Its only been six weeks since I ordered it, but my Sipura SPA-841 SIP telephone arrived yesterday. I hooked it up for the first time today and have to admit that its the best value for the price for an IP telephone.

The only noticible drawback is the poor speakerphone. The microphone is a tiny pinprick of a hole in the bottom of the phone. It is nearly impossible to be heard through that microphone. Other than that, though, its not a bad phone: two line appearances, extensive web-based configuration pages, pixelated display screen, mute button, and a 2.5mm mini-phono jack which lets you use cellphone headsets with the phone. Sound quality is excellent from the handset, too.

Another minor quibble is the shape of the handset. Its curvy shape, coupled with the shallow handset base, makes it easy to think you’ve hung up the phone, when instead the handset has missed the hook button and is resting on the phone body. Like J. Lo and Ben Affleck, the two just don’t mate very well. I suppose after some getting used to it, I can train myself to hang it up properly. Time will tell how bothersome that becomes.

Overall, though, I can’t complain. It’s a $90 phone that sets the new entry point for VoIP phones. It’s not as sophisticated as the Polycom IP 500, but a good deal all the same.

MT.Net says check it out!

PXE is the dog’s bollocks. In fact, remote booting in general is the dog’s bollocks.

Wow. Looked up from my work and was surprised to see snowflakes. Local forecaster Greg Fishel took a drink last night when he predicted measurable frozen precipitation by February 28th. Looks like he was a day early.

The whipping wind could make for tough driving should the snowfall get any heavier.

From the album Rubberneck:

Bended knee
Nine years old
Waitin’ for…
Just one word!

I was thinkin’ of all the things
My daddy told me of
Sin and salvation and
Manhood and dignity…
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I stopped by Raleigh’s community access television studio yesterday at lunch, hoping to find out how to get my producer’s membership renewed. I walked around inside for five minutes before finding someone to help me. His name was Edward and he ran the tapes.

The studio has changed quite a bit since I took the field production class back in 1996 or so. Gone are the tape deck editing stations. In place is a monster PowerMac with a huge flat-panel screen running Final Cut Pro. The racks of SVHS decks are gone, too, replaced by an all-digital station. Producers take their SVHS, DVPRO or DVD media and feed it into the system 96 hours before airtime. The tape gets digitized and placed onto their multi-terabyte server, where a Crispin suite schedules and airs programs. I was amazed at the technology.

The studio is also greatly improved, with all-digital sound and video boards, and three chromakey-capable digital studio cameras. The studio room has had baffling added and one large wall is a chroma wall. Gone are the Wayne’s World-esque toys: this stuff is pro quality! Though you’re free to do an Extreme Close-up should the mood strike.

I don’t have basic cable now, so I can’t see what is being shown now, but I bet the video looks good, even if the content is a little lacking. You don’t need to subscribe to cable to be a producer, though. All you need to be is a Raleigh resident and you have the keys to the kingdom.

Well, that, and you have to get trained on the stuff, which seems to be a stumbling block. I didn’t see anyone working with the equipment when I went in. I wonder if the staff is even fully trained on the gear. Edward couldn’t tell me when the next classes will be, so I’m stuck waiting for the time being.

Blogging is a cool way to share your thoughts with the world, and community access television seems to be a logical extension – telling your story with video. Already, I have a lot of ideas for shows, each of which remains my property to do with as I please. The only caveats are that the shows need to air on community television at some point, and they have to be non-commercial. Beyond that, your imagination is the only limit. Seriously. There are some community access programs out there which push the very boundaries of First Amendment rights. Indeed, commnunity access television enjoys the strongest of free-speech protection.

Anyhow, I can’t wait to take my first class with the new studio gear. Then the hard part begins – producing a program people want to watch.

Stay tuned!

I made the mistake of listening to the Right Turn Clydes MP3s I have on my hard drive. Now I can’t get “Wagon Wheel” out of my head. Damn you, Larry, Shane, and James!

Missed their last show at Six String Cafe. It’s probably for the better, since Larry says the club changed the format for open-mike night.

I saw this weekend that Durant Nature Park will be hosting live music this summer. Sure would be great to hear acoustic music in the great outdoors! Maybe I can talk the Clydes into playing there sometime.

This is the first week that my company is sharing digs with another tenant. They’re on one end and we’re on the other, with no doors/locks/boundaries between us. The common areas like restrooms and breakroom are shared, too.

I’ve already gotten into a battle with some unknown co-tenant, who insists on moving the restroom trash can near the door. Sorry, dude, but it belongs under the paper towel dispenser. Even got the countertop cut out for it, see? Just because you’re new doesn’t mean you can come in and put the trash can anywhere you like!

All kidding aside, it will be interesting to see how this works. I’m hoping it doesn’t suck, but odds are that it will, at least to some extent. The plan of the day is to just grin and bear it until we can get digs of our own. Right now, roommate issues are the last thing we need to be dealing with.

I’m putting the cap on another fun-filled weekend. Though we miss the warmer weather we briefly enjoyed the past few weeekends, we still managed to get outside for some substantial exercise. We went for a walk to Durant park Saturday morning and watched Hallie play on the playground. Afterward, when the kids were napping, I dusted off my mountain bike for the first time in months, and headed back to Durant. In a t-shirt and shorts, I pedaled through the park and up to the old office park where I used to work. It wasn’t a long ride, but it put me in a fantastic mood for the rest of the day.

Today’s weather was not nearly as nice as yesterday’s, but that didn’t stop us from another walk. This time, we hiked around Durant lake, with Travis tucked into Kelly’s jacket and Hallie sometimes in my backpack, sometimes walking on her own. I couldn’t get the grin off my face as we stepped through the woods. Kelly told me “this park adds thousands of dollars to the worth of our house,” and I wholeheartedly agreed. There’s nothing like having the wild outdoors for a backyard.

Kid-wise, we had a fantastic weekend, too. Travis slept better this weekend than he has in a long time. Friday night, he woke up just once between 7 PM and 6 AM. Even after 6, he snoozed quite a bit: long enough to let my eyes flutter open on their own. Once you wake up naturally a few times, you realize what a tool of the devil an alarm clock truly is.

Hallie has gotten very generous with her “I love you’s.” Last night I told Kelly that I’d probably been told “I love you” more in one day Saturday than any day of my life. Today’s count came close to that total, too. Its so sweet to be enjoying time with your kid and then hear “I love you” pop out of their mouth.

Kelly and I walked across the dam at the park today, holding each other’s hand. We’ve felt that close this weekend. Its fun rediscovering the world through the curious eyes of your children.

We got the kids passports in the mail today. This is about a one-month turnaround, which is actually pretty impressive. The gummint isn’t so bad, after all.

We filed for them at the Cary post office. Pics were taken there, too. Hallie looks like a zombie and Travis is on the verge of screaming his head off. In other words, its just how they will look after a trans-Atlantic flight!

Our Italy trip will be here before we know it: less than nine weeks away. I’m trying to think, but I’m convinced that nothing will top this as highlight of the year. The kids’ birthdays won’t hold a candle to it (so to speak). Maybe if, say, I won the lottery in the fall, that would top it. But that’s about it.
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