Or cleverly disguised secret agent for the video phone revolution?

I R Eatz U R Dataz!

I love my netbook. I love my netbook so much, I have two of them (okay, one is the wife’s). Surprisingly, I managed to survive months on nothing but my netbook doing fairly intensive SQL / VoIP / Web work. The hard drive is a little slow, but the overall performance is outstanding.

When I travel, I can use Skype to video chat with the built in webcam and get great quality (both ways) for both picture and sound. It’s like a giant smart phone. It reminds me of the $1000+ “video phones” that were supposed to be the future of talking on the phone… then people realized they really didn’t want to “get pretty” to use the phone. Now, for around $250 a unit, you can have that and so much more.

Recently, my wife’s netbook gave an error on boot that had something to do with a missing windows file (system32\ntoskrnl.exe). Apparently, she’s not the only one with this issue… it seems to be quite common. Of course, as the techie/geek/nerd of the castle, it was my job to slay this dragon and I came across the only problem I have had with this magical mini machine. Not so much a problem… more like open questions to Acer.

1. To access the hard drive, you have to remove 17 screws (maybe more, I think I lost some extras), you have to remove the keyboard, you have to remove the top, you have to remove this little card on top of the mother board, this side circuit board, the motherboard. Then you slide the hard drive out, reverse. Why not put a panel on the bottom to access the hard drive directly?
2. Why can I find nothing in your documentation about Alt-F10? This is a handy mode that lets you recover the operating system to factory defaults, but I don’t see it in my Acer manual.
3. In line with question 2, Why is the only recovery option to completely reset to factory? Since this is basically a stripped version of the OS, why not offer an explorer window so I can copy files to an SD or USB drive before formatting, or just backup the user files to another partition?
4. What degree in sadism lead to the design of the three little clips that hold the keyboard in place?

All told, from error to recovered could have been done in < 30 minutes, and I HIGHLY recommend Acer products to everyone I know. From their higher-end Ferrari laptop to the humble netbook (go with XP home, Windows 7 netbook edition is crippleware garbage), I have never had a problem with their hardware or software that made me lose respect for the brand, which is saying a lot.

For More Information:

• Acer: Acer Aspire One Website
• Skype: Free PC to PC Video Calls

BREAKING NEWS — Barack Obama elected President of United States. Ah yes, in case you’ve been living in a cave like our loyal listener Osama Bin Laden (who loves our Ben Affleck references) you most likely already know that there’s a new President-Elect in town. (Interestingly, Barack Obama will not be elected President until mid December when the electoral college votes… and those ballots aren’t even counted until early January… but as usual, we digress)

So anyway, news outlets throughout the world reported on President-Elect Obama receiving congratulatory calls from World Leaders. Normally, news like this will only make Fred and Patrick hungry — but this time, it also made us curious. Do world leaders still use the telephone? And if so, do they use some sort of high-tech encrypted device like Tony Montana?

The State of Telecommunications actually appears to be, well, quite outdated. Pranksters have been able to successfully call the President of France, the President of Venezuela, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Fidel Castro. Not to mention the recent prank phone call against Sarah Palin. Most of these calls were made using regular POTS lines over the Public Switched Telephone Network, or PSTN.

So, using our 8th Grade logic skills, we can say:

1. World Leaders received calls using PSTN
2. World Leaders received calls using PSTN that they assumed were other World Leaders
3. Therefore, World Leaders must typically use the PSTN

Surely the PSTN will not be utilized for all telecommunication within Political arenas. Back in the late 60’s the US and Russia integrated a Moscow-Russia Hotline, aka the Red Phone, to allow for direct communication between the two nations during the cold war. The hotline has been upgraded throughout the years and is still in place today.

PSTN with Human Roadblocks

Basically, World Leaders use the PSTN to communicate. However, the chances of you picking up the phone, dialing +1 (202) 456-1414, and having Mr. Obama answer the phone are about as good as having Fred and Patrick visit a buffet and only make one trip to the bar.

In between the phone on the President’s desk and the main switchboard of the White House are many levels of Operators and Screeners working to ensure only the “proper people” can speak to our illustrious leader.

Now of course, the US is the country of NORAD, so we hope (really, really hope) that there are advanced, encrypted telecommunications equipment transferring our national information from point to point. We also know that the Social Security Administration made a great decision and started the switch to VoIP. Fred also chatted with reps from the FAA during AstriCon (they are looking to replace the entire FAA phone system with Asterisk or another VoIP system).

But, for World Leaders to speak with other World Leaders, the method of choice seems to be the PSTN. And if the government’s reaction to Obama’s blackberry is any indicator, it would appear as if this will not change anytime soon.

Wouldn’t it be great if all world leaders embraced Unified Communication? Imagine the tweets! Or even making a direct SIP to SIP call using your favorite VoIP equipment. Ah, the future… we can always dream.

After celebrating the Indian Summer with personal reflection, Fred and Patrick return to podcasting — and this time… it’s personal.

This week, we discuss such great things as Harley Davidson Motorcycles, Skype, Asterisk (briefly), the Boy Scouts, and more!

As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:

• VoIP Tech Chat (download mp3)
• iTunes
• And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below
  Download audio file (081105_01.mp3)

Have thoughts? We’d love to hear from you.

Related Links:

• Boy Scouts Webelos
• Harley-Davidson
• The “Millennials” Are Coming – 60 Minutes
• Obama Change
• Clearwire and Sprint
• Skype
• Japanese man petitions to marry comic-book character
• VoIP Tech Chat Script

Just when we were going to post the next series of “What is,” Mr. Cory Andrews scoops us with his “Ask Mr. Andrews: What is NAT Transversal?” post. He even made a super cool logo.

Well, we have only 2 comments:

1. No Star Wars or Dungeons & Dragons references?
2. Two Words: Ben Affleck

Seriously, it’s a nice post. And if you liked it, please check out:

• What is a VoIP?
• What is POTS?
• What is DTMF?
• How does 911 work with VoIP?
• and the opinion piece, Mommy, What’s a Phone Cord?

Well, even though it happened back on June 11th, Digium posted on their blog today a recent award the Switchbox SMB 3.5  received from TMC Labs.

With the 2008 Internet Telephony awards, TMC Labs honored products that demonstrated significant contributions towards improving communications. For the past 9 years, awards have been given to products that TMC Labs finds “truly innovating.”

Digium better be building a new trophy case — it’s only the end of June and they’ve already racked some significant bling. Along with the TMC innovation award, Switchvox also was named the 2008 Unified Communication product of the year. Not to mention being named Best of Show for IT East. (Did we mention Switchvox has a free version?)

And let’s not forget Asterisk. So far this year, Asterisk was named 2008’s Best IP PBX by Infoworld as well as a Product Leadership award from Searchnetworking.

Not to be outdone, Voip Tech Chat was recently awarded the Most Likely to get a Restraining Order from Ben Affleck award.

Patrick and Fred were saddened to learn of George Carlin’s passing. Although George Carlin did not make any significant advances in IP Telephony and VoIP technology, he did make Patrick and Fred laugh; and laugh hard.

Mr. Carlin also starred with Ben Affleck in Jersey Girl; a favorite of both Fred and Patrick.

CNet reports a new Mac Trojan that garners amazing control of one’s Mac OS X system. The trojan affects users of Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

Most likely gaining access from a downloaded program, the AppleScript trojan can open ports in firewalls, log keystrokes, take pictures with the built in camera, and enable file sharing. Ouch.

You don’t see many trojans for the mac, but when they do appear they’re pretty powerful. And yes, the use of garner is our way of giving props to Mr. Affleck.

Last week, we talked about encryption during the VoIP Tech Chat podcast and posted a small blurb as well. A recent story shows how important this encryption can be to protecting privacy.

We first read the compression vulnerability on Network World, but the story has spread like butter. Like freshly opened, room temperature butter.

In a nutshell, many VoIP telephone conversations compress to save internet bandwidth. The compression allows conversations to flow with a reduction of bandwidth. As long as both parties have the same variable bitrate compression technique (or VBR), the conversation will sound “fine.”

Here’s where it gets neat…

Basically, the compression uses a method that keeps intact the voice patterns. In other words, when the voice is translated into a digital signal, the voice patterns create signal lengths. These lengths create identifiable voice patterns. So, although you wouldn’t be able to hear the voice, just knowing the lengths could give you 90% accuracy in identifying what was spoken.

Think of it as VoIP lip reading. You can’t hear, but you know what they’re saying.

How to get around this?

Use an encryption method that also changes lengths of packets or pads them to avoid detection. Encryption, like Ben Affleck, is still the bomb.

Welcome back our friends to the show that never ends. We’re so glad you could attend, VoIP inside. VoIP inside. This week, Patrick and Fred discuss VoIP and non-VoIP digressions that always seem to include Ben Affleck. Go know.

And, remember, this week is the special Hanson edition of VoIP Tech Chat.

As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:

• Voip Tech Chat (download mp3) 
• iTunes
• And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below
  Download audio file (080618_01.mp3)

Looking for more information or bunny reenactments? Check out these great links: 
 

• Hanson 
• Starbucking Movie 
• Cox Cable 
• Social Security VoIP Deployment Article 
• Nortel 
• New York City New Year’s Eve
• VoIP 911 Article 
• Senate Bill Article 
• Verizon / Thing5 Article 
• Life Alert 
• Angry Alien Rabbits  
• Ben Affleck on IMDB 
• Jersey Girl 

About a month ago, Fierce VoIP reported on VoIP quality testing conducted by Keynote Systems. The results proved quite interesting.

Keynote determined (based on testing providers such as Packet8, Vonage, Verizon VoiceWing, Lingo, etc.) that most VoIP users can expect “merely tolerable” telephone service when compared to an at&t POTS line.

One of the VoIP providers tested failed to achieve any calls with an MOS score of 4.0 or better (ouch).

Why did Voip Tech Chat wait more than a month to post this news? Patrick and Fred were too busy talking about Lifelock and Ben Affleck movies. 

Oh, and Asterisk Voip News posted that a cool new IP Phone with a huge video screen is coming soon.