Recently, Mitel posted to their corporate blog the Six Major Risks of Open Source Phone Systems. I love when companies do this sort of scare tactic piece and, like many others I’m sure, I clicked the bait and read their article… Before going off on the piece, please allow me to present the (according to Mitel) six MAJOR risks of open source phone systems: Knowledge Support Product roadmap Customization Licensing Security Now, the only one which sounds like a risk to me is Security… so let’s attack that one first. ...

Recently, as part of an EFF push to “save” encryption, I wrote to my Senators and Congressman to encourage the government to ensure security is not weakened with backdoors to encryption. My Congressman has a difference of opinion with me regarding most things Internet related– so I don’t expect a response. Here below is the response from Senator Marco Rubio: ...

Welcomed 2017 with a new profile pic, posted here in it’s OMG did you need a profile shot that big glory: Fred Posner 2017 Profile Pic I’ve used a few profile shots over the years… from cartoons to Brooklyn, more cartoons to shots of me and the Mrs at Disney… It’s nice to go through and see the changes… maybe not so much the increasing size and grey… but nice nonetheless....

Ugh… please tell me you’re sick of the two party system. My wish for the New Year would be for people to open their eyes and look outside a two-party system that has sucked the marrow from our country’s life. I haven’t even started, and I already have digressed. Anyway… today, the buzz around town is the Democratic response to the Republican (apparent) repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I’ve not been a supporter of the ACA, and when I wrote about this back in 2010, I never imagined the costs would be even worse than I had projected. ...

TL/DR; — I’m older, fatter, and even more bald (if possible). In January, Yeni and I did something crazy… we finally took a honeymoon. Sure, some people do this right after getting married. Some might even take a honeymoon during their first year. We decided to wait 6 years and it was worth the wait. You probably already guessed that we took a Disney cruise. You’d be right. We headed out on the Disney Dream for a 4 day cruise of the Caribbean and we cannot wait to go again. We loved every minute and started the year on an incredible high. When we hit land, normal life greeted our arrival and it was back to work— Yeni headed to the bakery and I headed to ITEXPO. ...

Yesterday, millions of Americans voted to elect Donald Trump president of the United States of America. The close vote results, as has been the case for the last few elections, in a very divided country. I’ve made no secret of my support of a “third party” candidate and proudly voted for Gary Johnson this election. As I woke this morning, I found myself greeted with countless messages on how I “cost Hillary the election,” “threw [my] vote away,” “didn’t give a shit,” and so on. Let me be very clear… There is no scenario where Fred votes for Hillary Clinton. There was also not a scenario where I would vote for Donald Trump. I instead voted for someone who most closely backs my political beliefs. There’s no reason to get into a “who’s worse” debate between Clinton and Trump. They were both HORRIBLE candidates. ...

Normally, Yeni and I have a “no chains” rule when it comes to eating out. Many reasons why on this… from Karma to the 68 rule to keeping the community unique, there are many reasons why a personal no-chain rule works. Of course, rules are made to be broken, and we do this with the no-chain rule from time-to-time. One of the reasons is to see the process. We don’t feel that chains are evil, far from it, we just normally choose to patronize local independent businesses. Because of this, we still understand that there’s a lot you can learn from visiting a chain… and any brick and mortar in the community is still a good place to spend money. ...

At the White House Yeni demonstrates her coolness while taking a break in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Let me preface with a reminder—I’m neither Democrat nor Republican. I proudly have No Party Affiliation. With that out of the way… There is Evil in this World I’ve worn many hats throughout my life, and without hesitation I tell you Evil exists, it’s real, and most of the time in this world, you will be the only person capable of defending yourself. When you have a mass shooting, like the shooting in Orlando, people are very quick to assign immediate blame. People want to blame radical Islamics, gun control, Obama, Bush, or what have you. ...

Shaving—that time honored tradition of holding an extremely sharp instrument to your head when you’re still half asleep. I started loosing my hair at a young age and by 30, I declared my hairstyle to be “bald is beautiful.” As such, I’ve bought a few razors overs the years and I can get into a shaving discussion with the best of gents. When people ask me if I’ve used the Dollar Shave Club and seem surprised when explain that it’s (1) too expensive and (2) I wasn’t happy with the razors. ...