@scottalanmiller aye, I should have quoted instead of just replying. I meant that it was certainly just a skin of an existing PBX

@Bill-Kindle said:

@Rivitir It certainly has ballooned. Wait till you try out the chat feature and get the desktop notifications when using Chrome 🙂

A lot of us turned off that pop up feature. It gets a bit crazy after not too long.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/rotate-data-by-converting-columns-to-rows-or-vice-versa-HP005203138.aspx

@PackMatt73 said:

Important lesson: Chats show up in the thread. So...I definitely look like a noob.

Quotes show in thread. Private IM does not.

The company doesn't want to move all of their users from their current pop environment only those who need to share calendars.

We use an international blocking trunk provider. It's great peace of mind.

@ajin.c you bet. We are here to help 🙂

@JaredBusch said:

I will look into it @katieunitrends. As always you are awesome.

Thanks so much!

Figured warranty and/or RVS (Rotation Vibration Safeguard) would have been mentioned, as well.

Consider warranty to be an OEM's confidence in their device. Bit on RVS, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/bad-bad-bad-vibrations/896

Cost math on price can be interesting. As an example, a device getting twice the value out of a set of Red drives vs RE drives. SMBs would be more of the mindset to take the lowest price (yeah, yeah, not enterprise).

I really like Copy - You start with 20GB and get 5GB for each referral!

Also, I really like there fair storage policy

@Duffney Sounds like a great idea. I don't think there are enough sites out there of high quality.

@JaredBusch Mac and its features do have a consumer bent. Gotta consider I.T. pros being responsible for themselves and their own processes.

Actually, surprised you did not mention doing the backups via cron/systemd/etc.

Am a bit curious on the current performance comparison between Parallels v9 and VMware Fusion v6—

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-latest-virtualization-showdown-parallels-desktop-9-vs-vmware-fusion-6/ 'Tis one source, still want more being an I.T. skeptic & all that

Cool. Will definitely play with it when I finally get a new Mac myself.

Hope you enjoy 👍

That will get you, it got me back in the day. lol

@Katie said:

What are the pros and cons of implementing an open-source PBX as opposed to a proprietary system?
I've worked in shops that ran Cisco Unity, and after that - Shoretel. I found Shoretel to be a great deal easier to learn over the Cisco system and had a fairly easy time administering it.
How do these compare to something like Elastix or Asterisk?
3CX is also a good solution, but it is not an open source one. I personally do not prefer it, but if you have a windows license to spare for a VM, it is quite easy to setup and not nearly as expensive as other options.
I use PBX in a Flash simply because I do not need the simplified Elastix interface and I want more up to date versions. If the Elastix team put more effort into staying updated I would use it everywhere.

You hit the nail on the head about the true cost of switching the phone system though. No matter what you go to, if it is not a true upgrade,you will have to redesign all of the call handling from scratch. The thing you need to validate with you upgrade is whether or not it is a 100% no reconfig needed upgrade. If there is time not accounted for to do something like that, then you just leveled the playing field again.

@FiyaFly said:

I was recently doing a PBX install for someone and they were using a Sangoma Gateway. At first, it looked pretty simple and straightforward. The instructions to configure it with Elastix were about as straightforward as can be. If only it worked that way...

I ran into many little obstacles that I didn't expect to see with this setup. First, we couldn't get a SIP account to register as the instructions told us to do. Then, fax information seems to be stuttering and not passing through the way it's supposed to. DTMF tones transmit in a way that is completely arbitrary to the settings that are mentioned. As icing on the cake, for some reason it felt the need to strip the first character of the CID off as well.

Am I just severely unlucky or has anyone else had troubles like these with gateway devices for a PRI?

I have never used these PRI gateways. I have only had to deal with FXO/FXS interconnections. I have read mixed reviews on the Sangoma brand. Generally, once up and working they are great, but sometimes people cannot make them work. Again I have no personal experience with them though.

@Dashrender said:

I'm trying to impress my boss with Windows 8

Good luck - I'm not sure I'm impressed too much. As far as Metro apps go, there's a number of little widgets in there for things like news and weather that constantly update themselves, along with a Reader app. Just wondered if anyone was able to integrate any of them into their productivity routine.

@Dashrender said:

@FiyaFly said:

@Dashrender said:

I use two monitors on a single desktop.

@ajstringham is using something like 6 monitors

Yup, all hooked to a laptop no less. He's an odd one 😉
Have you ever considered multiple PC's to go with the multiple monitors?

Not for my work setup. I do have three monitors on my desk, but the third one is for the PC that's 'in the shop' getting worked on. It's not there long enough normally to spend the time setting up something like Synergy.

Understandable.If you find yourself curious I know I can get a setup of Synergy down to like 2 minutes. Might save a little room on the desk. Pretty lightweight install and might make your life a bit easier.

I ride that wave for a little bit. Oh OilNavigator, you were doomed from the beginning.