Sunrocket sinks – moving to Viatalk! Review and porting instructions.

As most people keeping track of the VoIP industry know by now, Sunrocket has stopped business abrubtly, leaving over 200,000 customers like me in the dark.

Yesterday, I signed up for ViaTalk, and used their “Bring your own device” (BYOD) option to take advantage of the Sunrocket Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo that I had. I received the welcome kit and IP provisioning information yesterday, and configured my Innomedia gizmo device to work with Viatalk. In this article, I will provide information about unlocking instructions, and provisioning instruction for your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo device to work with Viatalk. If you use the BYOD option, Viatalk will waive all activation fees and shipping charges.

Unlock your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo:

1) Go to http://192.168.251.1/Voice_adminPage.htm – this URL may be different if you changed the default address of your Gizmo. If this is the case, change the “192.168.251.1″ to the correct address. Type in ‘admin’ as the username and ‘7UprUtew’ for the password, and click the OK button.
2) From the Menu on the left-side, go to Network -> Provisioning Setting. Uncheck the “Enable Provisioning” box, and click the “Save and Reboot” button. Wait for the device to reboot. You will be promoted for username and password again. Click the “CANCEL” button until you reach a blank page. Now go to the URL from step 1 again, and use the ‘admin’ and ‘7UprUtew’ credentials to logon.
3) You may change the password for ‘admin’ account if you want.

Configure the Sunrocket/Innomedia Gizmo to work with Viatalk services:

1) From the menu on left side, go to VoIP -> SIP Proxy. Enter the information below:

a) SIP Proxy: From the Viatalk email. It was newyork-1.vtnoc.com for me
b) Uncheck the “Use Outbound Proxy” box
c) SIP Local Signalling Port: 5060
d) SIP Domain: vtnoc.com
e) Registration Expiration Time: 60
f) Preferred CODECs List: PCMU/800 for the first drop-down, and NONE for all others
g) Click the “Save” button.

2) Now go to VoIP -> User Account from the menu, and enter the following Information.

a) Line: 1
b) User ID: Your 11-digit phone number from email. (Starting with country code 1. Example, 19995551212)
c) Password: From email
d) User Name: Same information as entered above in 2(b)
e) Authentication ID: <empty>
f) Use Hot Phone Number: NO
g) Hot Phone number: <empty>
h) Use T38 FAX: YES
i) Click “Save” button.

3) Reboot your cable modem. Then reboot your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo. If your telephone is powered, then power cycle the telephone. Your ViaTalk service should be up and running. ENJOY!!

I will post my ViaTalk review soon… stay tuned.

 

Nokia N95 vs. iPhone

Over at Scobleizer, there is a WW-III going on between the Nokia fanboys and Apple followers, each claiming that the products they like are better.

I am not a fan of either of the two – although I like Apple for some very cool designs and usability; and Nokia for feature-packed products.

I wish I could have both, Apple iPhone and Nokia N95 for a few months, so that I can write an unbiased report comparing the two and laying out the pro’s and con’s of each product…

 

Follow-up on the G-Day

Hi All,

I am back! I got done with the GMAT last month, and now I am on my way to writing essays for b-school admissions. Tonight, I am going to send out my applications for The Indian School of Business.

The past few weeks, I have received numerous emails asking me about my GMAT score, and how I went about preparing for the test. I have submitted my debreefing on the GMATClub.com website here. Hope that helps.

 

Gearing up for my G-Day

I am taking my GMAT test on Monday, October 30 2006. Yes, finally, after months of work-related traveling interrupted my study schedule, I decided to take the plunge. The deadlines for application to most colleges are around 1st December, so that will leave me about 25 days to prepare my essays, recommendation letters, and other application materials.

Today I made a trip to the Pearson Vue test center in Louisville, where I will be taking the GMAT. With only one day before the G-day, I better stop blogging and start preparing! I am giving one mock exams each, today and tomorrow; which will be followed by a one to two hour review of my mistakes.

Alright, good luck to me Time to get back to study now.

 

Happy Diwali

On the auspicious day of “DIWALI“

Festival of Lights and Joy

I wish you a

A very Happy and Prosperous New Year

As a Token of my love & affection, a Small Gift for you.

 

Installed Vista RC1, finally :)

I finally installed Vista RC1 today! I know I am late on the bandwagon, but my business travel had made it difficult to do this. But better late then never – I am impressed with what I am seeing so far.

The Vista Upgrade adviser RC advised me to uninstall Nero and Norton Antivirus 2006. Since I did not want to do that, I did a fresh install on a different partition.

The installation was easy – Vista found all my drivers automatically, and I did not have to baby-sit the installation each step. The installation automatically progressed and restarted the machine as required. I still would prefer that the installation would ask all the information upfront, like time zone settings, etc… but this is definitely better than some previous windows version installations.

After installation, I installed Office XP and Visual Studio 2005 without any problems. The firewall that comes with XP is decent, but I may replace it with Zonealarm in the near future. Nero Ultra Edition 6.0 installed fine, despite the warning that the upgrade adviser gave me. However, I was not able to install Norton Antivirus 2006 – has anyone been successful doing so?

Overall, the speed of Vista is impressive. It takes about 50 seconds to boot up from BIOS to Windows, and after that, browsing files and folders seem much faster than before. Security on Vista is definitely better – none of the setups and exe’s self-execute. Vista will verify that I intend to run the setup before going forward – the popup is a little annoying but I prefer to be safe than sorry.

The WinKey+TAB is really cool – it shows all my open programs in 3-D view. Next, I am going to install my other softwares, including SQL Server and some other development tools.

I am certainly impressed with the RC1 build – keep it up Microsoft developers and testers – it was worth the wait.

I may post in a few days with an update as I get more familiar with Vista

 

Can India sustain growth in wake of China’s growing economy?

The title of this post may sound cliche, but the question is a valid one.

Many people may argue, that India is already an economic powerhouse, registering stellar growth rates and a booming economy. However, these are the beginning stages, and the important question is whether India will sustain similar growth, or even make it better?

According to Economist Intelligence Unit and the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII), China attracts ten times more FDI compared to India, yet FDI is considered among the most important factor driving the Indian economy.

An analysis by Fortune titled “Why India will overtake China” talks about democracy driving India ahead of China, but also mentions facts like “it takes one month to setup a business in China, but 3 months in India”. Although I do not intend to compare China and India, it is obvious, that if China grows like it does today, it will take away a major share from other south asian countries, including India.

In my opinion, the young, educated and English speaking population of India can drive her to be a noticeable economic power. This, coupled with the “reverse brain drain” that India is experiencing will ensure that the growth momentum that India is seeing will stay for a long time. Democracy, on the other hand, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it builds confidence amongst international investors, but on the other hand, the bureaucracy inherent in democracy slows down processes and inhibits economic growth.

Another article, titled “Can India overtake China?“, written by Yasheng Huang and Tarun Khanna, talks about the different growth models the two countries have adopted. The authors claim that India encourages entrepreneurship and local businesses, while hardly any Chinese industries have been started by local Chinese entrepreneurs – they have all been a result of direct FDI from (mostly) western companies.

What are your thoughts – can India match China’s growth, or at least continue to grow along with China? Please post your thoughts.

 

What management method does your boss use?

Joel Spolsky talks about different management methods that can be applied to software development teams. The methods were interesting. There are a total of 4 posts:

1 – Introduction
2 – Command & Control method
3 – Econ 101 method
4 – Identity method

After reading the articles, my boss seems like an Econ 101 manager! Joel says that this method has the potential to displace intrisic motivation. However, I do not think this has happened to me and my co-workers.

What method does your boss use?

 

Coming Zune … so what’s new?

Microsoft’s Zune has been labeled “ipod killer” by the media, but can it really kill ipod? There are several portable mp3 players in the market, many arguably better than ipod in terms of functionality, but none of them have managed to “kill” ipod’s market. So what will Microsoft do to take on ipod?

If rumor mills are to be believed, the Zune player is going to have a wireless interface to transfer songs from one zune player to another. It will also have a sleek design, metallic body, and fashionable colors, to make it look cooler. The body can be replaced with different colors by buying a “face plate”, just like you do for your cell phones! Some also claim that Microsoft is going to allow users to download any song you have on your iTunes for free, making it easy for you to migrate to Zune! These features are certainly missing in ipod, and it looks like Zune is going to offer a combination of features and fashion!

But how different is Zune from popular cell phones available in the market? Sony Ericsson particularly offer a range of sleek cell phones with “walkman” feature giving you great sound quality! Whats more – you can add memory to the cell phone at will, thereby not limiting you to certain GB, if your play list grows a lot. They also come with a “air plane mode”, so that you can turn on and listen to music while flying. They have all the features that rumor mills claim – transferring songs wirelessly (through bluetooth), play video, sleek and fashionable, sporty colors, and its a cell phone – so you do not have to carry two different devices in your pocket!

EDIT: I came across this article titled Zune vs. iPod: Assessing Microsoft’s chances which I found interesting. One user comment I particularly found interesting was:

Quote# 1:
“IMHO Microsoft can bury iPod:
1.superior price point choices w/no question unlimited return policy
2.much more powerful via advanced chips well beyond the current state-of-art Phillips
3. retractable color hi-def LCD screens
4. advanced audio quality
5. ultra simple, hi-speed downloading, audio & video
6. simple audio & video encoding
7. availability of preloaded video cards, SD & Flash
8. useful Microsoft other software
9. portability re autos, hi-end hone audio & hi-def video systems
10. X-Box compatibility”

Quote# 2
“Microsoft doesn’t stand a chance against Apple on this one. This is their 5th or 6th try to come up with a strategy to beat Apple. First they ignored Apple, then they did a bunch of deals with Napster, BestBuy, etc. Then they tried the direct competition with MSN Music. Then they did a major partnership with MTV/Urge. And now once again they are trying the direct-competition approach. For all the people who think that this news is interesting – were you expecting Microsoft to be successful with their past 4-5 failures in the Music space, or is this suddenly different?”

What would compel you to buy a Zune player, given the similarities with cell phones? Posts your comments here!

 

Microsoft Zune vs. Apple Ipod?

Hmmm…for a while I was trying to decide what to buy — Apple Ipod, or Creative Zen xtra. One had better looks and navigation features, while other had FM and better screen. One was more popular and fashionable, while the other was more usable and easy. Before I could decide, Microsoft decided to make it tough – news about Zune, a Microsoft mp3 player broke out, and reading about their plans and designs here, I think it is going to be a tough call.

I am a huge fan of Microsoft products – I use them everyday. I think they carry the best user interface (oops! I mean user experience) – be it Microsoft Office (ah.. the toolbar, when they first got it out), their keyboards and mouse, or their development environment. I use a Windows PC, communicate with friends and family using Live Messenger, and find myself using Live search just as much as Google search. I started out my programming in c/C++, moved to Java, and today, most of my programs are written in Visual C++, C# and other .net environment. Not to mention, I am a huge fan of the Visual Studio IDE.

I, like many others, am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Zune. Will it be better, or atleast as good as iPod? What are your thoughts? Looking at the preview above, and reading the Zune Insider, I think I may go with Zune. Only time will tell, though.

Update – Looks like Microsoft has launched a Zune viral marketing website – ComingZune.com