Property Tax Story

So, in my recent Facebook post I teased about a property tax story… here we go.

Fred vs the Property Appraiser

When Yeni and I started dating it was a long distance relationship. She came to the States and lived in Ann Arbor, working for the government on an H1 Visa— this means that if she left her job, she’d have to move back to her (at the time) country. In other words, she could not come live in Gainesville at the time.

Well, as luck would have it, we started dating around the 2008 housing crisis. I tried putting the house up for sale, and after 1 year of no offers, watched my home value drop monthly. Good times.  Continue reading “Property Tax Story”

Deleting Facebook

Mostly due to the recent news regarding Cambridge Analytica and people’s private information, many people have responded to a #DeleteFacebook trend —including the co-founder of WhatsApp. Don’t forget: WhatsApp was sold to Facebook a few years ago for over 15 billion (pause for a second… this is billion, not million here) and now someone who benefitted greatly from that deal also suggests deleting facebook.

Clearly I’m biased. Almost 5 years ago, I followed my friend Michael White‘s example and deleted my facebook account. Of course, this movement has more to do with personal information than oversharing of said personal information.  Continue reading “Deleting Facebook”

My Thoughts on Enterprise Connect

This year I decided to head down to Orlando and catch the Enterprise Connect show. Usually, the VoIP shows I attend deal with open source products and target Developers (as well as users, purchasers, etc). Enterprise Connect mostly highlights non-open source telephony offerings from such companies as Cisco, Slack, Microsoft, Avaya, etc.

After a few days here in beautiful Orlando, I still am not sure who Enterprise Connect had in mind for a target audience. Did they want those with technical skills? Not sure– none of the talks really went into anything technical. Decision makers? Influencers? No idea.  Continue reading “My Thoughts on Enterprise Connect”

Kamailio World 2018 is coming!

It’s not too late to make plans to visit Berlin this May and join us at Kamailio World 2018.

Kamailio World allows Kamailians, VoIP enthusiasts, and more to Connect, Inspire, and Create during an amazing conference. Last year, Yeni and I flew out for the first time and I only regretted not attending before.

I am lucky (and honored) to attend many VoIP conferences throughout the year and Kamailio World is on my must attend list for a simple reason— the ability to connect with this amazing community will inspire you to create something amazing.  Continue reading “Kamailio World 2018 is coming!”

Astricon 2017

This year, as usual, I am honored to again be speaking at Astricon — the annual telecommunication conference celebrating all things Asterisk (as well as other open source VoIP).

I love Astricon and look forward to the conference every year.

This year, Astricon 2017 returns to Orlando and will be held October 3-5, 2017. You’ll have the opportunity to meet incredible members of the Asterisk community– as well as members from projects such as FreePBX, Kamailio, FreeSWITCH, and more.

You gain knowledge, make new friends, and just have a great time. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Hurricane Irma: All Clear

TL/DR; We’re all good. No damage to the house (that we can see), power is back, Internet is back — we are very fortunate.

We started feeling some wind Sunday evening and the rain hadn’t let up since Saturday night. We received more than 12 inches of rain.

We lost power on Sunday, regained it, and then lost it hard at 1am Monday morning. The bakery lost power 11pm Sunday night. Yeni has the coolest cupcake candle, so all was good.

The hardest winds hit us around 6:30am Monday morning and we were very, very lucky. No trees hit us, although the neighborhood had it’s share of large, downed pines. Branches did come down, everywhere — but none seemed to have damaged any part of the home.

We did a quick clean-up and all looks good. Family is fine.

The bakery power was restored around 2pm and everything looks fine. The home power was restored around 6pm.

Gainesville has some major flooding but we faired well. The house is in an optimal location for this and avoided the flooding. Our biggest fear remains trees… and we lucked out.

Thanks for all your concern… Now to get back to work and to prepare my Kamailio presentation for Astricon.

Pre-storm local wildlife hanging out on our fence.
Pre-storm local wildlife hanging out on our fence.
Yeni and I checking out the neighborhood
Yeni and I checking out the neighborhood
Leaves everywhere
Leaves everywhere
Big Boy needs a Big Raincoat
Big Boy needs a Big Raincoat

Irma Path Updated

This morning (2017-09-09), Irma has decided to take a westwardly stroll towards the gulf. This is very good news for South Florida, but less exciting for us here in North Florida. Not good news for Tampa area.

For Gainesville, we now have an increased amount of wind expected. Although higher than we’d like, it still is much less than anything the islands would have experienced.

The good thing about Gainesville is we have an incredible amount of trees to help break up the wind. The bad thing? We have an incredible amount of trees that can fall down (blocking roads, hitting homes, etc.).

Here’s the thing… predicting the path of a hurricane is extremely difficult. The models change constantly. What we go by this morning will not be what we think tomorrow. It could get better… it could get worse. Like everything, time will tell. Best we can do is prepare.

We do not plan to evacuate at this time as the conditions do not warrant leaving.

He have a house full… my parents, Yeni’s parents, Yeni’s Aunt and Uncle, as well as her cousin. There’s a small dog here. Wifi has 41 devices. I reserve comment.

Next update: whenever.

NWS update for Gainesville
NWS update for Gainesville