2011 – Page 5 – Graves On SOHO Technology

It’s Time For Wireless Carriers to Get Real Or Get Lost

September 23, 2011
Michael Graves
mobile

Mobile-company-logos This past week I spent a few days in Milwaukee WI. If Boston is Bean-town then Milwaukee is quite likely Beer-town. I actually drove past the Pabst Brewery. I didn’t know that they still made Pabst, or that anyone would actually drink the stuff. I took it to be like Lone Star in Texas, just something to offer the tourists.

Initial impression of the suds aside, I saw something in Milwaukee that gave me pause. I saw the signs, and they were worrying.

To be more specific I saw a few of the newer T-Mobile billboards. I still mostly like T-Mobile. And heck, Carly-of-the-patterned-magenta-dresses is certainly easy on the eyes, so billboards should be a good thing…but these were cause for concern.

One Great WordPress Plug-in: WP Smush.it

September 18, 2011
Michael Graves
Meta

wordpress-logo As mentioned previously, some weeks ago I moved this site into a brand new VPS. Such a move is pretty transparent to readers, but gave me a chance to rework the site, enhancing the WordPress installation in some interesting ways. I think that some of what I’ve recently discovered might be useful to others.

This new WordPress installation has been refined with respect to how it handles media. One of the niceties that I’ve discovered is a WordPress plug-in called WP Smush.it. This plug-in leverages a Yahoo API to automatically implement a best practices approach to optimizing images as they are uploaded to the site.

Counterpath Weekend Sale on Bria 3.0

September 17, 2011
Michael Graves
VoIP

Counterpath is without a doubt the leader in commercial soft phones. I’ve used numerous version of their products over the years, and found them to be robust & reliable. Thus the fact that they’re selling Bria 3.0 for Mac &…

HDVoice: A Visual Analogy

September 16, 2011
Michael Graves
Wideband

HDV IP550 Here’s something of a challenge; find a visual way to represent the information density of HDVoice vs a narrowband PSTN call…and try to make it something the everyone can relate to. This is part of my recent attempt at such a display.

The human voice can create sound energy in the range of 80 Hz to 14 KHz. In contrast, the PSTN conveys a much more limited pass-band, typically 300 Hz – 3.4 KHz. That means that the PSTN fails to convey more than 70% of the potential energy in a voice.

Telecom Factoid: This was state-of-the-art when the standard for “Toll Quality” telephony was defined

September 12, 2011
Michael Graves
networking, VoIP

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…

Magic Jack Plus Finally Shipping

September 5, 2011
Michael Graves
VoIP, Wideband

magic-jack-plus-300 After being announced to much fanfare at CES 2011 it seems that MagicJack Vocaltec is finally shipping their new MagicJack Plus. The MagicJack Plus device still has a USB plug permitting its use with a computer. However, it also has a network jack allowing it to function as a freestanding FXS device, not unlike a traditional ATA.

This dual-mode operation offers greater flexibility in the face of competition from the like of NetTalk, whose “Duo” interface device doesn’t require the use of a computer. It also answers the wishes of people who have been hacking thin clients to provide a low-cost, low-power platform to host their Magic Jack service*.

The New York Times’ Gadgetwise makes mention of Magic Jack Plus in a piece that is largely focused on Skype’s new home phone line interface device. Over at the Unofficial Magic Jack Support forum users have reported the MJ+ devices started to arrive mid-August.