Do you know of a K-12 school, library or school district that needs affordable phone service or telecommunications upgrades? Did you know that 8x8 can provide significantly discounted phone, fax and Web conferencing services to these organizations?
That’s because 8x8 participates in the federal E-rate program, which is paid for by a tax called the Universal Service Fund, a $2.25-billion government fund that subsidizes telecommunications modernization and upgrades at qualifying educational institutions. The Universal Service Administrative Company administers the fund and determines how much the program will subsidize for each application, based on need and other factors.
8x8’s entire service fee qualifies for a discount, and we have seen subsidies of up to 90% approved for our services to K-12 schools and libraries. For example, St. Matthew’s Lutheran School in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin recently used the E-rate system to replace an aging PBX that was literally demolished by a bolt from the blue, when lightning struck the school.
E-Rate Program Subsidizes Phone Service Costs for St. Matthew’s
George Zaferos, business manager at St. Matthew’s, began looking for a hosted PBX solution that would reduce the school’s up-front costs. He contacted 8x8, and he says that from his first conversation with the team there, he felt that 8x8 was a good fit.
“8x8 knows how to scale to meet the needs of smaller organizations,” he says. “The technology is easy to use and manage, and the cost is phenomenally competitive, especially compared to do-it-yourself phone systems.”
“8x8’s participation in E-rate allowed us to add features and capacity to our phone system and still keep our costs down,” says Zaferos.
As Zaferos’s experience shows, this is a great way for schools and libraries to get access to 21st-century communications services at a significant discount. If you know of a school that could benefit from this program, call me at 408-654-0842 or send me an email at huw.rees@8x8.com to learn more.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain, July 25 - A train derailed outside the ancient northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday evening, killing at least 77 people and injuring up to 131 in one of Europe's worst rail disasters.
Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage. Firefighters clambered over the twisted metal trying to get survivors out of the windows, while ambulances and fire engines surrounded the scene.
The government said it was working on the assumption the derailment, which occurred on the eve of the city's main religious festival, was an accident.
Sabotage or attack was unlikely to be involved, an official source said, though the devastation will have stirred memories of a train bombing in Madrid in 2004, carried out by Islamist extremists, that killed 191 people.
The Santiago de Compostela train operated by state rail company Renfe with 247 people on board derailed as the city prepared for the festival of Saint James, when thousands of Christian pilgrims from across the world pack the streets. The city's tourism board said all festivities, including the traditional High Mass at the centuries-old cathedral, were cancelled as the city went into mourning following the crash.
"It was going so quickly. ... It seems that on a curve the train started to twist, and the wagons piled up one on top of the other," passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station.
"A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realised the train was burning. ... I was in the second wagon and there was fire. ... I saw corpses," he added.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, will visit the site on Thursday morning, his spokeswoman said.
"In the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician," Rajoy said in a statement.
TRAVELLING TOO FAST?
El Pais newspaper cited sources close to the investigation as saying the train was travelling at over twice the speed limit on a sharp curve.
Both Renfe and state-owned Adif, which is in charge of the tracks, had opened an investigation into the cause of the derailment, Renfe said.
An official source said no statement would be made regarding the cause until the black boxes of the train were examined, but said it was most likely an accident.
"We are moving away from the hypothesis of sabotage or attack," he said.
Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organised free rooms for relatives. Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the region on special flights.
The death toll was 77, a spokeswoman for Galicia's Supreme Court said on Thursday morning, adding that the figures were still provisional. She said that 73 three people had died at the site of the derailment and four died in hospital.
Up to 131 people were injured, a Galicia-based spokeswoman for the office of the central government had earlier said.
"The scene is shocking, it's Dante-esque," said the head of the surrounding Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, in a radio interview.
The eight-carriage train was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol on the Galician coast when it derailed, Renfe said in a statement.
The disaster happened as Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by government-driven austerity to bring its finances into order. Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts, worked overtime to tend the injured.
The city's main festival focuses on St James, one of Jesus' 12 disciples whose remains are said to rest there and who is patron saint of Galicia.
The apostle's shrine there is the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.
The derailment happened less than two weeks after six people died when a train came off the tracks and hit the platform at a station in central France.
That accident may have been caused by a loose steel plate at a junction, French train operator SNCF said.
Wednesday's derailment was one of the worst rail accidents in Europe over the past 25 years.
In November 2000, 155 people were killed when a fire in a tunnel engulfed a funicular train packed with skiers in Austria.
In Montenegro, up to 46 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in 2006 when a packed train derailed and plunged into a ravine outside the capital, Podgorica.
In Spain itself, 41 people were killed the same year when an underground train derailed and overturned in a tunnel just before entering the Jesus metro station in Valencia. (Reporting by Inmaculada Sanz, Sonya Dowsett, Sarah White, Andres Gonzalez, Blanca Rodriguez, Julien Toyer and Emma Pinedo; Writing by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Julien Toyer, Peter Cooneya and John Stonestreet) By: Reuters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AVTM Official Press Release
RE: Raid on ADAM VS THE MAN Studios 10JUL13
(HERNDON, VA 10 JULY 2013)— On the evening of Tuesday, 09JUL13, at approximately 7:45 PM, a combination of US Parks Police (an arm of the DHS) raided Adam Kokesh’s residence. Local Herndon police assisted in the armed invasion. The officers used a battering ram to knock in the door after two knocks, and did not announce that they had a warrant. Immediately after breaking down the door, a flash bang grenade was deployed in the foyer.
Numerous police vehicles, including a light armored vehicle and two low-flying helicopters barricaded Adam’s street. More than 20 armored SWAT team members surrounded the house, as well as a number of detectives, and plainclothes officers. Assault rifles were aimed on all members of the team as they were handcuffed without being told why they were detained. Masked and armored police in full “Storm Trooper” gear flooded in and ransacked the residence. The team was cordoned in a front room, while Adam was pulled aside for questioning. Over the course of the next five hours, the police searched every corner of the house with canine units and blueprints to the house obtained prior to the search. All officers refused to speak to the crew while they we being detained. They confiscated cell phones and personal items with force. Throughout the ordeal, the police repeatedly showed a volatile desire to initiate aggressive, forceful conduct with detainees. At one point, Adam politely requested to use the restroom and was kicked by the officer forcing him to sit handcuffed on the floor. After hours of determined attempts, the safe was forced open and all items inside were confiscated. Adam was arrested and his crew were told he was being brought to the Herndon Police department overnight. Well after midnight, police officers cleared the house.
Fairfax County Adult Detention Center has stated that it has Adam in custody.
The ADAM VS THE MAN Team will be continuing production on the podcast and the Youtube channel as long as Adam remains imprisoned for an act of civil disobedience. We will continue to spread the message of liberty, self ownership, and the non-aggression principle regardless of the government’s relentless attacks on our operation. We will continue to combat its desperate attempts to crush a worldwide, revolutionary shift in the people’s understanding of the state’s illegitimacy—after all, good ideas don’t require force.
Media Contact: Lucas Jewell – lucas@adamvstheman.com
Static IP addressing is for one customer on one IP address and Dynamic IP addressing assigns a different IP address each time the ISP customer logs on to their computer, but this is dependent upon the Internet Service Provider (ISP) because some ISP's only change the IP address as they deem it necessary.
If you have Dynamic IP Addressing through your Website Host it means that you are sharing an IP Address with several other customers.
If you are a beginner on the internet, an avid internet user, are entertaining the thought of starting your own website business, are a gamer, use VOIP or VPN there are several things you should know about IP Addressing.
Static IP Addressing
If you feel the need to always know what your IP address is then you need a Static IP address, because it is constant. Static IP addresses are more reliable for Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), more reliable to host a gaming website or to play X-Box, Play Station, use Virtual Private Network for secure access to files from your company network computer, etc. Static IP addresses are also great if you use your computer as a server, as it should give your file server faster file uploads and downloads. Another plus with Static IP's, when hosting a website you are not sharing your IP with another company who sends out a lot of E-mail SPAM and not only has their website been shut down but in turn gets your IP address blacklisted.
In contrast a static IP address can become a security risk, because the address is always the same. Static IP's are easier to track for data mining companies. Static IP addressing is less cost effective than Dynamic IP Addressing.
Dynamic IP Addressing
The biggest advantages of Dynamic IP Addressing are less security risk as the computer is assigned a new IP address each time the customer logs on, they are cost effective and there is automatic network configuration (the less human intervention with network configuration the better). Dynamic addressing is usually used by ISP's so that one IP address can be assigned to several users, however some ISP's use Sticky Dynamic IP Addressing and do not change the IP address very often. Dynamic IP Addressing can be used by families with several computers or by a small business owner who has a home office. The software that comes with a router allows for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) setup and assigns each computer attached to the router an IP address automatically.
In contrast, Dynamic IP addressing should not be used for VOIP, VPN, playing online games or game hosting because Dynamic IP addressing is less reliable then Static IP addressing and could cause the service to disconnect while you are on a VOIP, VPN or gaming.
VOIP Static IP Benefits
Step One: Run an IP Config
To run an IPConfig, first pull up the Command Prompt Window on a computer that is connected to the same network a VOIP device. There are several ways to pull up the Command Prompt.
Press Windows Key + R, then type in "CMD" and hit Enter
Type > IPConfig
One you have the Default Gateway and Subnet Mask, we can now determine what kind of Static IP address to assign a VOIP device. All you have to do is take the Default Gateway, and change the last octet of the numbers to any number that is outside of the normal DHCP range and use that number for as the IPv4 Address.
Default Gateway: 192 168 1 1
Static IP Address 192 168 1 XXX
Simply replace the XXX with any number between 201 - 254.
Example: 192 168 1 201
Step Two: Now that you know what static IP to assign to the device, run a simple ping test in the Command Prompt window to confirm that the IP address is free:
In command prompt window, simply type in "ping <ip address>" hit ENTER
Example: ping 192.168.1.201
If the user receives a respone ping, then there is a device on that IP Address and you must select a differen IP Address. If the user receives a response along the lines of "Destination unreachable", then that IP address is OK to use.
Step Three: Now you may assign the IP address to the device.
There are two methods, you can use to assign the IP Address for VOIP:
1) Through the Graphic User Interface (GUI)
2) Through the device itself.
To configure the Static IP through the GUI, determine the IP Address of the device. After getting the device's IP Address, log into it through a web browser. All the user has to do is ener the device's ccurrent IP Address into the Address bar on their browser. No www or http:// is needed. Hit ENTER.
Now you can be logged into the GUI of your routing device. You can also emulate this if it is different router device than the one you are currently using.
