Im still in the Black on this Friday.

Another Thanks giving has come and gone and to put it simply, it was good. We had a quite dinner with a another family we know for a long time. Since I lost interest in shopping for "Deals" on Friday after thangs giving day, A.K.A "Black Friday", I did not participate in the ever so maddening early morning shopping spree.

Well, the same can not be said about the guy who lost his life in line of duty at a walMart! in Long Island NY. As the below article points out, the guy was just a temporary maintenance worker who was fixing something at the store.

FOXNews.com - Wal-Mart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors - Local News News Articles National News US News

I am sure this is not the first time such an incident is happening, but what struck me most was the fact that the guy was 34 years old as old as I am, may be has a family like mine and dream and aspirations like me, heck it could have been me!

I am not mathematician or cost analyst, but if 100 people were able to get in and get the best deals offered by breaking open the door of that WalMart, each might have bought goods worth an avarage of $1000 dollars. On an average they might have saved 20 percent over retail. That amounts average savings of $200 dollars per shopper, which is a total of $20,000 total savings for those people who got in first.

How can those people sleep well at night or gift those things they bought upon the death of a man's life to their loved ones? Why is buying and amassing meterialistic things at such cost is such a grave problem for America, I will try to dig up books on this topic, I am sure there are research papers on issues like this. Whatever might be the underlying reason, a man's life is not worth of any retail store deal.

If we try to extropolate this, next year would be a worse year economically speaking, hence people are gonna want more deals like this, people are gonna get more restless and retailers are gonna give out more "deals" like this to entice more deal seekers. I don't see such mad and senseless incidents being a rare and freak accident, rather a routine BlackFriday deal event.

Well, I do hope the change that is coming is good, I do hope people have more compasion towards fellow humans, I wish these deal seekers try to keep their decency and other people's saftey in mind.

As far as me and shopping, I will stick with sites like www.deals2buy.com , or www.edealinfo.com or www.dealcatcher.com for my deals. Heck! if I can't get it , better yet, I am left with my money and I don't pile up things I don't need. Black anyday for me is better than black friday for the retailers.

I can't wait for Christmas and its share of drama in our annual shopping season, god bless us all.

-Yogesh

MagicJack - awaiting acknowledgement issue

We switched over to MagicJack 4 months ago and we have been happy with it. Other than the
issue with magicJack not starting up when my server reboots after a MS update.
Well, lately over 3 or 4 weeks my MagicJack has been dropping calls like crazy.
I can receive calls, but right after 30-34 seconds the call will be dropped, as if on a timer.
I noticed when this happens the the softphone dispaly says "Awaiting Acknowledgement", kinda
wierd.

Well, like a good customer I called the Crappy Technical chat support of MagicJack. That was
my first mistake in fixing this issue. After 3 hours of doing mundane things like rebooting
and restarting and upgrading the issue would not go away.

I gave up on the issue until my lovely wife,Sue, said, she will give it a try. Well, with a stupid
grin I said, "I will give you a $100 if you can fix by tonight.". My bet was well backed. I
am the tech geek in thehouse, I hold the engineering degree and I'm the one who works with 4
computers at a time. So at that time the chances of she figuring it out was slim. hmmm.
My wife, Sue, is a problem solver, it has been proven time and again, she is the smarter one
in the family. A fact I am constanty try to overturn. Anyway. She gets on google and finds a
forum which is specific for MagicJack. (its is unofficial, as in, not a MagicJack website)

http://www.magicjacksupport.com/

Well, sue posts a message on it asking users about the dreaded " Awaiting Acknowledgement"
issue. Sure enought, within a few mintues, a good person suggests such an issue being
experienced by other MagicJack users too. They seem to be having this issue when used behind
a Linksis router model number WRT54GL.
I love this router for its features and stability, and it never occured to me that a
standard solid router like wrt54gl would pose such restrictions and problems with VOIP
devices like MagicJack.
Well this issue did not occur for the past 3 months I have been using this router and
magicJack together, this leads me to think , this is because of some changes in the way
MagicJack is routing call lately.

So here are the fact that I was able to establish so far.

1. MagicJack has changed the way it is routing calls or its protocol.
2. Linksys Router WRT54GL might cause an issue with Magic Jack.
3. MagicJack online chat support sucks and is worthless.
4. I can receive calls but the call will be dropped due to "Awaiting Acknowledgement" issue.

Here are the step I took to trouble shoot this issue.To address the first issue, I opened up all ports and firewalls on my computer to enable

unrestricted access. Still no dice. I even opened up the firewalls on the linksys router, to
allow all traffic. Even thought its not adviced I did it to make sure none of the components
are restricting any traffic.

To address the second issue, I bypassed my router for my internet connection and connected
my computer directly to the Motorolo Broadband Modem. I reset my Model and renewed my IP
address on my computer. Now I had a direct Internet connection from my Modem to my computer
without any network deviced inbetween.
I restarted my MagicJack and connected a static phone directly to my magicJack device. Used my cell phone to call my landline and the call went thru. I waited for 34 seconds to pass by and to my amazement. The call did not drop. To take it to the next level and asked my wife to call my home as I was on the line. When the call came in, I clicked on conference option and we were on 3 way conference all at once. The call quality was excellent. Issue 4 was thus solved.
This made it clear that the linksys router WRT54GL was causing some kinda Protocol block which was not allowing Magicjack to complete the call successfully.
Af far as fact 3, MagicJack suckky Online chat support is a waste of time and test in patience.
Now comes the question, should I replace the router or should I fix my router. My wife Sue, points me again to another post in the forum about a guy fixingin his router by applying Tomato firmware for WRT54GL.

I am kinda of conservative on these things, I did not want to change the entire firmware for one issue. But heeder Sue's advice I visited the Tomoto firmware's website. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
The download was quick, the stetup instructions were clear. Visit their website for more info.
Within 10 minutes of following simple instructions(no geekly hacking steps), I was able to patch my WRT54GL router with Tomato firmware.

Hooked up my router the Internet Model and hooked up my computer to the router and tested Internet connectivity, every thing was fine.

Restarted Magic Jack and made a test call to my home number. The call went thru and everything was working as expected. Issue solved.

Here are a few highlights,

1. If you are using MagicJack and you use a router WRT54GL you will have issues.
2. To fix this, either change the router or Flash your router with Tomato Firmware.
3. Don't try to talk to the MagicJack online Chat Support, visit, http://www.magicjacksupport.com/

At the end of the day, I had lost almost 4 hours of my week end and lost a bet with my wife for $100.

Happy calling. -Yogesh