Ubuntu 10.10 & Verizon 5-spot ( zte ac30 )
Ok so I had some "fun" (rip my hair out moment) while trying to connect the new Verizon 5-spot ( AKA ZTE AC30) with Ubuntu 10.10 , so I thought I would share as the solution was far simpler than I could have imagined at the time. Now those Ubuntu guys have they're sh!t together, they have come a long way in making linux/debian easy to use, but every time I find one quirk I'll write about it.
This quirk being the Verizon Five Spot (pictured to the left) made by ZTE out of china and also known as the ZTE AC30, now you will not hear me ranting an raving about this device as it is far inferior to its big brother the Verizon MiFi (novatel) device which functions far superior to this little redheaded step child. The AC30 device has weak code, and weak circuit design, one problem that plagues it is if you decide to modify any configuration to the wifi settings via the admin portal it will toast the wifi radio, its true , tested the behavior multiple times after numerous trips to the VZW store for replacements. Now if you have not made any changes and your device is working just hunky dorey the linux solution is simple, turn it on and attach to the wifi network called "Verizon AC30 A081" and away you go. The rest of this post is for you luck few who needed a dual mode broadband solution and the AC30 so called "WiFi AP" feature has craped out or is selectively working, and your operating system of choice is not OSX or Windoze.
First lets start by analyzing why Ubuntu 10.10 does recognize this device from the Network Manager natively, simple, its a dual mode CDMA/GSM broadband device that has a built in mass storage device. Go ahead and plug it in and execute ' dmesg ' from terminal and you'll see something like this;
Ok, DON'T Panic. . . .
Yes it looks like there is a USB modem attached to ttyUSB0 - 4 and no, its not a big deal. Now since Network Manager does not like this device we will have to connect to it via an alternate method.
GNOME-PPP
If you don't already have it, get it (sudo apt-get install gnome-ppp ). Next attach your PoS. . . oops I mean AC30 to your PC/Laptop/Tablet/Netbook/Wristwatch/Etc via the supplied mini-usb cable. You can type ' dmesg ' if you want to see all the pretty hardware state changes, or you can just type ' sudo gnome-ppp ' and launch gnome-ppp.
Fill int the blanks according to the image below and click 'Setup' for more options.
The username does not seem to matter but is a required field, as well as the Password. As such I have set both to " none ". If this does not work and you actually get an authentication failure try Username [AC30 Phone#]@vzw3g.com and a password of ' vzw '.
After you clicked " Setup " you should see the screen below.
Now pay no attention to " Device: " as you're going to use the nifty " Detect " button, but FIRST change the " Type: " to USB Modem.
Now click " Detect "
Now change the " Speed " to ' 460800 '
And thats It !!!
Just Kidding, you actually have to click " Close "
and then "Connect" !
You'll see a bunch of modem connection messages running in the background terminal window, just ignore all that stuff. The connect Dialog box will now start counting away the time your connected. Hit the Info button for Layer 3 info.
That was simple, and still very human friendly right?
What the “cloud” means to you . . .
Seems like the new technology buzz word these days is the "cloud". As many industry professionals like myself understand the term and end goal of the cloud I find many people I run into or converse with on a daily basis do not understand what the "cloud" means to them, the're everyday life, and the consumer advantages of th cloud.
First lets examine a few of the components of the "cloud". The first and most important is the internet, and for the sake of this example the internet = the cloud. The internet is evolving bast our traditional web browsers of yesterday, we see this with social media sites like Facebook & Twitter, Banking sites, productivity sites like Evernote, and our favorites Netflix and Hulu. All these companies have redefined the internet and how we use it, from the origins of being an information and commerce system to a fully integrated transport system. Think of it this way every road, train track, and sidewalk in the world are a transport system, thats what the internet has evolved into. Why is this important to understand? Well simple, the internet of yesteryear was flat and allowed us to perform a predetermined set of activities from a flat web page, its now a three dimensional cloud that extends its reach to nearly every consumer device imaginable.
The cloud in its simplest and most valuable form allows for rich media, high performance applications and services to be hosted on powerful collection of computers (servers), while allowing consumers to purchase inexpensive portable energy efficient devices to access those services/applications. This means you the consumer spend less on hardware and more on cloud based services, equaling $$$ for Big Business.
Remember that last "App" you downloaded for your mobile phone? Guess what? Its a custom developed web browser. The "App" is designed to retrieve and transmit data to and from a web server in the cloud and present it in a visually appealing format thats easy to access and use. How much simpler can it get? And why not? Why should we spend a lot of money oh hardware that will be obsolete inside of 12 months? Why not let the companies we purchase services from invest in the expensive powerfull hardware, and leave us to our cool portable devices?
Now there is so much more to the cloud but as I stated earlier this is a brief explanation of what the cloud means to the everyday consumer. The web is no longer constrained to this model;
USER->PC/LAPTOP->WEB BROWSER->INTERNET
We now have this;
USER ->PORTABLE DEVICE->APP-"A"->CLOUD SERVICE
USER ->PORTABLE DEVICE->APP-"B"->CLOUD SERVICE
etc . . .
Just remember, 90% of all the "Apps" you download for your mobile devices are simply web browsers, designed to cleverly deliver data from the internet in the most appealing user friendly format available. So the next time your out looking for a new computer think to your self, can I hold this device in one hand? can I navigate just by touching the screen? is there an option to have it connected to the internet 24x7?
If you answered no to any of these questions, walk away, your going to spend too much.
I wrote this post on my iPad. . . and edited it on WordPress for Android (my phone)
“Boomers” Being left behind?
For many years now we have been predicting the demise (retirement) of the "Boomer" populous, normally as a generation passes we build some sort of memorial, or CNN special on their life. Wow the generation that gave life and energy to the Internet, and technology, retiring? or being left in the dust? It has come to my attention that this generation is not retiring, they cant. A lot of boomers that made it big in the 'Tech' or '.com' boom, spent that money poorly, or forgot about retirement. But what is hurting the boomers the most is 'Ego' , this world has been transformed around technology, and technology is constantly changing.
As a technology professional ask yourself "If I did it 5 years ago, and it works! Why should I change it?" what this translates to is "I learned all this stuff 6 years ago and implemented this system, I don't want to learn something new!" . Now first off I'd like to go on record stating that in no way shape or fashion am I taking cheap shots at the 'Boomers' I'm merely pointing out basic human nature. Well this method of thought is like poison to the tech world, and the next generation recognizes this and is quickly pushing the Boomers (demoting/firing) out of the way.
It is no longer acceptable to retain (commit to) the pioneers of yesterday that refuse to keep up with technology, the guys that sat back and relaxed too long and are now inhibiting the progression of technology in most SMB’s. So the astronomical decline in qualified IT personnel is even more evident as we enter the next century. Now I’m not writing to tell you that there is a problem, most of us are aware, I’m writing to ask how we solve this problem? I’m the last person in the world that wants to be responsible for firing anyone but where do my responsibilities lay, with a co-worker , or subordinate ? No, they lay with my employer, because at the end of the day they are in fact the ones who sign my check, they are the ones who have hired me to make the best decisions for the business.
Related Article:The Tech Magnet: "The Shockwave Heard Round the World"
Asterisk vs Proprietary IP PBX – a technology and business point of view
I'd like to say Open Source is always the clear choice, and it may be the right one in some cases. However the fact of the matter is that Asterisk is so extensible that it some times hurts the product. Everyone who has replied thus far has expressed a common risk factor. End users, they are your greatest asset and threat at the same time. Distributions like TrixBox have the right idea, build a distribution and implementing "Service Modules" to handle the configuration of tasks.
Now this answers the cry of all the "mom and pop's" out there, lets address "Big Boy Corporation." Larger corporations need a security blanket and if you cant offer that then your out the door, most open source products do not offer that however if you are "Super VoIP Man" the one man consulting operation, it presents a unique niche market. Yes Asterisk is Bad @$ and can do many of the things that "XYZ Big Box" vendors offer and more but there are points where it takes extreme amounts of configuration time to compete with 'out-of-box' features that "YXZ" have.
lets examine one other scenario, Big Boy Corp.'s IP enabled contact center. Transacting 20k worth of calls a day IVR's w/ speech recco, Advanced ACD call treatment and distribution, recording and analytics, geographically disperse locations. I can guarantee that there is not a single open source solution that could deliver a working, STABLE (keyword:Stable), highly available solution like "XYZ Big Box" can. Why you ask? well that's easy, MONEY. Everyone out there is driven harder by the influence of money to make things faster,better,and easier to use. Big problem in the industry, throw some money at it, guarantee it will get fixed.
There is always going to be a niche market where Open source solutions (like Asterisk) fit, and that market is always changing. but when it comes to playing the game with the big boys they guys with the deep pockets will win, basic economics. Now for every Asterisk VoIP wizard out there (I wish there were more) I have one recommendation focus on integration solutions, I'm saving thousands (in Cisco Device Licensing) utilizing Cisco Communication Managers and a SIP trunk to an Asterisk server catering to Wifi SIP endpoints. For home I use Askerisk (on my Linksys router) to power all my wired and wireless SIP endpoints.
In conclusion Asterisk is a great product and can (be configured to) do a lot of things but it is simply not Big Boy Enterprise ready. And may never be for that matter, as long as it is a open source solution.