Can you keep up?

What a difference in culture

2010-12-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a short comment regarding the differences in forum cultures.

Recently a new post was put up on cruiserforum.com by a young man regarding designing and building a boat, he was greeted with a wonderful abundance of knowledge and guidance without any derogatory or inflammatory remarks. Two very famous designers offered their insight and experience without having to resort to abusive tactics or blowing their own horns.

If the young man had instead gone to the boatdesign.net forum he would have been chastised, insulted and would have been the center of effort for a feeding frenzy among the members.

Is it any wonder why we pulled ourselves out of boatdesign.net? I do not understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to the abuse on that site.

Just a shot at a historical prediction

2010-03-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Whether you supported the push for health care reform or not, is really not the question at this point.

Are you preparing for the consequences of the historic vote that took place last night?

Just want to go on record with the following new phrases that we could potentially see from this.

GDII - Great Depression 2

Great Depression of the 21st Century

GD21

Global Depression

I am not sure how the naming conventions of the World Wars was determined but I would offer the above in the event that we are now committed to heading towards the next Great Depression.

I truly hope I am wrong on this one.

2009-11-10T06:51:00.001-08:00

Is your company now running leaner and meaner? Go to the next level with www.seamless-communications.com Tampa business phone solutions

2009-10-29T06:29:00.001-07:00

www.seamless-communications.com

2009-10-29T06:28:00.001-07:00

Spending too much for your dial tone?
5 full feature business lines for under $190 a month. How much could you save? www.seamless-communications.com

2009-10-29T06:24:00.001-07:00

Altigen features enable you to respond on the fly to voicemail messages http://tinyurl.com/yfftjh4 Business Phone Dealer Tampa Bay

2009-10-29T04:45:00.001-07:00

Seamless Communications - another feature provided by Altigen's Extension Anywhere capability. http://tinyurl.com/yj84vcp

2009-10-29T04:19:00.001-07:00

I was hoping to generate some discussion with my Windows ? (7) comments ;) Gearing up for new marketing and business strategy for 2010.

2009-10-24T07:47:00.001-07:00

Perhaps they will jump on Windows 8 the "8" reminds me of infinity, a better concept than Windows ?(Windows questionable) based on Vista?

2009-10-24T07:44:00.001-07:00

The fact that the character "7" resembles a "?" is too much for me to rush headlong into a deployment recommendation to my clients.

2009-10-24T07:41:00.001-07:00

While I certainly would like to see an uptick in new computer sales, I still remember the hype from the Vista launch.

2009-10-24T07:35:00.001-07:00

IT shops and Distributors are counting on the launch of Windows 7 to boost sales of new PC's as a large number of machines approach 4 years.

2009-10-24T06:48:00.001-07:00

Windows ? oops, I mean 7. But then again for many IT shops and IT distributors this really is a critical question. Will Windows 7 deliver?

2009-10-02T09:25:00.001-07:00

Lunch @ the Centre Club

2009-08-20T14:34:00.001-07:00

Welcome to @Altigen_Master -Altigen

2009-08-20T04:57:00.001-07:00

Well the schools are open, the systems I am responsible for are again functioning as they should... Now a message to the kiddies ... LEARN!

Busy couple of weeks

2009-07-30T16:08:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy two weeks. New software deployments at clients. 15 hours troubleshooting a problem on a Verizon FiOS circuit. Now there was a fiasco, my client moved from out in Seffner to a new location in Plant City, this should have been a simple morning.

Go to the clients old location, back up, shut down the phone server. Take the phone server and the Ingate to the new location. Reprogram the Ingate, set the new public IP on the Altigen MAX1000 and every one should be happy.

Nope.

After reprogramming everything we found that the Ingate would not talk to the Verizon gateway. It could not be pinged from outside the building as well.

I immediately suspected a problem with provisioning on Verizons Gateway.

Many hours on the phone with Verizon tech support to no avail, even had one of their customer service people on site, he was unable to get more than one public IP at a time to work. At 5 PM as the Verizon tech was going out the door he made the comment that he suspected an issue on Verizon's end, but he was done for the day.

Verizon of course insisted it was the clients VPN router, but after a couple of minutes, reprogramming a laptop to test with I proved that in fact there was an issue with the Verizon ciruit. Verizon insisted on having their Westell router put back in place before they would trouble shoot any further, ok, reprogrammed and reinstalled, still the same problem.

You could only get one public IP at a time on the circuit. It did not matter if it was a Verizon router, laptop, VPN router or my spare test router. Once a single public IP was on the circuit you could not get any other device to talk to the gateway. Turn off the existing working device, and suddenly one of the other two non working would start to work.

Hello Verizon, this is a gateway issue on your part.

Finally, after 12 man hours of troubleshooting time both with and without Verizon tech support I got ahold of a Verizon employee who listened to what I was saying, Joel Zxxx278 you are a lifesaver, along with Bill Vxxx305 they determined that in fact it was a provisioning problem on Verizon's gateway 96.xxx.xx.1, the sad part of this is the bill that I had to present to the client because Verizon's tech support could not / would not solve the issue. 12 man hours were wasted due to the incompetence or lack of concern of most of Verizon's FiOS tech support. (In reality I guess it would be 11.5 hours wasted, it did take me 30 minutes to determine that it was a Verizon Gateway issue to start with)

Once again, if it had not been for Joel and Bill I would still probably be fighting a problem on Verizon's circuits.

Tomorrow should be an easier day, another 50+ seat Vipre deployment, then a little more work on the VoIP domain for our failover system, and time to do a little more research on Altigen's new 6.5 release with its built in failover capabilities.

2009-07-30T16:03:00.001-07:00

is prepping for a 50 seat Vipre deployment tomorrow. Designing an IPBX failover on a n Altigen Voip Domain

A day of housekeeping

2009-07-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

It was not one of those planned events but through the course of the day as things just seemed to happen:

Finally deployed the new Vipre Enterpise in house, I had been sitting on it waiting for some spare time, oh well. Spare time does not seem important when the server that Mailsite, our mail server resides on decided it was time to bring a little excitement into my life.

Not a major issue, but it will take a couple of restarts, ok no problem, set all services that I don't need to manual. Since we're down lets roll out the new Vipre Enterprise, installation was straightforward and quick. One call to Tech support to understand how to exclude a directory and we were on our way.

Went into services and put the Mailsite services as well as the others I had put on manual back on automatic, did a restart. What do you mean the mail services failed to start? Ooops, license expired last week, the restart triggered the shutdown of all services.

Ok, no email, need to get new license. Having delivered customer service in various technology fields over the past several years I really appreciate what a pleasure it is to work with a company that understands customer service, in less than 15 minutes I had a new license and was back up and running.

As the old saying goes " When you are up to your ass in Alligators, it's hard to remember the object was to drain the swamp"

Kudos to the tech support folks at Rockliffe www.mailsite.com and Vipre www.SunbeltSoftware.com for exceptionally friendly and fast support.

2009-07-16T12:32:00.001-07:00

is taking a break after an easy Vipre Enterprise deployment. With at least one more 50 seat deployment by EOM. http://ping.fm/aPxzY

2009-07-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

this is what I'm talking about Microsoft, Altigen and Synnex http://ping.fm/Fcb3i Tampa Bay phone systems

2009-07-16T07:30:00.001-07:00

is getting ready to test the new Skype for business beta. Microsoft based Altigen IPBX, UC and phone systems Tampa Bay

2009-07-14T15:27:00.001-07:00

Altigen and Microsoft deliver again ! Gibson Guitar deploys Altigen
http://ping.fm/GBBGH

Made in the USA Microsoft Altigen phone systems

2009-07-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

You don't have to be a Fortune XXX company to have the best in IPBX / Unified Communications platforms. Florida Unified Communications Solutions offers the best of Microsoft OCS and Altigen Communications integrated systems in Florida.

Based out of the Tampa Bay area we have Microsoft certifed systems engineers (MCSE) on staff that are also Altigen Certified Systems Engineers.

Altigen and its Max Communications Server software platform can be deployed on an HP server running Microsoft Server OS and offers a "made in the USA" solution that no other current telephony provider can match.

If you want to have the best phone system / PBX solution that works natively with your Microsoft investment contact us at 813-527-0180 or visit us at http://www.myaltigentech.com/ we look forward to helping you with all of your business phone systems needs in the greater Tampa Bay area.

2009-07-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

SystemTamers / Florida Unified Communicatons Solutions - is the oldest exclusive Altigen Communications dealer based in the Tampa Bay market.

Located in Land O Lakes, FL we have been an Altigen dealer since 2005 and have been maintaining Altigen IPBX systems in call centers since late 2003. From 2003 until mid 2008 we accrued on site working experience of over 15,000 man hours.

We have designed and successfully deployed Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity solutions revolving around the Altigen / Microsoft platforms to numerous clients throughout the South East.

From simple phone systems to complete and fully integrated Unified Messaging / Communications implementations we have the hands on experience on Altigen Communications IPBX / Unified Communications implementations.

Our complete service department is Altigen and Microsoft certified.

2009-07-13T07:04:00.001-07:00

is preparing a proposal for a phone system for a facility in the health services industry. Altigen UC / phone provider Tampa Bay Florida

2009-07-10T05:57:00.001-07:00

Microsoft / Altigen Communications IPBX Unified Communications and phone system support in Tampa Bay www.myaltigentech.com

2009-07-10T05:19:00.001-07:00

Altigen hits the road with Microsoft, Synnex and HP. http://ping.fm/lEhvJ Microsoft Partner Conference

2009-07-10T04:38:00.001-07:00

ready for another day of opportunities in the Unified Communications arena, news coming from Altigen and Microsoft. Hasta La vista Nortel!

Does your business phone make phone calls?

2009-07-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

When you are looking for a business phone system, otherwise known as a PBX or IPBX in Tampa Bay or along the West coast of Florida give me a call. There are many different routes to look at to satisfy your business communications needs.

On premise PBX, hosted IPBX, Microsoft Unified Communications solutions. What it comes down to is what do you need to satisfy your current business requirements, what paths are available as your business grows. Will you have to replace the hardware you start with to grow, or is the system / software expandable.

We are familiar with a number of systems that are sold to businesses that contact us too late to find out that they purchased a system that does not easily integrate with their Microsoft server or desktop platforms, has limited or no expansion capabilities, requires expensive onsite service calls to perform basic tasks etc...

We can offer you systems that allow you to use your cell phone as a true mobile extension off of your phone system, this means that you make calls off of your cell phone that have the same funtionality as your desk phone, shows your main business or DID number, transfer to another extension or outside number, send the call to voice mail, conference up to 5 other callers, record on demand, track all company phone traffic with the built in Call Detail Reports including your company cell phone usage and more

Before you make that purchasing decision, let me show you a number of alternatives, answer any questions that you may have, regardless of the product make.

We offer Altigen Communicatons products the leading provider of Microsoft Based VoIP and Unified Communications solutions.

2009-07-06T04:40:00.001-07:00

is ready for another day of business as usual in Tampa Bay. Altigen PBX / IPBX business phone systems.

2009-07-04T03:55:00.001-07:00

is happy! Clean bottom, nav lights operational, beer in the ice chest. Remote monitoring via Altigen IPBX. Ready for a day on Tampa Bay!

2009-07-03T04:38:00.001-07:00

is wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

2009-07-02T10:07:00.001-07:00

is getting ready for a midnight tech run this evening on an Altigen PBX in a busy call center.
Then its 4th of July weekend in Tampa Bay!

2009-06-30T05:22:00.001-07:00

is ready for another exciting day in paradise. Upgrading Altigen phone system for centralized recording -landscaping & fertilization client

2009-06-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

Darr Palmer
FloridaUnified Communications Solutions
(813) 333-6277 x201
www.systemtamers.com
Technology Trembles at the mention of our name!
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
This message contains information from Florida Unified Communications Solutions, a Palmer Diversified Ventures company, that is privileged and confidential, and intended for the individual(s) named only. If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error, or notify us by telephone 813-918-1447 immediately, and delete the original message.

2009-06-19T11:09:00.001-07:00

is saying a public thanks to Polycreative for the great headshots. I knew they were good, but didn't realize they were of celebrity status.

2009-06-17T05:38:00.001-07:00

The correct link for the Unified Communications seminar in Tampa 6/24/09 http://ping.fm/i1I0q

2009-06-17T05:11:00.001-07:00

Unified Communications seminar in Tampa, June 24th. http://ping.fm/mOEO5

2009-06-17T04:32:00.001-07:00

is ready for another day of adventure and opportunity in Unified Communications in Tampa Bay.... a day in the life of a phone system dealer

2009-06-16T08:39:00.001-07:00

designing the demo systems for the Centre Club Tech Committee event on June 24th. Altigen VoIP Domain hopefully with exchange integration.

2009-06-12T12:17:00.001-07:00

new blog entry at darrpalmer.blogspot.com

Weather the storms

2009-06-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

A partial checklist of things to be aware of to help you achieve business continuity during adverse weather.

Battery backups – does all of your sensitive electronics equipment run through a battery backup or at the very least a good surge suppressor.
When was the last time you tested the battery backup?, but wait don’t pull that plug yet, is the battery and/or battery backup itself over 24 months old? Do you know that the industry recommended service life for a battery in most battery backups is only 18 months?

Phone circuit surge protection – Are your copper phone circuits run through surge suppression before entering your phone network? A single surge can cause thousands of dollars of damage, and rarely covered under any type of maintenance or warranty plans.

Data circuit surge protection – is there any surge protection in place on any of your network nodes? Do they all tie into a common ground point?

Data backups – do you do onsite backups of your business data? Do you remove the backups offsite and rotate them back on? If you don’t and it is a close enough strike you risk losing your valuable business data, including the backups. Oh, your data is backed up over the internet every night. Ok, how long does it take you to get your data back from offsite? Do you have to download it? Do you wait on CD’s to be shipped? How much business is going to be lost waiting on the recovery time?

Phone System- In the event your phone system is taken out by the storm, how long will it take you to locate the phone number to call, your account number information, do you want all your numbers forwarded to a single line, or do you have sales, customer service, accounting and human resource numbers to forward. How much business may be lost during the time it takes you to at least get the numbers forwarded. Make a list, instruct your key employees when to make the call to your phone service provider if you are not always there. Better yet, let’s talk about a phone solution that automatically handles this for you.

2009-06-12T06:53:00.001-07:00

the last couple of weeks have been the yearly wake up call. The time to get ready is now. Is your business storm ready?

2009-06-05T13:31:00.001-07:00

As the storms roll through Tampa Bay, what happens to your business when the worst happens? Considering business continuity solutions?

2009-06-05T07:07:00.001-07:00

is revising proposed failover scenarios on Altigen Communications IPBX systems. Do you have business continuity covered?

2009-06-05T03:51:00.001-07:00

and no it was not "grasshopper"

2009-06-05T03:49:00.001-07:00

is asking "as quickly as you can, what was the name of David Carradines character in Kung Fu?"

2009-06-04T05:35:00.001-07:00

is working on a failover proposal for a client utilizing Astrotel PRI's and both the clients as well as the PRI providers Altigen IPBX.

2009-06-04T04:58:00.001-07:00

is reminding a client that it is never as simple as they said. When your phone system rides your IP network, talk to the phone guy 1st.

2009-06-03T07:25:00.001-07:00

:) "all you have to do is." - NOT ;)

2009-06-02T09:12:00.001-07:00

Hmmm... failover programming between multiple Altigen Communications systems with SIP trunks from Bandwidth.com via Ingates.

2009-06-02T05:41:00.001-07:00

is catching up on billing, now that all the lightening damage and system moves are complete :)

2009-06-02T05:02:00.001-07:00

has completed client moves on 1 system, client upgrades on 3 systems.

2009-06-01T04:16:00.001-07:00

is preparing to move a clients phone system.

2009-06-01T03:20:00.001-07:00

is performing upgrades on Altigen IPBX systems.

2009-05-31T05:33:00.001-07:00

is managing internet marketing advertisments and setting cross links.

2009-05-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

is getting ready for the weekend!!!!!

2009-05-29T12:35:00.001-07:00

is happy that the Altigen Communications corporate move is going smoothly. Great Tech support - thanks guys.

2009-05-29T04:34:00.001-07:00

is explaining the answer to the question:

How do you create a $739.00 fuse?

Contact me for the rest of the story.

2009-05-28T02:32:00.001-07:00

is ready to spend another day solving clients needs, troubleshooting lightning damage to their networks.

2009-05-27T11:54:00.001-07:00

Is attending a maggi tax advisory seminar at J. Christophers

2009-05-27T04:26:00.001-07:00

"Yes, Hurricane season is in less than 5 days, lightning (not the team) season is here. Are you protected? Can you afford not to be?"

2009-05-27T04:14:00.001-07:00

is offering a shoulder to cry on to companies that didn't have lightning protection in place, and then showing them how to be protected.

2009-05-24T07:40:00.001-07:00

is having a fun filled day with the grandkids. Helping them clean up the trooper as a surprise for their Mom.

2009-05-22T03:42:00.001-07:00

is now ready for another day of opportunities and adventure, yesterdays score - Technology challenges 0, SystemTamers 5.

2009-05-22T03:37:00.001-07:00

is hoping that the dirtbags that stole the gas generator sold it to someone before they realized it was blownup, and got their butts kicked.

2009-05-21T03:54:00.001-07:00

is searching for old contacts from JCC in Orlando or Memphis. Jim Odom are you out there?

2009-05-20T02:58:00.001-07:00

is ready for another day of opportunities and adventure.

2009-05-14T06:20:00.001-07:00

is researching audio & connectivity issues on a ComCast ISP circuit.

2009-05-13T10:39:00.001-07:00

is off and running. Another day full of opportunity & adventure, starting with the Centre Club Tech meeting.

2009-05-12T12:04:00.001-07:00

has beat the rain!

2009-05-12T04:59:00.001-07:00

is leaving on a SW FL customer care journey. Bradenton, Sarasota, North Port

2009-05-11T05:59:00.001-07:00

is looking for opportunities and adventure in the week ahead.

2009-05-10T04:30:00.001-07:00

Is getting breakfast @ eurotaste then off to deliver exceptional service to

2009-05-08T16:26:00.001-07:00

Is relaxing @ uke's

2009-05-08T05:56:00.001-07:00

Is ready to deliver another day of exceptional service! Ps TGIF

2009-05-07T06:25:00.001-07:00

Biz is good! Bradenton, Sarasota, Pt. Charlotte & return

2009-05-06T13:07:00.001-07:00

is preparing for a potential road trip to SW FL. tomorrow.

2009-05-06T05:50:00.001-07:00

is ready for another day of excitement, adventure and new opportunities

2009-05-05T07:47:00.001-07:00

is researching sharing PRI circuits between Altigen Servers to enable non PRI enabled Altigen switches with PRI capabilities

2009-05-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

problem solved, found remote location has been experiencing intermittant internet connectivity. Identified: contractor is repairing sliced DSL circuit lines.

2009-05-05T06:31:00.001-07:00

is back and delivering exceptional service to SystemTamers/Florida Unified Communications Solutions clients. Currently researching an extension issue on an Altigen system.

2009-05-05T03:31:00.001-07:00

is getting a couple of hours work in on the boat.

2009-05-04T11:04:00.001-07:00

is paying the price for sneaking out early on Friday;)

2009-04-30T18:45:00.001-07:00

I am beginning preparations to enjoy the 24th celebration of my 29th birthd

2009-04-30T14:16:00.001-07:00

Setup at the business expo

2009-04-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

is preparing for tomorrow's business expo @ the Centre Club!

2009-04-28T04:46:00.001-07:00

is in prelaunch of an ebay store for SmallYachts. Ebay name "Chandelry" Soon to be up with various bits and pieces for yachts of all sizes.

It is also the main distribution link for "Fer-A-Lite" synthetic mortar which is manufactured by our marine division.

Sometimes you sail, sometimes you sand bottom paint

2009-04-27T04:40:00.001-07:00

I had been looking forward to a weekend of sailing, the weather was perfect but Sam McGee has a dirty bottom, hopefully the diver will get it cleaned this week. So instead I spent the weekend working on Ishtar.

Managed to get 9 of the porthole openings cut out, working on taping and sealing the edges of the cabin sides prior to mounting the portholes.

Worked on the design for the chart table a little bit, and just did a little clean up in the boat shed.

Started removing the bottom paint from around the exposed areas on the starboard side in preparation for repairing the barrier coat.

No sail time this weekend, but I am one weekend closer to finishing this 6 month (4.5 years so far) project.

2009-04-27T04:27:00.001-07:00

is looking forward to a new week full of opportunities and adventure.

2009-04-25T12:49:00.001-07:00

is going to go work on the boat for awhile

2009-04-25T05:17:00.001-07:00

is managing social networks information streams

2009-04-24T11:24:00.001-07:00

is researching mppt controllers for solar and wind generation systems

2009-04-24T09:51:00.001-07:00

Is grabbing lunch at Eurotaste.

2009-04-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

darrpalmer.blogspot.com

2009-04-24T08:30:00.001-07:00

is leveraging technology to improve the customer service experience of SystemTamers client base.

2009-04-24T08:27:00.001-07:00

is testing sync of updates to blogger.