So, working the phones over at the bakery today while coding some dialplans… when a call comes in from a South Florida area code… I’m calling to get a custom cake for a 70th birthday party. Normally, these types of events are planned with some good lead time. It’s a significant birthday, one that generally has family coordination, etc. I generally love these calls. Unlike most of the tech work I do, bakery clients are always celebrating....

I’m a lucky guy. Besides having a smoking hot wife, I’ve also been able to meet some incredible people — some incredibly smart people. One of these people, John Spence, is a great author, speaker, consultant, and advisor who makes the very complex awesomely simple. He also happens to post some amazing advice on his blog, such as: Let me make this as Awesomely Simple as I can: for the vast majority of businesses today the ONLY competitive differentiator you have is the level of service you deliver to your customers....

With a tag-line of friends don’t let friends get tracked, new search engine Duck Duck Go certainly new how to grab my attention. Ok, I said new but in reality it’s a few years old… I’m just slow and it’s new to me. DuckDuckGo.com is a search engine that doesn’t track your results… which means you can search for something online and not see advertisements related to your search on other sites you visit....

Sadly, I did not make Berlin this year to attend Kamailio World — something I hope to correct in 2015. If you, like me, are unable to attend… there are technological tools to lessen our loss: Conference Schedule (conference.kamailio.org) Google+ Kamailio Community Jitsi Video Bridge at Kamailio World Twitter #kamailio @KamailioWorld Don’t know about Kamailio? Read why I love it.

I’ve been discussing for a few years here the dangers of our collected data. More recently, since the NSA revelations, I’ve been discussing the need for encrypted communication to ensure our privacy. Of course, I do this openly, which is a great freedom that I am guaranteed by the bill of rights. You must never forget, the bill of rights limits government. When government ignores the constitution… when our government ignores the guaranteed freedoms we have… when they abuse the power we give them, it is our duty to ensure it does not happen again....

Recently, I again wrote my Senators and Congressman about the NSA collection of data. This was done as part of an organized campaign — The Day We Fight Back — on February 11th, 2014. Partnered with EFF.org, there were pre-written letters to send your representatives: As your constituent, I am deeply concerned about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) mass surveillance programs. We need real reform to stop the NSA’s mass collection of our information. I urge you to support the USA Freedom Act (H.R. 3361/S. 1599), an important first step in stopping mass spying, reforming the FISA court, and increasing transparency. But reform shouldn’t stop there: please push for stronger privacy protections that stop dragnet surveillance of innocent users across the globe, and stop the NSA from sabotaging international encryption standards. ...

This one does it for me every time. Well, this one and the Sly one. =) Secrets to success Pt. 1 from Eric Thomas (The Hip Hop Preacher)

Back in 2012 or so, I posted a video hidden within a rant I had made. I rant from time to time. Scratch that. I rant a lot. I blog my rants from time to time. Anyway, I think about this video often. Malte Spitz asked his telephone company what type of data they had been collecting on him. An innocent question… what type of information are you collecting? The results astounded him and he effectively communicated why we should all be concerned....

If we haven’t met yet, my name is Fred Posner. By day, I’m a VoIP Engineer and a baker (yes, a baker). Since I was a kid, I’ve loved telephones — everything about telephones. Dealing with phone companies and carriers started to eat away at that love… but VoIP brought it back. One of the products I get to work with is Kamailio.Many of you have never heard of this product. Even more cannot pronounce it. In a nutshell, Kamailio is an open-source SIP server. Now, if you’re not a techie, or know VoIP, then… Kamailio is about communication. Literally. The word Kamailio originates from the native Hawaiian language; translating “to converse.” Kamailio is open-source software allowing people (great, huge amounts of people) to communicate. Now, back to why I love Kamailio… ...

I don’t think I’ll ever come up with a better quote than this: The Internet is like a big city. Sure, there’s great museums and entertainment, but there’s also bad, bad places filled with bad, bad people. Fred Posner I first used it on Palner.com explaining SIP Brute-force attacks to non-techs. =)