Well, I learned something interesting today. IPCC Express can manage multiple time zones, including those silly little areas that don’t change their clocks – ever.
It’s not pretty code, but it works 
Archive for August, 2005
IPCC Express
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005Voice CCIE Test
Sunday, August 28th, 2005Well, I just passed my voice written test. Still a tough one, but now I can schedule my lab.
Anyone out there done the voice lab yet? I know a few that have passed it, but I’d like to hear from more if possible.
E911 resource
Friday, August 26th, 2005In case anyone runs into E911 compliance issues in the US, here is a great link to any question you’d have about it:
http://www.nena.org/9-1-1TechStandards/state.htm
Class “C/1.4G” fireworks
Saturday, August 20th, 2005Well, it seems I’ve become quite attached to shooting large display-class fireworks. So much so, that I’m going to apply to the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firarms) for a class B license (class B fireworks range in size from 1″ shells to 16″ shells).
To date I’ve tried several “500 gram cakes” and I recommend the following three (listed in the order of best to least best) if you can get your hands on them:
1. Baby Boomers (16 shots) – nice, fast, LOUD
2. Getting it Done (12 shots) – big, loud
3. The Whole Nine Yards (36 shots) – very visual, not very loud
I also recommend “Guests from Heaven”, a 7 shot whistler and “A million lightning bugs”, a 300 shot tray that has tons of streamers and crackling.
CallManager features of the century
Saturday, August 20th, 2005Here are two of the most requested features I’ve seen for CallManager:
1. Hold ringback timer – this feature would make a call re-ring a phone if it’s been on hold X seconds – been requested since CM 3.0 came out.
2. Flash-hook – CME has this already – it would allow someone using an FXO line to get a call-waiting call – been requested for at least three years now.
Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that Cisco responds to customers pretty well. If you’re considering CallManager, or already have it, contact your local account team and tell them it’s urgent you have these features, or you’ll switch to Avaya which already has them 
DC Directory and SSL, part 3
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005Looks like TAC has a DDTS, assigned (CSCsb47643), and is testing a fix right now.
I guess the good thing is that you can run with SSL off with no ill effects.
Who wants to be the first guinea pig for this ES?
Cisco TAC is working on getting better
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005Just got a note from some TAC managers I deal with on a regular basis. Apparently they are considering substantially revamping the way problem categories are selected, and issues are selected in the case open tool.
From what I’ve seen, just about everything imaginable is now listed in the voice sections for CallManager, Unity, and voice gateways.
I think this will make everyone’s lives a lot easier.
DC Directory and SSL update
Friday, August 12th, 2005Well, apparently Cisco has found a bug with DC Directory and SSL on 4.1.3 and 4.1.3SR1.
Disabling SSL on DC Directory is the short term workaround (see my prior note about CallManager and DC Directory).
You’ll know you’re hitting this bug if you see several thousand DC Directory or CTI access errors in the event logs. You also won’t be able to bring up a global directory listing in the CCMAdmin web page. This problem usually evidences itself about 20-40 minutes after a CallManager reboot.
A fix is supposed to be coming soon. Hoorah for engineering specials.
An XML app called Call Track Pro from Litescape
Friday, August 5th, 2005This has got to be the biggest joke of an application I’ve ever seen.
1. The server it goes on can’t have anything other than a physical C: drive.
2. If you install MS SQL in anything other than the default location, their app won’t install.
3. Their app process seems to go down without notice, frequently.
4. Their database replication seems to break frequently, along with their Tomcat install.
I don’t know how they got Cisco certified, but I find it irritating to say the least.
Their product does have good features, assuming you can keep it operational.
8/10/2005 Update –
One more bad thing – their product only waits by default 100ms for a response from the phone. Hardly ideal in a WAN environment. They patched it to wait 500ms and that seems to work better 