Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! You might notice some changes around here. I’m going to start working on going bigger with the blog. Please let me know how I’m doing by leaving me a comment. Hope to see a lot more of you!
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His name escapes me right now but the http://www.ciscoblog.com/ has an entry about the coolness of the Cisco 1861 ISR. This little thing does it all. Voice, firewall, VPN, LAN switch with POE and wireless through an HWIC. It can also operate in SRST mode which is probably an even more attractive model. Unfortunately it’s not all roses. The price is a list of $5500 with the wireless. Add in phones and you’re pushing well above key system pricing. Ok, it does it all and you need to factor that in. Consider the cost of an ASA 5505, an AP and an Ethernet switch on top of that key system and it gets a little closer to parity. Plus you sacrifice integration and features with the separate components.
A better alternative for small sites might be the UC 520 Express. Lists for $4500 with the wireless. It doesn’t have the expandability of an 1861 as the software is somewhat locked out, but the price point gets better for small businesses. At such small phone counts a $1k swing in price makes a huge difference in per-phone cost.
…should be the only electric rabbit.
I like to keep up with the goings on in the DIY electric car world. Some day I hope to build one. I’m waiting on a couple of things first though. Mostly just trying to get through the multitudes of projects I’ve taken on at home but also so I stop spending money on those same projects. The other thing is the hope of an Ultra-Cap from someone like EEStor.
In the meantime I read and try to understand the mechanics of motors, controllers and batteries. There are pretty good strides being made in the power and longevity of modern EV systems.
Here’s the problem I see with the state of things. The Electrified Rabbit. Or Jetta. Or CRX. Or insert any other non-sexy 20 year old beater. If you can think of a car like that I can guarantee someone has done an EV conversion for it. What’s so difficult about picking an exciting car? Something that stirs the imagination and fires the senses. I know there area few of them out there. The FFR Daytona EV conversion is a good example of a cool way to do and EV. But I’m so sick of seeing cars that shouldn’t be on the road to begin with being elevated to something special just because they have a bunch of batteries.
Really guys! Make it sexy!
Ang and I have been fans of House for a while. Kind of like what ER used to be, I can’t really keep up with the medical jargon, but the pacing is usually entertaining and the character development is near perfect.
Last night cemented it for me though. On a chalkboard through most of the show was the statement “Tesla was robbed!”. None of the characters obviously wrote it, it was just there. There was also a reference to Schrödinger’s cat. Just beautiful. I’m sure, like the medical jargon, that went right over most people’s heads but there was a group of us that had a good chortle.
You know you’re with me on this.
Tesla’s on my brain lately because I’m (slowly) making my way through Wizard, a biography of Tesla. Fascinating guy. It’s truly amazing how many inventions we use in our life that he’s responsible for. Edison gets all the credit but he was a hack. As with most things, Edison was better at commercializing and marketing his product. Tesla was the genius but too eccentric.
Well, not really. I found out the hard way that an Ephone-DN in CME that isn’t configured from the start as a dual-line can’t be changed to a dual-line. So, no consult transfer or putting a call on hold and calling someone else. No big deal, just “no” the existing one and add it all back in as a dual-line. Just don’t do what I did. When you do a “no” on an ephone-dn it not only wipes out the DN, it also removes all references to that DN. Including any button assignments on ephones! And hunt groups! Yeah!
The reason this happened is because I decided to use the GUI for some phone configuration on a new system. I thought it worked great until I realized that it had added the DN’s as single line only. Maybe it’s an option in the GUI but I missed it and haven’t gone back to check it out yet. If it’s not in the GUI that’s a travesty!
I guess the lesson is, learn CME from the CLI and you can’t go wrong.
Simple but inspiring…
23 things to leave to your kids.
I’m not big on lists but this one is a gem. Maybe I’ll take care of a couple of these…
Last night the ISS flew over. I’m sure it’s done that dozens of times in the last decade(!) since it’s been flying around our planet but there was something special about this one. It was right after dusk for us on the ground but still nice and shiny way up there. Once we found it it was easy to track. It sped up as it crossed right over head and then slowed and meandered off to the horizon. I had a real moment there when I thought about it. I’ve seen shuttles launch and that’s always hit me in the chest. The shear power can’t be conveyed until you are present for a launch. This was different.
I imagined those 3 astronauts flying over at 200 miles just going about their business while hundreds, probably thousands watch them. I imagine that folks in the 60′s had many similar moments with the space program. These days it doesn’t seem like many care and that’s a shame.
Someday I hope to get the opportunity to get into space. Perhaps even take a vacation on the Moon.
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I’ve been wanting to write more in here lately but I’ve been inspired at all the wrong times. Mostly when I’m driving. It’s been sort of slow anyway, but not. I’m working billable hours at work despite the new management position. Makes for some full days.
And then, at home, we’ve started working on putting a patio in. It’s big. No shocker there. It’ll probably break me by the time it’s all done too.
Such is the life we choose to lead.
Ok, so Car and Driver actually did put the video up.
I don’t understand why they didn’t have it there to begin with but whatever. Enjoy my cringe-worthy performance. 
Last December Steve and I went to a Car and Driver Ride and Drive event. It turned out to be the commercial Ford’s been running for the Focus where we all picked the Focus over the Accord and Camry. Hah. Anyway, one of the incentives to get us to show up was an in car video of our personal driving. Well, almost 4 months later we got the links to view it today. Except, it’s a generic video. And it’s the same. Here’s the direct link to the video.
As you can see we were both sent links to a page that displays the same video that they’ve kindly labeled “Master Laps”. Gee, thanks for the personalized video. Did it really have to take 4 months to send me this crap? Glad I could be a shill for a day.
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