Getting Jerked Around...

David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
| Raven Guru Marketing http://www.ravenguru.com/

Getting Jerked Around...

The weekend in Dallas was not its usually warm sunny self. The weather was cold, cloudy and sometimes wet. However, it did not deter me from cooking Jamaican Jerk chicken. The reason for cooking the chicken originally arose when I discovered my new manager of Inside sales was from Jamaica. I thought it would be interesting to see if my version was acceptable only to see it evolve into a competition and not with her but with her mother and aunt. This moved the competition into an area that I seriously consider off limits. I mean how do you beat somebody's mama? It's just wrong. But once announced I had no choice but to make my best effort. Our office has twenty people in it so I needed twenty pieces of chicken, not too difficult but bigger than my gas grill. My wife's workplace was also having some sort of celebration and she asked if I could some for them as well. I agreed before asking how many were participating. I was a little dismayed to learn it was another twenty people. This was becoming a catering task rather than a simple competition. Alright so how does one make the perfect Jamaican Jerk Chicken? I won't know until the mamas try mine and announce their verdict. I will describe the process because it is a labor of love. I wanted to recreate the flavor that comes from cooking the chicken in oil drum grills with wood and charcoal as fuel. Here is my version...I marinated the chicken for twenty four hours in water, salt, lemon and lime juice. Remove from and marinade and pat dry, then tossed with soy sauce (1 tablespoon per two pounds of chicken) and Jamaican Country Style Boston Dry Jerk Seasoning. Let this sit for an additional two to four hours. I lightly smoked the chicken with apple wood for twenty minutes. I then grilled the chicken to develop grill marks and a charred flavor. Finally, I roasted the chicken for 20 minutes in a 375o oven. The final product taste good to me but I will get other opinions today at lunch.

Google and Speakeasy Jerk their Customers Around

A showdown is nearing between the FCC and VoIP service providers that are restricting the termination of calls. Google and Speakeasy have decided to refuse to terminate calls to free conference calling sites, porn sites and certain rural areas. In the case of Google, it is not surprising. There is a higher cost to connect to carriers supporting rural areas. It is hard to support such a service when the price is free. The FCC has opened a docket to address the issue but more than a year has passed with no real action.

Actually there are two key issues at stake. The first issue is which terminating rules apply to VoIP/SIP Traffic. Should Broadvox and other ITSPs be charged Reciprocal Compensation price of 0.07 cents per minute or the standard access charges averaging 3.0 cents per minute? The second issue is whether an ITSP can refuse to terminate certain traffic.

This will bear watching in 2010 when the current FCC may rule on both issues.

I will be going on vacation for the rest of this week and next. The next blog will be delivered on October 26th.  See you then!

 



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