SRG is Travelling at the Speed of Light!

The installers are here and finishing up the fiber optic cabling between floors. This is SRG's first use of fiber optic cabling. Fiber can trasmit data at about 1000 times the speed of copper (much faster than our network hardware is capable of) cabling and over a much greater distance. This will give use plenty of room to grow in the future.

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Online Translation Tool

BabelFish is a tool I use to convert the SRG Info Tech in to one of several languages. As we do more and more work across border this could prove to be a handy little tool for everyone. Check it out.

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It's Official - SRG Supports the iPhone

The waiting is over. I'm very pleased to announce that from a technical perspective, we are officially configured, tested, and ready to support Apple's incredible new communications device, the iPhone.

If you are interested in purchasing the iPhone, there are a few key drawbacks you should be aware of prior to making the leap.

1) Exchange integration is still in it's infancy and it is not fully supported. The iPhone does not use Microsoft's 'Direct Push' technology which means that only emails are synced over the air, and every 15 minutes not in real time. Also, contacts, calendar events, and tasks are all synced manually by physically connecting your iPhone to your computer and syncing via iTunes.

2) Document editing is not possible. You can open and view M$ Office documents, but they are not editable.

3) Keep in mind that the iPhone is only available through AT&T so if you are not an AT&T customer you'll have to make the switch to become an iPhone user.

There are lots of other pro/cons to the device, but at the end of the day it is all about the interface. Apple focused on making the features and functionality included in the device the best they could possibly be, rather than stuff lots of sub par functionality into it. In addition the swarm of third party development surrounding the device is incredible and has already led to several fantastic tools you can run on your iPhone.

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iPhone Hack - Bad Move

As previously posted I found a way to hack the iPhone. . .change the default icons, ringtones, and other features that are supposed to be locked down. It was a very difficult process and I ended having to rebuild the phone and reconfigure everything when I was done. I may give it another shot, but for now I plan to use the my iPhone as Apple intended it.

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Great iPhone Hacking Web Site

Third party tools have been released to do a lot of the stuff your not supposed to do on your iPhone. . . add ringtones, change display icons, even use other SIM cards. Hacktheiphone.com is your one stop source for all the latest iPhone hacks. It was only a matter of time before someone figured this out. Check it out.

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What it takes to internetwork 2 floors and 110 people. . .

We have all the hardware in place to make the move to the 3rd floor. Two 24 port switches for our lan (wired network), one 8 port switch for our wlan (wireless network), four gigabit fiber transceivers, and six 802.11n wireless access points. All of the equipment uses PoE (power over ethernet). This means that our wireless devices mounted in the ceiling will have power provided by the switch over the Ethernet cable. No need for a separate power cord. This will come in especially handy when we migrate to VoIP. Phones won't need to be plugged into the wall, power will be provided over the Ethernet line. This will save a valuable space for more important clutter.

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The Great Social Networking Experiment Continues. . .

I setup our 'free' account with Onesite today. The registration process was as easy as buying just about anything else online. The 'free' site was not really free though. To use the free site you have to transfer your domain name to Onesite (meaning they become the registrar for the domain and it would have to be transfered again if we ever left Onesite). This cost $9/yr. I also added spam/virus protection for the domain for another $15/yr. After all was said and done I ran into a serious problem. To qualify for a 'free' Onesite, you have to transfer your domain registration to Onesite. Since we had already registered with another registrar, we have to wait 60 days to change registrars. This is a rule of the ICANN. So. . .the experiment is temporarily on hold.

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