VoIP Lowdown

Welcome to the 4th edition of the Carnival of Emerging Technologies. We have received 10 good posts for this edition. I hope our readers will enjoy these. Here are the posts in the order they were received.

Beno Varghese presents Google Sucks (Maps) posted at Beno Varghese dot-com. Beno says, “Every time I get directions to a destination using Google Maps, the drive time and miles that it displays is longer than what it actually is.”

Phil B. presents The Price of Progress posted at Phil for Humanity. What do you think would happen to the prices of large flat televisions if even larger TVs were not going to be made and the economies of scale of all manufacturers continued to increase?

Kevin Kozlen presents Pen Mightier than Keyboard posted at Marketing & AdBits Blog. A new pen and paper technology that may change the way we fill out forms or the way students take notes.

Paulo Tioseco presents The Next Generation of Internet Applications posted at Paulo Tioseco. The main reason for the success of Internet Applications is its client-server architecture. The success of this architecture is also the reason for its limitation — it will just remain client-server applications. Grid Computing transcends these limitations and presents to us another paradigm for creating Internet Applications.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Victory In My Battle Against Feed Scraping Content Thief 4Comedy.com posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Madkane emerged victorious in her battle against the one of the RSS feed scraping content thieves. The issue is technical. A must read for everyone.

Matt presents Microsoft Surface first sighted two years ago? posted at Surface Sightings. The recently announced Microsoft Surface apparently made a cameo appearance in a movie - two years ago.

Anja Merret presents Chatting to my generation - Powerful new invention posted at anja merret. Anja says, “This is my kind of invention. A team of scientists at MIT have demonstrated their, still in its infancy, new technology which has been called WiTricity.”

Only Three Notes presents Get a DeskTop posted at Only Three Notes. There are tons of good reasons why still you should prefer a desktop over a laptop. This is true that a laptop gives you the flexibility of carrying your computer wherever you go. Anyways, there are also equally good reasons why you should consider a desktop over a laptop if you had to decide between these two.

Jeremy presents Blue-Footed Booby Tooth posted at WTTF: Welcome to the Future. Here’s a funny cartoon for anyone that watches just how many bad ideas are generated by companies.

Brian Wallace presents AIM new bots again posted at NowSourcing. Explanation of the new chatterbots that started appearing in everyone’s AIM buddy lists.

That concludes the 4th edition of the Carnival of Emerging Technologies. Next edition of this carnival will be hosted here on 05 July, 2007. You can submit your posts here.

Sagar :: Jun.21.2007 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

That obnoxious Vonage song finally got to you and you’ve decided to make the switch from traditional phone service to VoIP. You’ve got the VoIP adapter, you’ve got the phones, you’ve got the service provider and you’ve cancelled your phone service. Now what? Before you plug in your VoIP adapter and start making phone calls you’re going to have to do a little rewiring of the telephone circuits in your home. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too complicated, but there are a few simple adjustments that will need to be made in order to prevent damaging your equipment.

Of course, you could just hire a professional to come out and make the necessary adjustments but, if you are strapped for cash, don’t want to wait or just want to learn something new, here is what you will need to do.

Learn The Basics

The biggest obstacle that you will face when switching from traditional phones to VoIP is changing the telephone wiring inside your home. It may sound daunting but it is actually a pretty easy process made easier if your home was built in the last half-century and easier still if it was built in the last decade or so.

Before you start tearing out your phone jacks, cutting random phone wires and connecting them to other wires it’s important to know what you are doing. You probably don’t know anything about wiring a telephone system but don’t worry, because you don’t by any means need to be an electrician or an expert to figure out how to make these small adjustments.

Modern Homes: Telephone service is provided over a pair of wires. You’d be hard-pressed to find a home built in the last 50 years that doesn’t have at least two pairs of wires for the telephone lines. However, this does not mean that the wiring is suitable for two phone lines.

Each phone line is connected to a pair of wires usually consisting of a solid colored wire twisted together with a white wire. The white wire will probably have a stripe running its length that will coincide with the solid color wire that it is paired with. The standard is to use the blue wire twisted with the white wire (with a blue stripe) as the primary pair or “Line 1.” Any further lines will generally be set up with “Line 2” on the orange pair, “Line 3” on the green pair, “Line 4” on the brown pair and “Line 5” (if that’s a possibility) on the gray pair. Newer homes will likely have either Cat (short for category) 5 or Cat 3 wire. Cat 5, which is the most common, contains four pairs of wires while Cat 3 can hold different amounts of pairs (usually between three and six). The outer jacket of the wiring can come in a range of colors but blue is popular for Cat 5.

Older Homes: If your home has been around for a decade or longer you may find a completely different setup. “Quad” wiring contains four wires colored red, green, yellow and black. The red and green wires generally make up the primary phone line and sometimes the yellow and black will be utilized as “Line 2.” However, the use of “quad” wiring for more than one line can cause “crosstalk” between the two lines because the wire pairs are not twisted together. For this same reason, “quad” wiring is also more prone to pick up radio frequency interference from nearby transmitters. If you find “quad” wiring in your home you will want to seriously consider replacing it with Cat 5 wiring. This is when you might want to consult a professional.

Really Old Homes: If your home was built more than 50 years ago then you might find two or three wires twisted together with the same dark-color insulation and no outer jacket. If the wires are still working, the insulation is in good shape and you just don’t want to deal with replacing it all, then you can probably leave them alone for now and use what you have. But, if the wires are insulated with rubber, you will need to replace them because the insulation is likely to crack and crumble with any disturbance. Once again, if you need to rewire the house, seek professional assistance.

Various Wires: Any non-standard wire (doorbell wire, lamp cord, speaker cable, antenna wire, stranded wire, etc…) that is being used as telephone wiring needs to be replaced with Cat 5 wiring. Telephone wire should be solid copper. Say it with me now – if you don’t know how to rewire your home, seek professional help.

Connectors: You will likely not need to splice any wires together but if you need to for any reason, don’t use wire nuts. They do not make a secure connection and will allow moisture into the splice corroding the copper. Only approved communication connectors should be used for connecting wires. Gel-filled, moisture-resistant connectors are available and vital if the wires will be outdoors or exposed to excessive moisture. Make sure to clip off any bare copper ends when using these connectors so that all of the wires are completely insulated.

Disconnect From The Phone Company

Now that you know what kind of wiring to look for it’s time to proceed outside and disconnect the phone company’s line from your inside wiring. Even if the line appears to be dead, it’s important to disconnect it because any kind of power that makes it into the phone lines in your home can ruin your VoIP equipment.

Network Interface Unit: The Network Interface Unit (NIU) is the demarcation point between your wiring and the phone company’s wiring. This is the most common connection these days and will consist of a metal box mounted to the side of your house with a phone line running to it from the street. Open the box and you will find one or more sets of screw terminals and short stubs of wire with a standard telephone plug on the end. Unplug all of the plugs and wrap the ends with black electrical tape. It is important to leave the ground wire connected to protect your home from lightning strikes.

Make sure to warn the phone company not to reconnect these lines. You can leave a note on the wires themselves or leave a sign on the inside or outside of the NIU.

Plugless Network Interface Unit: If your NIU is missing plugs then you are dealing with a newer model. For this type of unit you will need to disconnect the wires directly from underneath the screw terminals. If there is bare copper at the end of the wires clip it off so that the whole wire is insulated. After the wires are disconnected, you will need to splice them all together away from the screw terminals using an approved connector. Obviously, if there is only one wire, then you will not need to do any splicing and you can just wrap the end of the wire with electrical tape (after it is disconnected) and leave it in there.

Lightning Protectors: Before the NIU there was the lightning protector. If you find one of these then, similar to the plugless NIU, you will have to physically disconnect the wires from the screw terminals. There will be two large black wires leading from the street to the lightning protector. These are the phone company’s wires and you will need to leave them connected along with the ground, which should be connected to a third terminal in the middle of the unit. This will help protect your home from lightning strikes.

You will only need to disconnect the wires (usually smaller and colored red and green) that lead into your home. Be advised that not all of these are wired the same so if you need to do any splicing be sure to remember what wires go together.

New Home Or Remodel

There are a couple of things to keep in mind if you have a new or remodeled home without a NIU. Always use Cat 5 wiring or better when running new wire, keep your phone wiring as far away as possible from electrical wiring to prevent interference and run a wire from each phone jack to a central location inside your home instead of a NIU. Also, a builder will generally leave a stub of phone cable hanging outside where the NIU would be installed. If you can, pull this wire back inside the house to keep it out of the elements.

Connect VoIP

After you have disconnected the power from the phone company use a regular corded phone to check for signs of life. If you hear any noise get a phone technician to your home to check the inside wiring. If you have dead silence then you are ready to proceed. All you have to do is plug your VoIP telephone adapter into any phone jack in the home, connect standard phones to other jacks and you are wired for VoIP. However, now that your home is VoIP activated there are a few other systems that may need some attention.

Alarm Systems

Many alarm systems will not work in conjunction with VoIP. Before you plug in your VoIP adapter, make sure that you’re home alarm is compatible or you could damage both systems. Some alarm companies will make necessary adjustments for VoIP wiring but your best option is to choose a company that does their monitoring through a broadband connection.

TiVo, ReplayTV, Dish Network, DirecTV

You may not have a problem but, if you do, there are a couple of things that you can do to make TiVo, ReplayTV, Dish Network and DirecTV work well with your VoIP network. You can connect an inline DSL filter backwards to the device in question or disable your call waiting. You can also try to adjust the data transmission speed to the slowest setting possible or, as with some TiVo units, you can use them through a broadband connection and bypass the VoIP system altogether. If none of these work, you can contact your VoIP provider and they may be able to change some of the settings on their end to make things work properly.

Too Many Ringers

There may be a limitation on the number of ringers that your VoIP adapter can support. To find out how many ringers you can have turn all of your phone ringers off and have somebody call you. Turn on each ringer one by one until they are all on, start to get quieter or don’t work at all. If you need to ring more phones than your VoIP adapter will support there are ring boosters available through companies such as Viking Electronics and Mike Sandman Enterprises.

Wiring An Apartment Or Condo

Everything we have talked about to this point assumes that you are living in a single-family dwelling. If you reside in an apartment or condo, you will not be able to undo any wiring inside the NIU because other people will be using the same unit. You will have to instead find the place where the outside wires make their way inside your apartment and break the connection there. However, this can be a risky gamble because you cannot be sure that someone will not come along and reconnect the wires. Your safest bet would be to get a cordless phone and plug it straight into the adapter.

For more in depth information check out How To Distribute VoIP Throughout A Home.

Staff :: Jun.14.2007 :: Features :: Comments Off

Greetings! Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Emerging Technologies. We have received 10 posts for this edition. I hope our readers will enjoy the posts. Without further ado, here are the posts in the order they were received.

Moses E. Miles III presents The Unseen Dangers of Wireless Networks posted at Three Sticks. Learn about the challenges and dangers facing wireless users both at home and in public and how to overcome those challenges.

Anique Akhtar presents Try Out a Registry Cleaner-Speed Up Your System posted at Computer and Softwares. The system’s registry keeps on growing automatically as programs are added and deleted. As the registry keeps growing it gets loaded with unnecessary information and data. This gradually clutters and fragments the registry over time.

Anna Farmery presents Podcast Freq: A-Z Of Podcasting - Part 12 posted at Podcast Freq. When you start podcasting you start with a goal. It is important that you set yourself yardsticks to measure your progress.

Steve Hansford presents To Vonage or Not to Vonage posted at The Techno Pages. The article discusses Vonage and whether it is still a wise choice.

Josh presents iRobot- Never Vacuum Again posted at iBuz. Great new and innovative way to take back control and gain time back in everyday busy lives.

Rosco presents A4 sized paper thin LCD Screen… posted at MadDump - The Dumping Blog. LG Philips have produced the first A4 sized LCD screen that can bend. Its thickness is only 0.3mm and can display 4096 colours, LG Philips have said that it is designed to be energy efficient and only needs power when the image changes…

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Captured By CAPTCHA posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. CAPTCHA Humor.

Dr. Deb presents Robotic Pet Therapy posted at Dr. Deb. This post looks at the new technology of robotic pet therapy.

Steve S presents How To Introduce Gizfolio posted at How To Split An Atom. An interview with Brett Innes of Gizfolio, the future of internet job boards.

Praveen presents iPhone posted at Unix Simplicity. Apple has confirmed speculation and announced a new iPod/phone, called (of course) the iPhone.

That concludes the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Emerging Technologies. Keep submitting your posts to the future editions of this carnival. Thank you for your contribution.

Sagar :: Jun.05.2007 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off

Have you ever expected to see a presidential candidate’s speech sandwiched by racy video clips? A campaign rally brought to you by Facebook? From Web sites to Blogs to announcements to fundraising, Barack Obama is trying to utilize every aspect of the online community to boost his campaign.

Techies have probably noticed the freshman Senator from Illinois all over the Internet but where does he stand on issues such as technology education, efficient healthcare and clean energy? Obama has a bold plan to expand broadband access to everyone but his stance on net neutrality could come into conflict with that effort. Is Obama “poised to become the Technology President” like the group Obama for Technology claims? Can he move America further into the “digital age” or will his ideas fall flat? Only time will tell but here are a few things you need to know about where he stands.

He has a major online presence.

Senator Obama has a blog, a Flickr account and a strong Facebook following. He delivers podcasts and viral videos. Not to mention his own social networking site, my.barackobama.com.

Viral Videos

Obama announced his exploratory committee via an online video clip. His presidential campaign announcement is now ranked #2 on Brightcove.com’s Top 10 Buzz videos, between a porn clip and cover model’s video. He is currently utilizing the power of Brightcove by creating his own channel with a syndication function. This allows barackobama.com to host BarackTV, while at the same time providing clips that bloggers and websites can publish on their pages.

Facebook

Senator Obama spoke to a group of students at George Mason University who organized a “Yes We Can” rally for Obama. The organizers behind the event belong to a group on Facebook called Students for Barack Obama. According to CBSNews.com, the event “also drew supporters from other area colleges, as well as young voters from Michigan, Florida and Obama’s hometown, Chicago — all thanks to Facebook.”

my.barackobama.com

Obama’s website includes a social networking function. It’s much like myspace, but you’re not going to find any hot pink backgrounds or fairy cursors there. It’s all about Obama. Once registered, users can write their own blogs, raise money, locate events and join groups. The blogs are plentiful, ranging from advice for Obama, to why others should support him, to completely unrelated inanity. The site also contains various groups of interest such as Geeks for Obama and Obama for Technology.

Despite the massive online interest in Obama, there is still room for skepticism. Zack Exley of the Personal Democracy Forum is not convinced that Obama’s internet efforts are genuine. He’s concerned that Obama’s campaign has “delegated ‘the Internet thing’ to staffers…outside of the inner circle”. However, it is clear that in Obama’s campaign, no matter who is pulling the strings, they are taking “the Internet thing” seriously and using it to the candidate’s advantage.

He wants America to “compete in the digital age.”

In a speech announcing his candidacy for president, Obama expressed hope that ours will “be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age.” What exactly does this entail?

Bringing education into the 21st century

Obama has noted that “those on the other side of the globe are increasingly being educated earlier, longer, and with special emphasis on the math and science skills required for the industries of tomorrow.” That means that today’s kids now have to compete with the rest of the world or become obsolete. In response to this phenomenon, Obama wants to improve computer education. Moreover, he wants children to be able to learn how to design and build technology like PlayStations and websites, not just play on them.

Broadband Everywhere

Senator Obama, while speaking at TechNet, pointed out that the United States now ranks 10th in the world for providing people with access to broadband. In his campaign announcement, he made it clear that he intends to do something about that by “lay[ing] down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.” When Chicago launched a municipal wi-fi network project, Obama sent Mayor Daley of Chicago a letter to commend it. He also offered Mayor Daley assistance in the form of Public Internet Channel, a project Obama works on that strives to make the Internet more accessible to everyone.

Of course, with broadband comes the option for VoIP. Although Obama has not made note of it, his plan to expand broadband opens up the possibility for more VoIP users. Keep an eye on him in the coming months to see if he makes light of this connection.

Obama has high hopes for bringing America into the “digital age.” It will be interesting to see how he plans to fund these projects. As the campaign continues, expect to see Obama expand on his views of technology education and, especially, broadband.

He supports net neutrality.

Obama has been integral in efforts to preserve net neutrality. He and other legislators have met with Google co-founder and President Sergey Brin to discuss the issue.

What is net neutrality?

According to SavetheInternet.com, there are telephone and cable companies that intend to manipulate the way data is moved by “deciding which web sites go fast or slow and which won’t load at all.” Net neutrality ensures that these companies won’t get their way.

Freedom to Podcast

Obama delivered a podcast (yes, a podcast) on net neutrality, noting that “it is because the internet is a neutral platform that I can put out this podcast and transmit it over the Internet without having to go through any corporate media middleman. I can say what I want without censorship or without having to pay a special charge.”

Congress Steps In

The issue of net neutrality has made it to Congress. Obama is a co-sponsor of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which works to protect equality for all content and applications. It also protects consumers from being forced to buy “bundled” services with their broadband connection similar to cable or VoIP.

Does this conflict with his broadband plan?

A group called Hands Off the Internet is overjoyed that Obama hopes to spread broadband access. But at the same time, they are not so excited about his policy on net neutrality. They note that net neutrality could block the “incentives for cable and telephone companies” that are needed to make the investment in spreading broadband. It remains to be seen if Obama can pull off both projects.

Net neutrality will, without a doubt, be an ongoing debate. Keep an eye on Senator Obama’s involvement with net neutrality legislation and watch what kind of impact it may have on his plans to extend broadband.

He wants to promote technology for healthcare.

Healthcare needs a tech facelift, plain and simple. Obama would like to engineer that. His vision could translate into a more advanced system and lots of jobs for techies.

Advances in Medical Information Technology

On his website, Obama notes that “a single transaction at a hospital still costs up to $25–not one dime of which goes toward improving care.”

Obama has committed to working on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program Efficiency Act, which aims to provide purchasing power to be used on developing technology in healthcare administration.

If Comcast can tell that you have an affinity for CuteOverload.com’s hamsters eating bits of corn, shouldn’t your new doctor have file information about your 20 year old tonsillectomy just as easily? It sounds like Obama is poised to provide the support necessary to get your hamster addiction and tonsils on the same level, cheaper.

He wants to turn our energy problems into opportunities for innovation.

Just about everyone these days is concerned about energy issues. If you’re not, well, what rock do you live under and where can we all get a car with your gas mileage? For everybody interested in energy conservation and a transition to a more efficient, technology-based economy, Obama has something for you.

Forcing innovation by using caps on carbon emissions

Obama has come up with a plan to reduce emissions. First, the cap for emissions will be lowered. If a business can’t operate under that cap, they have two options—(1) to purchase credits from other companies or (2) to purchase a permit, the funds of which will go toward investments in clean energy technology. Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense, notes that this plan has the potential to “make winners out of innovators.” Winners being the ones laughing all the way to the bank, of course.

Investment in clean coal technology

Power companies are gearing up to build dozens of new plants that will use coal. The problem is, if they don’t use the right technology, they stand to create 60 billion tons of pollution. Makes your lungs twinge, doesn’t it? To combat this black and dusty future, Obama plans to implement “standards and incentives [to] ensure that these plants use available technology” that’s better for all of us.

Fuel-efficient cars as the future of auto industry

Obama believes that fuel-efficient cars are the future of the U.S. auto industry and he has a plan to support their growth. “Healthcare for Hybrids” offers auto makers healthcare savings in exchange for investment in fuel-efficient cars. This will help to give auto makers the tools they need to support their employees while working towards a future of fuel efficiency.

Flex fuel support

Senator Obama has introduced the American Fuels Act, which provides loans and capital to the biofuel entrepreneurs who have the best plans. Also part of this act is adding flex-fuel gas tanks to cars, which cost manufacturers an extra $100 per car. Obama plans to provide a $100 tax credit to cover the cost. And just to show us he’s serious, he wants to make sure that all new cars the government buys will be flex-fuel vehicles.

All of these energy plans and programs add up to a great opportunity for engineers and techies alike to create innovative plants and products. Even if you have no aspirations of the inventive kind, don’t feel left out. You’ll still get clean(ish) air and a smaller gas bill.

Obama has brought some tech-savvy ideas to his campaign. He’s used the power of the internet to his advantage and hopes to bring America into the digital age of education, healthcare and energy. Chris Lehane, a Democratic political consultant, wonders if Obama will be “the Google of the presidential campaign and redefine the model, or…ultimately sink.” It will be fun to keep an eye on him and see which way he goes.

Staff :: Jun.03.2007 :: Uncategorized :: Comments Off