Yearly Archives: 2007

Are pigs flying in Colorado?

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As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve got a DishNetwork 510 DVR. Sometime last night, new software was downloaded to it that brought a whole slew of new features, including DishNetwork’s long promised version of Tivo’s “SeasonPass“, entertainingly enough called “DishPass”.

(Is it any wonder EchoStar lost the legal/patent battle with Tivo?)

Also in the new features is generalized “Name Based Recording”, though I’m not sure how that differs from DishPass just yet.

I haven’t had anything to record since the update, but here’s hoping that nothing goes horribly wrong.

And, I’m fairly certain I recommended the Silblades to CK, since I had them on my 2001 Dakota in mid-2001 and still have them on the 97 Accord.

University of Illinois Endowment farms

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This article makes one wonder if the University is forgetting it’s roots. Endowment farms may have been given to provide scholarships for students, but I also assume the donors thought the University would continue to allow local farmers to earn a living from the land. Switching to open bids and cash rent agreements may make the process more agreeable with State procurement laws and maximizes the income from the endowment, but it sure hurts the small family farmer. And it raises cash rents on surrounding land.

Vacation Spots: Conner Prairie and A Night at the Museum

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The wife found a blurb in Good Housekeeping about a place just outside Indianapolis called Conner Prairie that gives kids a glimpse of early 19th century life on the prairie. She was wondering what a good way to remember to go visit once it’s a little more age appropriate for Robin. So, I’m adding a new category: Potential Vacation Spots and probably some subcategories based on recommended age groups.

Also included in the same section, A Night at the Museum at the Chicago Field Museum, best for ages 6-12.

Important Differences

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< mgcp default-package hs-package < no mgcp fax t38 ecm < mgcp fax t38 inhibit < no mgcp fax-relay sg3-to-g3 < no mgcp explicit hookstate

There’s something important in there. Without those lines, a Cisco 3845 Voice Gateway controlled by Cisco Unified Communications Manager won’t answer inbound calls. With those lines, suddenly inbound dialing works. Amazing.

Cisco complaining and other things

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I’ve been spending a good part of my time at work recently reading large amounts of Cisco documentation for Unified MeetingPlace, Unified Communications Manager (formerly Call Manager) and all the necessary parts and pieces that an enterprise needs to make those work. The most aggravating part of the reading has been finding that no one seems to ever do a “sanity check” on the documentation. For example, our technical engineers keep telling us that the MeetingPlace Network Backup Gateway runs on Windows 2003, even though the release notes for the most recent version say:

Network Backup Gateway must be installed on a 7800 series Cisco Media Convergence Server (MCS) with the Cisco version of the Microsoft Windows 2000 server operating system installed.

Also frustrating initially, very little of the pre-sales technical work seems to have been transferred to the post-sales technical group. Cisco claims to have made a serious effort is correcting this, but we haven’t had another conference call since our concerns got heard by the right people.

In a completely unrelated event, a coworker has joined the ranks of us bloggers, and she’s trying to write one entry every day. I also need to document my thoughts on the record US$100 million fine against McLaren for the Stepney-gate industrial espionage event in F1, but that really should be another post.