Graves On SOHO Technology

This is the fourth installment in the long-running tale (parts one, two & three) of my search for the most appropriate host for this site.

The very fact that you’re reading this means that the site is now live on a server operated by Lightning Base. In the past I’ve used a shared host and couple of different VPS providers. In point of fact the site was at UnmeteredVPS.net for over two years.

I have nothing but nice things to say about UnmeteredVPS.net. That service is excellent, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect fit. It was an unmanaged VPS, which meant that I was responsible for everything.

Every few weeks I would need to update some aspect of the OS or supporting software. Some updates were trivial. Some, like major Apache or MySQL updates, were a bit scary. Despite five years running this site I’m no Linux guru.

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Around the house and office we use Logitech’s recently defunct Squeezebox music players. We have several of these, a mix of the Squeezebox 3 and Squeezebox Touch models.

There’s an Android app that provides remote control of these little players. I’ve had it loaded for as long as I’ve had an Android phone. However, it’s never worked for me. At least it didn’t until the past weekend.

Being something of a traditionalist I have historically fed the Squeezebox herd from a small media server or NAS on my network. Only occasionally would I point them to online sources like Radio Paradise, KPFT or KUHF.

This past weekend I started to play with Pandora. The Squeezeboxes can access a Pandora account and thereby stream decent quality music from an online source. Pandora’s paid service provides 192 kbps streams without advertising. That makes the $36/yr paid service seem quite attractive.

Millions of people already use Pandora. I accept that I’m late to that party.

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TMC’s IT Expo West 2012 in Austin TX is October 2-5th this year. I had a quite a good time at IT Expo West 2011. I’m leaning towards attending again but as yet not committed.

TMC is offering a discounted all access registration for just $99, but only until the end of June. That’s end of day tomorrow. I guess that I’ll need to decide shortly.

OK, I’ll admit that this is a little beyond the scope of concern for a SOHO dweller. However, if you are inclined to learn more about the gear that makes VoIP service providers tick you might want to take advantage of a nice offer from Sonus Networks. The company is giving away downloadable copies of a book called Session Border Controllers For Dummies.

Session borders controllers are increasingly a factor in how VoIP works. Their role is expanding beyond the traditional security role to include things like media transcoding.

Sonus Networks is definitely a player in the SBC space. The book has some very good info, presented in an approachable style.

I may never need an SBC around the home office, but it can’t hurt to have a better understanding of what they do, and how they do it.

A big thank you to Dave Michels of TalkingPointz for bringing this to my attention.

Incidentally, one of the best VUC podcasts I can recall was recorded when we had Acme Packet as a guest in June 2010.

After much consideration I’ve found that I am able to attend Astricon 20011. I’m already committed to a series of meeting in Burbank, CA Monday-Wednesday, so I’ll be making a stop Boulder on the way home.

I plan on arriving late Wednesday evening and spending Thursday at Astricon before heading home Friday morning. Even one day will present a nice opportunity to meet up with folks that are normally only disembodied voices from a box on my desk.

If we manage to arrange a special VUC session for Thursday I’ll have the new Polycom Soundstation Duo conference phone along to help make the recording possible.

While I doubt that I’ll be hard to find, if you’re planning on attending and would like to meet-up drop me a note.

Yes, sir. That little beauty to the right was the current state-of-the-art in 1937. That’s when what we call “toll quality” calling was supposedly set down as a standard.

In fact, I find it hard to believe that the entire realm of telecom has lived with the paltry 300 Hz – 3.4 KHz pass-band of telephony for the past 74 years. It’s beyond embarrassing. It’s a flagrant violation of Moore’s Law.

That’s the curious thing about “standards” they have a lifespan like most things. In the early portion of that lifespan they provide a forward-looking goal, something that we can strive to achieve. However, in the trailing portion of their life span they restrain us, and keep us from achieving even greater things.

Add in a dash of not-quite-real-competition-because-of-monopolist-tendencies and you have a recipe for paralysis.

It’s the 21st century. We should demand better. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!