Cisco model 500 switches have limited RAM and only four, of twenty-four, PoE ports. Twice now I've tried to hang a small switch off the backside of model 7961 phones to attach multiple devices. Both times the 500 has cited a critical error and ceased to transmit traffic on the data VLAN, I suppose, to give deferrance to the voice data. The first incident involved a WAP and worked through one association, three devices including the phone. When the second association was made, supporting four devices, data traffic stopped cold. The more recent debacle involved a switch, PC and ATA. The phone, switch and PC worked; but the ATA connection, fourth device, melted the data.

The 500s don't support telnet, but force configuration via web page fed through a configuration port or a management interface (which must be set to the appropriate VLAN BTW!); so I don't know the exact settings of the Phone&Desktop p ports. The only option seems to be leaving the phone on it's proprietary port and running a second line from a switch configured port to support the other devices.

On a brighter note, the Cisco Learning Blog is a very helpful, well organized, conversational facility containing loads of information.

The first wave of phone envy has washed over the college. The victims, one department chair and our e-Learning director, insisted that they required "large" model 7961 phones. My boss wouldn't let me install them because I'd planned to "train" the recovering souls by stating that the features they were gaining were a slightly larger screen albeit a less useful interface, four alternate lines they wouldn't have assigned, and two additional buttons that shortened a few menu sequences by a single press.

There are no added features, compared to the "smaller" model, and the only real difference in the menus results in speed dialing requiring so many keypresses that one might as well dial the number manually. I've a real talent for sweetly informing people that their victory has actually downgraded their access and made their lives more difficult. So he's going to install their new phones while I hack at another analog converter to support someone's STATUS SYMBOL sorry I mean fax machine.

This project has been a blast. I've learned loads of Cisco programming and a bit more about human nature.

Presence has been working very well the past couple of patches if you discount the fact that the last patch is actually still the previous version because the latest didn't get past the employee login stage. But tonight Barnesworth's card kept lighting and dimming while I couldn't see him in FIND at all. So I IMd him and asked if he was logging in and out and his answer was "I haven't logged off since i logged on."

Well

Yes

Moving On

Online communities confuse me to no end. Personal responsiblity to moderate senseless squabbling in an online discussion, such as a "public" forum, would fall quickly into the "I don't care who started it or whose fault it is, you're both (all) in trouble" category. When people act like children, the only way to work effectively with them is to treat the entire offending group like children.

That applies to inworld griefers as well as trolls. Granted there are some professional stalkers insane enough to be criminally charged under real world laws; but the majority are simply childish. The average attention span is a few minutes at best granting adults the luxury of ignoring them, perhaps even just logging out long enough to drink a coffee, until the perps get bored and go away. Argument and retaliation does no better than to fuel their enjoyment and encourage their continued presence.

Now I would think that most people know this. Haven't we all worked with children at some point in our lives. I still teach three and four year olds to sing, together, one night a week. It reminds me a lot of forum particpation. Understanding that ninety-nine percent of our foul behavoiur is all in good sport, and par for the course, doesn't make it any less heartbreaking when someone takes it seriously and everyone else is either to stupid to back off and let it go, or too unfeeling to stop kicking a person when they're down.

A Cisco model 500 switch requires that the management interface be in vlan foo, the vlan that gateways to foo.1 even though the switchport, and it's associated port on the core stack both have to use native vlan 1. What seems odd then is that subsequent model 2950 switches must also be connected through ports assigned to vlan foo in order for traffic to flow. Then of course there's the problem of incompatible trunking in the older equipment so each vlan must be created manually.

It seems like every run from core to switches to [insert some combination of ATAs, PCs, Phones, Routers and more switches] requires that a unique configuration be hacked from point to point until everything decides that it's the first Tuesday of the month and finally time to connect.

By the way, I need a FAX^h^h^h STATUS SYMBOL. In fact I need two, one for each table. My office mate needs one too. Yes we share the space but we send and receive so many faxes each day that having three in the office might just cover our requirements. Gee won't everyone just be green with envy when they see them all lined up and shiney in our office!

Virtual Nature is still needing bloggers from Active Worlds, IMVU, Uru, Wow, and any other virtual environments where nature is represented by digital pixels and binary code. If you're interested in talking about how nature is, or isn't, integrated into online worlds, leave some comments or email me at eric@allison.net for an invitation to post articles.

You can already see from the entries that the terminology and definitions are open to broad interpretations so that everyone may feel comfortable participating in the discussions. Browse over and have a look, bring your friends! The more, the merrier!

Also please feel free to comment on the site itself. It's quite basic now so any suggestions are quite welcome.

Bellsouth migrated our incoming PRI today. It went very smoothly as we had already trained the users and tested the connections and features across the board. We did discover, after the fact, that Cisco model 1712 phones can only trunk our data vlan. Apparently they don't really "trunk" with multiple interfaces so that they can handle any number of streams. Ergo they won't relay voice data to a switch that has an ATA (analog tranceiver for faxes et al) attached.

Our options are to place powered switches at those locations, to actually trunk the vlans and service the little phones, or to replace the units with model 1761 phones which do actually trunk vlan information correctly. It's a small concern that affects three locations that people will have fax machines. They are status symbols after all. One person informed me last week that we needn't worry about connecting his to the system. It'll sit in the box until he has a real need for it, at least until we move into the new building (twelve to eighteen months) "just wanted to pick one up while we had money in the budget."

Oh My Stars

IP Routing makes me cry. How can something so straighforward become unnervingly complex overnight?

Now it makes sense to me that a switch must be in transparent mode when I want to just delete a few vlans from its local database. That's not the kind of mistake one makes twice in the same decade is it.

Switches operate in Server mode for management and broadcasting of vlan database entries, Client mode to be limited to only recieving vlan information, or Transparent mode to facilitate local management of vlans without affecting the rest of the fabric. When one trims vlans from a switch before migrating from Server to Transparent mode, one deletes all those vlans across the entire network.

Then one screams at the monitor, stomps the floor, throws a few useless items against the wall, drinks a mocha frappacino, browses a few blogs, recreates the vlans, drinks a mocha frappacino, answers all the voice mail blaming the "outage" on the phone company, drinks a mocha frappacino and takes the rest of the day off to avoid doing any more damage.

Slap my hand and call me potatoes. Portfast is a great feature but is a bad idea if the port is serving a trunk to another switch.

Having lost the ability to communicate with Second Lifers via sponsored out-of-world forums, and having no reliable friends list inworld, and being unable to texture builds properly, and being so generally down on the whole debacle last night that I watched the entirety of Phantom Menace just to remind myself that there's at least one thing more boring and senseless on the planet than trying to use The Grid All Hail The Central Grid.

noun - the quality or condition of being normal

Buried deep in these comments concerning a day-long grid attack of self-replicating objects dragging most sims to single digit FPS is the statement:

“The question is, when is everything going to reach normalcy on SL once more.” ~ Ayumi Ziemia

To which I can only relpy that by definition, this is normalcy.

Thank You darkfoxprime for pointing me to this!


My Personality

Neuroticism	28
Extraversion	62
Openness To Experience	47
Agreeableness	7
Conscientiousness	9

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Neuroticism
You are generally calm and composed, reacting moderately well to situations that most people would describe as stressful. You are a calm person who is considered almost fearless by some. You feel enraged when things do not go your way. You are sensitive about being treated fairly and feel resentful and bitter if you think you are being cheated. You very rarely feel depressed and are usually in a good frame of mind. You do not feel nervous in social situations, and have a good impression of what others think of you. You feel strong cravings and urges that you have difficulty resisting. You tend to prefer short-term pleasures and rewards over long-term consequences. You are poised, confident, and clear-thinking when stressed.

Extraversion
You are neither a subdued loner nor a jovial chatterbox. You enjoy time with others but also time alone. You genuinely like other people and openly demonstrate positive feelings toward others. You make friends quickly and it is easy for you to form close, intimate relationships. You like crowds but sometimes feel overwhelmed by them. Sometimes you feel like you need some privacy and time for yourself. You are an active group participant but usually prefer to let someone else be the group leader. You lead a leisurely and relaxed life. You would prefer to sit back and smell the roses than indulge in high energy activities. You love bright lights and hustle and bustle. You are likely to take risks and seek thrills. You are not prone to spells of energetic high spirits.

Openness to Experience
A desire for tradition does not prevent you from trying new things. Your thinking is neither simple nor complex. To others you appear to be a well-educated person but not an intellectual. Often you find the real world is too plain and ordinary for your liking, and you use fantasy as a way of creating a richer, more interesting world for yourself. You are reasonably interested in the arts but are not totally absorbed by them. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You are eager to try new activities, travel to foreign lands, and experience different things. You find familiarity and routine boring, and will take a new route home just because it is different. As a person who is open-minded to new and unusual ideas, you love to play with and think about ideas. You also like to debate intellectual issues and often enjoy riddles, puzzles and brain teasers. You prefer the security and stability brought by conformity to tradition.

Agreeableness
People see you as tough, critical, and uncompromising and you have less concern with others' needs than with your own. You generally see others as selfish, devious, and sometimes potentially dangerous. You believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself. You do not particularly like helping other people. Requests for help feel like an imposition on your time. You do not enjoy confrontation, but you will stand up for yourself or push your point if you feel it is important. You feel superior to those around you and sometimes tend to be seen as arrogant by other people. You are tenderhearted and compassionate, feeling the pain of others vicariously and are easily moved to pity.

Conscientiousness
You like to live for the moment and do what feels good now. Your work tends to be careless and disorganized. Often you do not feel effective, and may have a sense that you are not in control of your life. You are a reasonably organized person and like to have a certain amount of routine in your life. You find contracts, rules, and regulations overly confining and are sometimes seen as unreliable or even irresponsible by others. You are content to get by with a minimal amount of work, and might be seen by others as lazy. You find yourself procrastinating and show poor follow-through on tasks. Often you fail to complete tasks - even tasks that you want very much to complete. You often say or do the first thing that comes to mind without deliberating alternatives and the probable consequences of those alternatives.

http://virtualnature.blogspot.com is open and currently seeking nature lovers from various virtual world environments. There's still quite a bit of tweaking needed to enhance the interface; but it's presentable and usable. If you'd like to contribute, send me an email (eric@allison.net) to start the process.

It seems that I can only invite people to post via email addresses. If anybody knows how to invite existing Blogspot members directly please let me know. In any case, the reply mail will contain a keyed link that will either install you, using the Blogspot account you previously associated with the email address, or send you to a signup page.