OnSIP Tips

Recently, I started working on our new side project, getonsip.com and since we already use Drupal 5 on onsip.com, I thought, why not try the newest version - Drupal 7?

Overall, Drupal 7 has improved a lot in terms of core and UI. It is a lot nicer to navigate around the administration area and easier to find what you need. It has a bit of WordPress feeling to it.

From the development aspect, Drupal 7 is better organized and simplified with a few great additions. For example, one core addition is the out-of-the-box jQuery library, hence, the fancy overlay administration interface added in D6. Another cool addition is having the CCK Fields module included.

The Small Business Loan Fallacy

I talk to many small business owners, customers, partners, and friends, who all tell me they can’t get loans from banks. (Thankfully, this isn’t problem for us. I’m the CFO of Junction Networks, and we are fully bootstrapped and profitable.) On the other hand, I hear so much in the news about the $ billions of federal programs that are helping small businesses. So, I thought I’d look into the matter.

Yes, it’s bullshit. Sort of. Banks are lending, but only indirectly to small businesses. Here are the top three questions a few banks asked when we discussed working capital loans:

On Sunday night, we were hit hard with snow in NY, NJ, and surrounding areas. Outside my door in Westchester, we got 25 inches or so. My beagle can hardly hop through it, and my car was absolutely buried in it. Once upon a time, this wintery wonderland meant no school and no work, but not today. For those of us at Junction Networks who couldn't make it into the office, we can bring our office to our couch. This is because we use a variety of hosted applications to communicate and work. In fact, there is almost nothing I can do at my desk that I can't do at home. Here's a quick overview of tools that make virtual working a cinch:

When firefighters, police, and EMS respond to an emergency, they do so with the help of trained people in the 911 center who know how to get as much information as possible from the caller reporting the emergency. The more precise the location, description of the incident, and caller's contact information, the faster resources can get to the scene with the proper equipment and trained personnel. Lives can be saved or lost in the seconds it may take to find victims. As a volunteer firefighter and friend to many 911 dispatchers, I know how important it is for them to get as much information as possible. It's a very hard job, trying to get someone involved in a life-threatening event to calm down and tell what the street name is. You're probably wondering what the heck it has to do with OnSIP, other than the phone part. My wife tells me that every conversation I have, I find a way to interject "fire nonsense".