VoIP: the promise, the pain and the Dance

InfoWorld asks : Merging the phone system into the enterprise network makes perfect sense. But is it worth the investment?,
The short answer : Yes, if you are putting in a new phone system or replacing an existing one anyway, otherwise the cost may not be worth the saving or new functionality.

Here's their 411 On VoIP

They also have a useful Enterprise VoIP glossary: (glossary are they secret weapon of added value!)

• Codec: A compression/decompression algorithm used in IP telephony and other streaming media applications.


• G.723.1: An ITU-T Codec, used in many IP telephony systems, that has two associated bit rates: 5.3Kbps and 6.3Kbps.


• G.729: An ITU-T Codec, used in many IP telephony systems, that has an 8Kbps bit rate.


• Gateway: A network device that converts voice and fax calls between the PSTN (public switched telephone network) and an IP network in real time.


• H.323: An ITU-T collection of standards used in VoIP (voice over IP) applications to define end points, gateways, and other IP telephony devices and their interaction. Precedes SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).


• IP Telephony: The transmission of voice and fax phone calls over a packet-based IP data network; synonymous with VoIP.


• IP PBX: The server that provides call control and configuration management for an IP-based phone system.


• IP Phone or Handset: A phone system handset that connects to the IP PBX over an IP LAN. IP phones often look and function much like typical legacy corporate phone system handsets, but in some cases they also take on PC-like functionality.


• MPLS: Multiprotocol label switching, an IETF set of quality-of-service labeling standards that ISPs use to manage different kinds of data streams based on priority and service plan.


• PBX: Private branch exchange, an in-house telephone switching system.


• PBX trunk: The shared communications path between the customer's PBX and the public network.


• PSTN: Public switched telephone network, which is also called POTS (plain old telephone service).


• Q.Sig: Q Signaling, a signaling standard for PBX interoperability used in the United States and Europe.


• RTP: Real-Time Transport Protocol, the Internet protocol used by VoIP systems for streaming digitized audio and video across an IP network.


• SIP: Session Initiation Protocol, an up-and-coming IETF signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification, and instant messaging. Competes with H.323.


• Softphone: Software that provides IP phone functionality in a PC, notebook, or other computing device.

Inside Mitch Kapor's World

As a follow up on Lotus's 20th here's Mitch

E.L.I.C.I.A.: Electronic Lifeform Intended for Ceaseless Infiltration and Assassination

See Here for all the explanation your going to get

Love, I

June 4th, 15 Years after Tiananmen

The image still haunts, because of the events that followed, and because so little has really changed.

Peking Duck comments on Nicholas Kristoff, an eyewitness, as he recalls and refects in the NYT on the June 4 massacre at Tiananmen Square:

The night was filled with gunfire — and with Chinese standing their ground to block the troops. I parked my bike at Tiananmen, and the People's Liberation Army soon arrived from the other direction. The troops fired volley after volley at the crowd on the Avenue of Eternal Peace; at first I thought these were blanks, but then the night echoed with screams and people began to crumple.

The image is Via The Sydney Morning Herald and Still gazing down the Tiananmen tank barrel

Peking Duck also has commented on The story behind the Tiananmen Tank Man Photo

The People of Hong Kong haven't forgotten the Martyrs of Tiananmen Square

Linksys WiFi Gateway Remote Attack Risk Discovered

Glenn Fleishman reports that

"According to InternetNews.com, a tech consultant discovered that even if you turn the remote administration feature off on a Linksys WRT54G -- the single bestselling Wi-Fi device in the world -- you can still remotely access it through ports 80 and 443. Linksys sets the HTTP username to nothing and password to 'admin' on all of its devices by default. Web site scanning from anywhere in the world to devices that have routable Internet-facing addresses would allow script kiddie remote access, at which point you could flash the unit with new firmware, extract the WEP or WPA key, or just mess up someone's configuration and change the password."

He's suggesting that you change Your Linksys WRT54G Admin Password Right Now!

I wanted to note this since I earlier mentioned the Linksys WRT54G

Update : LinkSys says WRT54G Vulnerability Not Widespread, just make sure the built-in firewall has been NOT been disabled. via Gizmodo, gadets are us

So time to confirm the setting and Glenn's advise is still a "Good Idea"

another update: Threat overstated, finder of vulnerability says, apparently NOT the end of the world, just western cizelization....

CVS for dummies

Vinny points to Chu Yeow's redemption in a blog: Your own private CVS repository

It might be at a low enough level for yours truly, if I stand on my tippy toes. Maybe...

Voting for (Canadian) Dummies

Via Metafilter comes VoteSelector Quiz Just answer the questions below to determine which candidate and his or her political party most closely matches your political views.

Julia Roberts' Sonogram: The Twins Definitely Have Her Smile

Either that or they are Alien stomach bursters! via Defamer

Hung by Their Own Words

In Their Own Words: Quotations by and about Canada's Conservatives

ill-Liberal copyright reform intends to end Fair Use Freebies

Via TechDirt comes word that my federal MP Sarmite Bulte thinks that the "user rights" established under the Copyright - known as exceptions, that allow users to freely use portions of copyrighted work for such things as research, private study, news reporting, and criticism - lead to "freebies.

It looks like Bulte's committee is trying to narrow Fair Use to it's most limited interpretation - if not eliminate it altogether.

Is this another example of politicians fixing the law?

Perhaps she can spend some of her summer reading up on The Creative Commons and Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.

I talked to her yesterday. I'm thinking I should try to get another word with her. Given it's "Election Night in Canada", it's my best chance for ~4 years.

New and Improved!

No your eyes have NOT gone all buggy! I've applied a new template, the TicTac by Mr SimpleBits : Dan Cederholm.

I expect to continue too tweak the template over the next thousand years to my dis-liking. For the record, it was very easy to do. The hardest part was figuring out which parts of the "old" customization to keep, where to put them, and how to make them work best with the new template look and feel.

Lotus : The First 20 Years

Lotus the First Twenty Years, brings back many (suppressed) memories.
Wonder what the next 20 will bring? Via Vowe dot net