We all know that we can always improve on documentation, which makes me wonder- is it actually possible to be as up to date on documentation as you actually want to be or is it truly meant to be one of those elusive goals that you must constantly strive for?

When I look around, I can think of countless forms I could create, a multitude of documents on X system or Y project, and not to mention updating old piles of documents. Has nayone actually gotten on top of their documentation to a point where they were satisfied?

Sometimes I have difficulty finding the proper line between helping out a friend and servicing their technology. I mean, sure, a lot of it is pretty straightforward. Can't figure out how to send an email? I'll help you. Obliterated your TCP/IP settings and uninstalled the drivers for your network adapter because 'I don't use an adapter for anything?' That will cost you.

What about everything in between? Do you guys have a line in your head where you will not cross as then you may be trapped in the endless game of 'Hey, can you help me out?' If so, where is that line?

I was recently doing a PBX install for someone and they were using a Sangoma Gateway. At first, it looked pretty simple and straightforward. The instructions to configure it with Elastix were about as straightforward as can be. If only it worked that way...

I ran into many little obstacles that I didn't expect to see with this setup. First, we couldn't get a SIP account to register as the instructions told us to do. Then, fax information seems to be stuttering and not passing through the way it's supposed to. DTMF tones transmit in a way that is completely arbitrary to the settings that are mentioned. As icing on the cake, for some reason it felt the need to strip the first character of the CID off as well.

Am I just severely unlucky or has anyone else had troubles like these with gateway devices for a PRI?

Right now I run technically three monitors. My laptop, an additional external hooked up to my laptop, and my desktop. I use one keyboard and mouse and can pretty seamlessly transition between all three of them with Synergy. Synergy works in a client/server fashion that you install on both machines and point to the host(server for which one you want to hook your keyboard and mouse up to. Very good for spreading your workload across your computers.

One pitfall I have run into though is if my laptop, which is working as my server, is under heavy load, I cannot transition. I have to have some resources just available to be able to do it. Other than that, Synergy is working wonderfully for me.I could picture getting a multitude of PC's together with this kind of setup and just wreaking havoc on things.

Do you guys use a system like this? Do you use a KVM to switch through multiple PC's?

While I have only a little experience with proprietary systems, I can tell you that Asterisk systems are pretty easy to administer in an overall sense. You've got countless options- Elastix, FreePBX straight, PBX in a Flash, etc. Extension creation takes 30 seconds, and modifying current settings is pretty intuitive from the interface.

Could you give me some examples on what administering a proprietary system like that is like?

@JaredBusch I definitely must agree.

I see things like this often in my state. For example: http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/02/14-year-old_lil_carl_howard_se.html
It's still pretty controversial as to whether or not that should stick in this link, but what kind of society do we live in now that a pocketknife can get you brought up on felonies and 14 year olds are charged as adults?

I live in a very rural area myself. Small town. In high school one of my history teachers was once attempting to open a package that had the plastic seal on it. After a second of struggling he looks out to the class, says 'does anyone have a pocketknife?' 'right here!' the teacher grabs the knife, opens it, uses it, closes it, and hands it back. 'Thanks!', pauses for a minute, then says to the class, 'I guess it's a good thing that no one had a pocketknife, right?'

Last night I slept, but that is a very uncommon thing for me as well. I just had to deal with those outlandish things called 'social interactions' yesterday and it took all of my energy to get through it!

If you don't want to deal with a lot of customers/users, you will probably want to try to hit the engineer level in my opinion. I spend a lot of time on the front lines, as it were. I still don't entirely know which direction I am pursuing in the IT field, but I am keeping wide open to suggestions.

Even for non-customer facing, IT is a wide field. You can be a programmer, an engineer, system admin. When I was focusing on certs, I was intending to get a cert for A+, Network+, and Security+. That is where I intended to start, and that will almost certainly help you to get a foot up.

Hope this helps.

I do not even mess with personal email on my cell phone, nor do I really require it for email at all, but for when I do, it is pushed.

Though honestly you probably could chain me to my desk for a full day and I wouldn't even notice, so email on phone is generally a moot point.

@scottalanmiller I just may.do that, but I am concerned on the latency. Maybe once I jump onto multiple extensions I might pursue a softphone again.

@scottalanmiller On a side note, I've seen more musicals than Phantom of the Opera, and participated in a few, but that's a different story.

On the note of the IPhone, I may not have been a user, but the majority of people around me use them, so when they have issues with them, I am the one left for troubleshooting. The experiences I have had in that regard have been memorable to a point that I'd just as soon stick with my Android.

@scottalanmiller Yes that part I understood. It was just that I was using one or the other and Zoiper liked to register itself after I disabled it, which threw everything off.

I'm a late adopter and wasn't in the smart phone market until the end of 2012, but I jumped straight onto a Droid 4. Maybe I'm just traditional, but in comparison to the virtual keyboard, I take the physical one hands down. Plus, as A.J. pointed out, Android all the way. It sounds like the S4 is a killer phone, and I would think about it for upgrade myself.

I have only ever used Zoiper, but it started onflicting with my deskphone and tried starting on it's own a lot and like to register itself shortly after I unregistered my extension on it, so I stick to exclusively a deskphone now.

Not to mention the killer latency issues I had with it, but that can probably be attributed to my network. So, to summarize, Zoiper, but it and I are not currently talking to each other.

I use a Yealink T22P. I've recently seen some settings with the Polycom phones and do not like the complexity of changing some things, but I have not personally used them to be certain. I do see a lot of Yealinks out and about.

Looks pretty good, but doesn't that seem a bit pricy? Maybe I just look for the simpler things.

By sudden epiphany, I remembered to grab the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/harald_haas_wireless_data_from_every_light_bulb

You don't want to see my internet speeds. I might get my official IT card revoked.

My Nexus 10 seldom sees work usage for me. I just don't have the proper tools to integrate it into my systems enough to be useful.