Dan York

Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...

Author's posts

Oct 04

NoJitter.com Launches New Design, Better Interaction

Nojitter2011

Kudos to my friend Eric Krapf and his whole team for the redesign of one of my favorite sites for VoIP and Unified Communications news:

http://www.nojitter.com/

Way back in late 2007, Eric started as the "lead blogger" for NoJitter as the long-standing Business Communications Review (BCR) magazine shut down its print operation and decided to forge a new direction in the online world.

It's been great to see the growth of NoJitter over these past four years, and it's been great to see so many of my friends within the industry writing there.

With this new redesign, Eric mentions many of the new features, but the one I look forward to seeing most is the better commenting system. That was one major drawback of the previous site... hopefully this one works much better.

All in all I quite like the new look and congratulate Eric and the whole team there on the re-launch!

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Oct 03

Want to Run UP a Ski Area? The 5K Mountain Goat Scramble is Oct 8th

5KMountainGoatScramble2011
So this sounds like a pretty wacky local race... the "5K Mountain Goat Scramble" takes place this Saturday, October 8, 2011, at our local Granite Gorge Ski Area in Roxbury, NH (just outside of Keene).

It's a 5K race where you run up to the halfway point of the ski trails and then back down ... and DO THAT FOUR TIMES!

I have skied all the trails where the race is running and know the exact route they are doing... it's going to be tough to run that loop four times!

I'm not sure exactly what our plans are for the weekend and so I don't know whether I'll be running it myself, but it does benefit an excellent cause, the creation of a new Children's Museum here in Keene, so I do hope they get a good turnout.

Registration is open and you save $5 if you register by Tuesday, Oct 4th.

Here's the trail map for those who are curious:

5KMountainGoatScramble2011 trails

Oct 03

Social Media Club NH To Meet Oct 6th To Discuss Social Media on Campus, Google+ and more

Socialmediaclubnh
I recently discovered that the Social Media Club of NH will be meeting this Thursday, October 6th, over at my old stomping grounds of UNH in Durham, NH. The Eventbrite invitation has the full agenda and it looks quite intriguing. The first section is about how the Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) is interacting with students via social media for outreach... and having known some of the founders of that program way back in 1988, it's cool to see that not only is the program thriving but it's reaching out into new ways of communicating.

Second up is a session on Google+, which of course most all of us in the social media space are at least monitoring if not using (I'm of course on Google+).

It sounds like a great event and if you can get to the seacoast region there is still time to register.

Alas, I will not personally be there as I will be traveling back from speaking in Chicago on the 6th but I look forward to making it to some future SMCNH event.

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Oct 02

Speaking about UC Security at IIT Real-Time Communications Conf Oct 5th

Rtcconf2011
If you will be in Chicago this week for the the 7th Annual Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo, I will speaking on October 5th about VoIP and Unified Communications security as part of the security track of the conference.

There's a great schedule of speakers and I'm looking forward to both giving my session and also listening to the security presentations that follow mine. If you are going to be at the event, please do say hello!

Oct 02

Do You Hook Your Reader From Your Opening Sentence?

Question Mark
Do you reach out and grab your reader by the throat from the very first line of your text? Do you evoke some mystery or emotion in your first sentences that makes the reader NEED to learn more? Do you make them ask "WHY?" or "HUH?"

Three Examples of Powerful Openings

Recently in talking about this topic with someone I randomly grabbed three popular novels that I had nearby and to no surprise all three of them had powerful openings. Consider these examples:

Foreign Influence by Brad Thor[1]

Inner Mongolia

The strategic military outpost was such a closely guarded secret it didn't even have a name, only a number - site 243.

It sat in a rugged windswept valley far away from cities and centers of industry. Its architecture was minimalist; a cross between a high-end refugee camp and a low-rent university. Tents, trailers and a handful of cheap concrete buildings made up its "campus." The only outward signs of modernity were the Pizza Hut, Burger King and Subway mobile restaurant trailers which made up the outpost's "food court."

It was just after three a.m. when the attack began. Lightweight Predator...

Right away the use of "Inner Mongolia" means to most of us that it is somewhere very far away and remote. The first sentence immediately makes you wonder "what is so secret?" Who operates this base? What kind of "strategic military outpost" is it? The second paragraph is just a bit of description but then the third sentence drops you right into a conflict. Who is attacking it? Why?

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown[1]

Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own. He stared up in terror at the dark figure looming over him. "What do you want?"

"La chive," the raspy voice replied. "The password."

"But... I don't --"

The intruder pressed down again, grinding the white hot object deeper into Vetra's chew. There was the hiss of broiling flesh.

That very first sentence immediately causes you to want to know "WHY?" Why is his flesh burning? Who is doing this? Who is this physicist? What is the password for? Who is the intruder? Why is flesh burning? Plus you have the evocative emotion of flesh burning, something against which we can all recoil in horror.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin[1]

The day was grey and bitter cold, and the dogs would not take the scent.

The black bitch had taken one sniff at the bear tracks, backed off, and skulked back to the pack with her tail between her legs. The dogs huddled together miserably on the riverbank as the wind snapped at them. Chett felt it, too, biting through his layers of black wool and boiled leather. It was too bloody cold for man or beast, but here they were. His mouth twisted...

The dogs would not take the scent... of what? Why are the dogs acting this way? What is causing this behavior? And for those who have been reading this series of books (this is book 3 of 5), who is this "Chett" character? And why are he and they out in this cold?

Does Your Text Do This?

All three of these openings pull the reader in. From the very first lines you NEED to know more. You want to continue. You are hooked from the start.

Does your text do this?

Whether you are writing a news article, a book, a blog post, a novel, a short story... or whatever... do you hook your audience from the start?

If not, how can you change your piece so that you do hook them? Can you write a more powerful opening? Can you set up some mystery? Can you evoke some emotion?

How can you leave them wanting... indeed NEEDING... to read more?

Image credit: Boris SV on Flickr

FTC Disclosure: These links to the books include my Amazon Associates ID and as a result if you actually were to purchase one of these books I might earn a few pennies. If you think this has anything whatsoever to do with me mentioning these books, I can assure you it doesn't.

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Oct 01

My FIR Report for October 3, 2011

Shel and Neville were recording Monday's "For Immediate Release" podcast episode over the weekend, so my report has already been sent in. This week I covered:

Of course, to hear all of that, you'll need to tune into Monday's edition of the FIR podcast after Shel or Neville posts it. Enjoy!

Sep 30

Speaking Next Week on IPv6 and VoIP Security at 7th Real-Time Communications Conference in Chicago

Rtcconf2011
If any of you will be in Chicago next week, October 4-6, 2011, for the 7th Annual Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo, I'll be there on the 5th and 6th as a speaker.

I'll be speaking twice. First on Wednesday the 5th at 4pm on "The Current State of VoIP Security", wearing my VOIPSA hat and leading off a series of talks about security. I'll be providing an overview of the main threats to VoIP and communications security in general, leading the way into the two more specific talks following mine.

I'm rather excited that my second session will be my first public appearance wearing my new Internet Society hat (if you are not aware, I've posted details about my recent move) and will of course be about IPv6... more specifically "How IPv6 Will Impact SIP And Telecom".

Due to ongoing events on the personal front, I wasn't sure that I was going to make it out there... and quite frankly there's still a chance that I won't... but I should be out there.

If you look at the conference schedule, the speakers include outstanding people involved with so many different aspects of real-time communications. It should be truly an excellent event!

P.S. You can still register if you would like to attend!

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Sep 30

The Economist Asks: Who Should Run The Internet?

Theeconomist
Who should run the Internet? Should it continue in the "multi-stakeholder" way it has operated so far? Or should governments have more of a say in how it is run?

The Economist captures that argument in a piece out today entitled "A plaything of powerful nations" that reports on the meeting this week in Nairobi of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The article rather succinctly covers some of the tension and challenges around public policy issues I briefly mentioned in my recent post about joining the Internet Society.

A key point for me is this (my emphasis added):

The multi-stakeholder approach dates from the beginnings of the internet. Its founding fathers believed that more openness would be both more secure and better for innovation. What is more, since the internet is a network of independent networks, it is hard to construct a form of governance that allows anyone to dictate things from the top.

Yet as the article notes, many governments would like to try - and the power struggle is really only beginning.

There are definitely going to be some interesting times ahead...

NOTE: While I am now employed by the Internet Society, I am NOT involved with the public policy activities of the organization and all comments and viewpoints expressed here are entirely mine alone as an individual.

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Sep 30

Calling All Vendors! Test Your SIP over TLS at SIPit 29 Oct 24-28 in Monaco

SIPitAre you a vendor of SIP software or hardware devices? If so, do you support SRTP or SIP over TLS? If you do – or are thinking about doing so – why don’t you join Olle Johansson for some interoperability testing at SIPit 29, October 24-28, in Monaco?

Olle raised just that suggestion today in the VOIPSEC mailing list and said that he will be there focused on testing VoIP security (and also IPv6). As he said:

Customers need at least first hop TLS and SRTP to work as expected. They also need interoperability between devices. To get interoperability, everyone needs to work with it. It just doesn’t happen by accident. SIPit has been organised twice a year for 15 years in order to get the amount of interoperability we have today in SIP.

If you develop SIP software or devices – register for SIPit now. If you are a customer and have seen issues in this area, remind your vendors to participate. The more we are, the more time we can spend on VoIP protocol security.

The SIPit test events are outstanding places to go and test your software or hardware. For the relatively small fee and your time and travel, you have access to an incredible test bed in the form of all the other vendors participating. Where else will you get to interact with designers and engineers from all the major vendors and not only test your software/hardware, but also re-test your equipment if you try some fixes while you are there.

You still have time to register for SIPit29 and join Olle and others in the security testing.

P.S. If you aren’t aware of the SIPit events, more info can be found on the main SIPit site. They are held twice a year in various locations. The summaries of past SIPit events give you a good flavor for the type of testing that goes on.

Sep 29

How To Create Github-style “Fork Me” Ribbons Using Only CSS

Githubribbons

Can you create a “Fork Me On Github” ribbon using only CSS? And have it say some other message?

That was the question I asked myself while working on a new website (for the new job). You see, the new website is going to go online in a “preview” mode and I wanted some way to very clearly indicate to visitors that the site is still in development. I’ve seen the Github ribbons on many project sites and thought this might be a great way to do the kind of marking that I want to do.

The problem is that the “official” Github Ribbons are simply images that are overlaid on your site using absolute positioning in CSS.

With an image, of course, I can’t modify the text to have my own message. And while the PSD files are available for the ribbons, I didn’t want to get into modifying images.

I figured with the modern browsers we have I ought to somehow be able to do this using plain old text and Cascading Style Sheets.

Thankfully, I found out that Daniel Perez Alvarez had already done this with a wonderful walk-through:

He steps right through the process showing you exactly what you need to do in CSS to approximate the images.

John Balogh from Mozilla wrote a similar post a bit earlier with a slightly different recipe:

Both posts were helpful to me in learning more about how you can manipulate text using CSS.

Of course, the question is…

WILL THIS WORK IN MANY BROWSERS?

Daniel Perez Alvarez includes a table at the end of his post showing which browsers would support this technique as of when he wrote the post in October 2009. I’d like to hope that two years later more browsers will support these techniques… but then again, there are still people out there using IE6 so we can’t expect newer browsers to be widely deployed.

Still, for the target audience for my new website I’m going to expect many of the users will be using newer browsers – and I’m going to see what I can do to make it degrade gracefully (as in, not appear) for older browsers.

My ribbon looks great… and no, I can’t show it to you yet. 😉

Thanks to both Daniel Perez Alvarez and John Balogh for posting their tutorials online.