Sorry for being late today but the day began at the dentist's office. It threw me off my routine. Anyway, food as usual over the weekend was very good. We had deep fried turkey (Louisiana), jerk steaks (Jamaica) and soft shell crab (Virginia). As you can see, I chose to do a little traveling through food. All three of these were very good and it was difficult to pick the recipe of the week. However, deep fried turkey requires a good fryer and injector for the seasonings, too much work for most people. Jerk steaks are definitely spicy and could be too hot for some. Therefore, soft shell crab with black and white fettuccine is the recipe of the week. While I will state this is an original recipe, I should note that while visiting Panasonic and NEC a couple of weeks ago this dish was the special of the day. Like so many chefs, I did not need a recipe to make it once I got home. I used squid ink pasta for the black and garlic parmesan pasta for the white. I also added thinly sliced short strips of Virginia ham to cut the butter sauce. You may add country ham, Tasso or even peas to deliver a burst of flavor to refresh the beurre blanc between bites. So, the recipe of the week is soft shell crab with black and white fettuccine in a beurre blanc sauce.

VoIP Security versus TDM Security

While I discussed this in a previous email, it was brought to my attention that I did a much better job describing the difference today than I did in the blog. So let's see if I can do it to this particular person's satisfaction now.  VoIP is by its nature more secure than a TDM call. A TDM call by definition is predictable. If an intruder gains access to a channel or phone line then the conversation is easily monitored. This is because the channel remains fixed with regard to location and timing. A VoIP call on the other hand is random in its location in a series of packets. It is extremely difficult to capture the voice packets in sequence. Therefore, considerable effort is required to sort the packets in an attempt to recreate any conversation. Moreover, once the packets begin moving through a network, their routing may also vary. Again, this is different from the TDM environment, where the routing does not vary during a call. Finally, the real area for security concerns is before the voice or packets are delivered to the carrier. A telecom manager with a patch cord can listen into any calls going through a PBX. Administrative security is required to prevent employees from violating private conversations. While this does not put to bed the issue, it may be a better explanation for the layperson. Otherwise, check out these blogs for additional information VoIP Security Begins at Home and Service Providers and Business VoIP Security.