Day: 16 October 2004

VOIP Update

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I have given up with the Cisco 7940 phone. I went out and bought a Motorola 5.8GHZ cordless phone. I will plug it into the ATA adapter (the device that actually turns a VOIP call into something an analog phone can understand) that Broad Voice sends me on Monday.

On another VOIP note I still need to configure the linksys VPN router I got so I can see if I can establish a static tunnel to the office. If I can do that I can get a Cisco phone to work with my office extension.

Also got the approval to purchase the network gear for our ongoing build out of our call center. I have to get the paper work together and get the integrator to order the switch. Looks like we will go with a Cisco Catalyst 4000 series switch. I am also getting some more product details on some other projects we are looking at from our Cisco engineer on Monday.

Sick Saturday

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I stayed in most of the day today. I still have a lingering cold. I am coughing and my sinus’s still hurt. This cold has been bad for a week. Usually I get colds that are mild for a few days bad for a 2 or 3 days and then mild again until I am cleared up.

My mom keeps reminding me that tend to get sick when the weather changes. The past 2 weeks it has gotten a bit colder. I always remembered that I would get more migraines during weather changes, and not sick as in the flu or colds. Either way I still feel like crap.

I tried to clean up my apartment a bit today. It was getting really cluttered and messy. I got most of the cleanup done, but I still have some more to do. I will finish tomorrow.

I also ordered a bunch of DVD’s today. That is what I get for staying in and surfing on the web a bit. Amazon had a sale on some seasons of tv shows. I got season 1 of 24 for $14.99. That was the only season of that show that I actually watched and liked. I got another DVD that I cannot remember right now, and I pre ordered a few others that I saw that I wanted.

I finally got around to scheduling another Fresh Direct delivery. I am almost out of food so it was time.

Another “it was about time” I cleaned out a few box’s I had left over from my move. Yes I moved in July, and it is October 16. The box’s where in a closet. I still have 2 left. 1 is all books so I can keep it in a box for a while longer. The other box left will get cleaned out tomorrow, I hope.

Still Can’t Sleep

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I just took some Tylenol PM. Hopefully that will help me sleep a bit. Hopefully it will also help with the painful sinus pressure and itchy throat too. Sleep will be good enough for me. It is 2AM. I have been up reading some blogs that I like. I also wrote a few other entries. But to not be too freakish (i know too late) I will stagger some of the posts over the next few days. That way I can look like I am posting, when I in fact haven’t written in a while! Well I probably will write more this weekend because I am staying in, but I always like having something to post. I don’t like the site to get too stale for the 3 people that check it out. Actually according to Typepad I had 65 people visit today. A bunch from google. That is cool since as of 2 weeks ago I hadn’t had google spider my site yet. That is due to the change in the IP and domain name I use for it. 65 is not allot in any way, but unless Sean is refreshing the browser allot, people I don’t know are actually reading this stuff. That to me is way cool!

Spending

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Sometimes don’t you sit down and go “where did I spend all my money”? I am actually very good at keeping track of what I spend, but sometimes I still think wow I spent how much! Friday was one of those days, where things just were expensive. I had dry cleaning, cab’s, meals. That crap adds up. I learned really quick that when you live in manhattan cabs are your best friend, but are evil. They are great but expensive. that means you always want to use them, but know you shouldn’t. They are like a drug. So I use/have cabs like I do alcohol, very infrequently so I enjoy them but not so much that I am poor due to them.

Friday nights spending I blame Jayson, well maybe Gretchen. I am still sick and they invited me to Outback. Now they both know I cannot turn down an Outback meal. So I go. I really didn’t have any choice. With cabs and food I am out $40. But it was so tasty!!! So bad for you, yet so good. I had the crab cakes and cheese fries. Don’t tell my doctor that when he does my cholesterol.

The other spending was necessity. It was necessary to get my laundry done. Well I didn’t have to pay to have it done, but I don’t like to do the laundry. it reminds me of childhood horrors of having to fold laundry in the loud hot laundry room in my parents building. Well it was a horror to me, maybe not to most people. I could not do the laundry and smell like most people on the 7 train? But I don’t think people at work would like that, so I pay for laundry. I look on the bright side, my wallet is allot lighter now! Well maybe that isn’t a good thing.

See when I cannot sleep readers get my crazy ramblings about spending habits.

My New VOIP (Home) Phone

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I finally broke down and purchased another VOIP phone for my house. If you are someone who actually reads this regularly you will know last summer I got Vonage for about 2 weeks. it was too expensive for me to justify keeping it so I got rid of it. I am not home enough to warrant a home phone. I have been fine with my mobile.

Fast forward 14 months and I found a company that offers relatively cheap VOIP and offers all the cool features I wanted. Jayson found Broad Voice. They offer a $9.99 plan that gives you unlimited in state calls. That is all I needed so I got it. They also offer a function that AT&T Callvantage offers that allows me to have my phone right simultaneously on several phones. Now I can have my home phone ring at work, on my cell, etc at the same time. I have wanted one number to route to multiple lines for years. I used to use AT&T’s 500 number service back in the early 90’s but that was expensive and you paid per inbound calls. This is better. Whatever phone I pick up first is the phone that the call gets routed to.

What is also cool is that this company unlike allot of other VOIP providers allow you the option of bringing your own VOIP device or ATA adapter. What that means for me is if want I can configure a Cisco 7940 phone I have at work and use that with this service. I actually have been trying to do that today, but I am running into issues since our Cisco phones are configured for Skinny (to work with a Cisco Call Manager) and for this service I need SIP. No matter what Cisco says it is not simple to change the configuration. For now I am just routing all my calls to my mobile. I get 30 days to try it out, and it is only like $15 a month after tax’s and extra features. Not bad for unlimited local calls. I can use my mobile for long distance!

More reviews as I get it. Jayson and Gus are both waiting to see how I like this company, but they are both interested in the service.