VoIP Tech Chat

Patrick and Fred Chat… sometimes about VoIP

Archive for the ‘video’ tag

Acer Aspire One – Innocent Netbook

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Or cleverly disguised secret agent for the video phone revolution?

Acer Aspire One

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by patrick

April 22nd, 2010 at 5:16 pm

Moscow Hacker Compromises Video Billboard – Displays Porn

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Every now and then a weakness becomes exploited in a manner that deserves recognition. A 41 year unemployed systems admin from Moscow did just this — he exploited a weakness in a video billboard and rigged it to play a pornographic movie. A traffic jam followed as Moscow drivers slowed to watch. The man was arrested, any negatives in his history brought to light, and then all video billboards in the Moscow area were banned.

Here’s the article, from The Moscow Times: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Fred

February 22nd, 2010 at 7:23 am

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Super Bowl and Porn, It’s Comcast-ic!

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Ever had a story to report that was shocking, offensive, and hilarious all at the same time? Imagine this scenario, if you will:

You’re surrounded by family and friends watching the Super Bowl in your living room on your brand new, HD big screen TV. It’s the Steelers vs. the Cardinals and just when you think the Cardinals have all but lost, an amazing run by Fitzgerald switches the lead to Arizona and you can’t believe it. You watch the screen waiting for the replay, when instead of seeing a ball caught by Fitzgerald, you see a whole other kind of ball, courtesy of Club Jenna.

And yes, in this case, that ball is full “in your face” frontal male nudity. Literally, in your face.

Viewers in Tuscon, AZ watching the game via Comcast on KVOA channel 4 lived that exact scenario. For approximately 30 seconds after the touchdown, viewers in Tuscon watched the game transition from touchdown, to porn, and then right back to touchdown celebration. KVOA has posted this statement from Comcast:

Tucson, Arizona

Updated 8:30a — Comcast Releases Statement Apologizing to Customers

KVOA-TV is investigating pornographic material viewed during the Super Bowl by some Tucson area Comcast viewers.  Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown.  It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers.

Comcast has released a new statement today:

“We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interuption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming.  We are aggressively investigating the situation including the possibility of foul play,” said Kelle Maslyn, Comcast Corporate Affairs Manager.

When we contacted Cox last night, we received this statement:

“We have received no evidence that any inappropriate material was broadcast on any of our channels during the Super Bowl.  The alleged incident appears to be isolated to the Comcast territory.  We will offer our support to all appropriate organizations to help them determine what happened,” says Mike Dunne, Cox Director of Media Relations.

KVOA is dismayed and disappointed that some Comcast customers and their families were subjected to this material.  Nielsen says, “KVOA will continue to investigate what happened to our clean signal and make sure our viewers get answers.”

If you would like to see the video, you can find it here: (although be warned, full frontal nudity not safe for work or kids or people who don’t like videos showing full frontal nudity):

Written by Fred

February 2nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm

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Non-breaking VoIP News

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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.

Written by Fred

June 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am