safari to finally bring copy and paste to the iPhone and iPod touch. Thank the heavens! It's about time. What was Steve Jobs thinking when he didn't put copy/paste into the iPhone? Why Steve Jobs crippled the Jesus phone is beyond me. Further, I believe some third party copy/paste apps were banned in the Apple App Store. Well rejoice iPhone users, your savior just may have arrived.

Gizmodo has a video showing it in action. It allows you to to select text from a webpage (including hyperlinks on the web page) and paste it either into mobile Safari or into an email in the iPhone's Mail application. I didn't see in the video if this service allowed you to copy the URL you are currently on. I don't think it does allow that, in which case it's a little bit limiting

There have been some third party applications that offered some sort of copy and paste for the iPhone, Pastebud will be the first to provide the functionality without having to install any software on the iPhone.

Don't expect something for nothing though. With copy/paste in such high demand on the iPhone, it appears Pastbud will display popup ads. In the Gizmodo video a popup says, "Thank you for trying pastebud! Upgrade now to make it even more convenient, for just $5."

I should also add that security / privacy is a concern. You're sending what you copy/paste to Pastebud's servers. I guess you best not be copy/pasting any confidential info.

WordPress 2.7 "Coltrane" was just released featuring some pretty cool upgrades in features. First, it sports a drag-and-drop interface for redesigning the layout of your WordPress blog/website. Second, it automatically updates core WordPress files and your plugins (if you so choose). Heck, you can even have it set to download beta nightlies.

According to WordPress "Matt":

"this may be the last time you ever have to manually upgrade WordPress again. We heard how tired you were of doing upgrades for yourself and your friends, so now WordPress includes a built-in upgrade that will automatically notify you of new releases, and when you're ready it will download them, install them, and upgrade your blog with a single click."

The new dashboard lets you arrange items with drag and drop to put the most important ones on top. Also features QuickPress, comment threading, paging, and the ability to reply to comments from your dashboard (better GUI in 2.7), and the ability to install any plugin directly from WordPress.org with a single click. You can even mark a 'sticky' post to give it prominent position.

Here's a screenshot of the Dashboard:

Check out the video demo of WordPress 2.7 "Coltrane":

Download WordPress 2.7 now or check out the full new features list here

Full Disclosure: This site runs on Movable Type (MT). I've been running on MT since v3.2, before WordPress even existed. Just haven't seen the need to switch now after countless hours of customization, plugins installed, etc. They're both good blogging / CMS platforms. Congrats to the WordPress team for a nice release. I may just finally have to play with Wordpress just for the fun of it.