VoIP Tech Chat

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.

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Great cast, ok movie.

That phone call I got, it came from outside high walls and fancy gates; it comes from a place you know about maybe from the movies. But I come from out there, and everybody out there knows, everybody lies: cops lie, newspapers lie, parent’s lyin’. The one thing you can count on – word on the street… yeah, that’s solid. — Suicide Kings

Word on the street tells us that Microsoft plans to “unveil” their new phones (code-name PINK) on April 12th. The phones, rumored to be manufactured by the Danger team, will be aimed at a “younger” crowd and we expect features such as Facebook integration, social media connectivity, and music to be heavily marketed. Of course, we still haven’t forgotten the T-Mobile Sidekick/Danger fiasco…

The April 12th date follows the highly expected iPhone OS 4.0 release from Apple. Looks like April’s showers may make for a big May.

Suggested Readings:

• Microsoft to unveil ‘Pink’ phones on April 12 (The Money Times)
• Microsoft “Pink” Phone to Launch April 12? (TG)
• Microsoft ‘Pink’ Phones Due Monday? (Information Week)

Be careful out there

A older scam gains popularity — or at least that’s what recent reports indicate. Targeting American cellphones, the goal of the scam is to have you make an international call and rack up your phone bill. Here’s how it works:

1. Your phone rings and becomes a missed call within 2 rings
2. You call back the number, assuming it’s in the US
3. Your phone bill imitates Cheech and Chong (aka becomes very high)

The recommendation is that you only call back numbers you either recognize or can identify by area code.

Here’s the FCC release: Read the rest of this entry »

Good things come to those who wait…to cancel. On the heels of the “announcement” that Verizon Wireless will be doubling their early termination fees, I found myself considering how commerce and service has changed. As I have mentioned in our previous chats, I pay some $400+ a month for my extended family and I to have Verizon Wireless. Every month I give Verizon about $400, and on top of that, have spent over $2,000 on phones and another $500 on applications, ring tones, and content (that’s phone specific — if I buy a new phone, I get to buy new applications, ring tones, and content).

Businesses routinely (and almost exclusively) employ “short-timers” for their front line contacts — people that work at most six to twelve months answering phones, then move to another company. Customer service itself seems to follow the same pattern of always looking six to twelve months ahead, and making all judgements on a short-term basis. Have you been a great customer for 10 years? Who cares. What have you paid us lately? Read the rest of this entry »

T-Mobile, providers of the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone, recently announced an outage blocking user access to address books, calendars, photos, etc. After more than a week of “working around-the-clock,” T-Mobile announced today that the user data will most likely never return.

In an announement released on October 10th, T-Mobile advised users: Read the rest of this entry »

Dan York wrote a fantastic post today over at Disruptive Technology…

Humorous video – in how many movies is the “No Signal” theme over-used?

Its Friday, so here’s a bit of humor… I admit that I had not really paid attention to how incredibly over-used the “my cellphone has no signal” theme has been in recent movies until I saw this video. Keep watching, though, because after the “no signal” theme, it does go into other amusingly over-used themes like dropping mobile phones in water, ripping them apart, burning them, etc…

Kudos to someone named Rich Juzwiak for apparently editing together pieces of 66 movies!

Posted from: http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/2009/09/humorous-video—in-how-many-movies-is-the-no-signal-theme-over-used.html

Residential VoIP - No Operators

Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.

Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).
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Look. Its Kevin Martin of the FCC. Hi Kevin.

The US Congress Committee on Energy and Commerce released a scathing report of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) under Chairman Kevin Martin. The report, titled “Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications System Under Chairman Kevin J. Martin” (sounds like a Lifetime movie), harshly criticizes both the FCC and Kevin Martin. Although, from the title alone, you had to have guessed the report wasn’t going to be flattering.

The committee found (among other things):

• FCC Chairman Kevin Martin manipulated, withheld, or suppressed data, reports, and information from other FCC commissioners and Congress.
• Important Commission matters have not been handled in an open and transparent manner; raising suspicions on unfair treatment.
• The Commission has failed to carry out important responsibilities regarding oversight of the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (allowing customers to be overcharged while companies are overcompensated).
• FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s “heavy-handed” management style has created distrust, suspicion, and turmoil among the five current Commissioners.
• Commission staff have not been efficiently managed.

The report uses such statements as “classic fleecing of America” (regarding overcharging customers), “undermined the ability of the FCC to accomplish its mission” (describing Martin’s management style), and “Chairman Martin’s manipulation of the Second Report calls into question the reliability of telecommunications information and analysis provided by the FCC to Congress.” Ouch.

The investigation was launched after allegations were received from FCC employees (current and former), other FCC Commissioners, and telecom reps. The Bi-Partisan Congressional committee launched the investigation in January, however did not hold the typically expected hearings “due to the climate of fear that pervades the FCC.” Apparently, witnesses were too scared to publicly testify.

The FCC provides authoritative rule making over VoIP, telecommunications (such as Cable, Wireless Phones, Telephones, POTS, etc.), television, and almost some part of electronic life that we touch daily.

More reading:

• Download the Report (PDF)
• CNET.com: Congressional report: FCC chair abused power
• Associated Press: House report finds leadership breakdown at FCC

FierceVoIP reports how VoIP can play a role in terrorist attacks; focusing on the recent violence in Mumbai:

The FBI is apparently providing support to trace back when calls started coming in to the cell phone. While not being publicly discussed, it is likely that a United States National Security Agency “vacuum cleaner” system sucked up the broadcasted satellite phone conversations in some form; it is unknown if the communications were encrypted end-to-end, but if they were, it would provide an additional complication to learning the substance of the communications between Lashker-e-Taiba and its Mumbai cell.

Players on both sides of the terrorist equation – both attackers and defenders – are aware of the use and application of off-the-shelf technologies for attacks. In October, a short report by the U.S. Army 304th Military Intelligence open source intelligence team examined the potential use and application of mobile phone and VoIP technologies by terrorist groups. While the media generally obsessed over the application of Twitter, the report also highlighted the use of GPS, software to change voices in conjunction with VoIP calls, and Google Maps.

The full article by Doug Mohney can be viewed on FierceVoIP‘s website.

When we see “government study,” we’re often immediately sent into a digression of thought. What would possibly motivate an official to take tax-revenue and give it to a group of government employees to learn about something of this nature. And then, we usually get so frustrated that we turn to the bottle for answers. This being said, more often than not, a study that you could never imagine as needed will generally provide at least one or two interesting results.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) exists (in theory) “to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability.” For more than 60 years, the CDC has pursued malaria, studied plagues, eliminated polio, fought small pox, and even studied cell-phone usage. Um… studied cell-phone usage? Yeah, that one caught our eye, too.

At first, we were under the belief that maybe the CDC had investigated the rumors of cell-phone brain cancer or something to that degree, but as John Pinnett would say, “Nay Nay.” 

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