Sometimes the most useful features are the ones hiding in plain sight. We were recently running a little training session for one of our clients when we demonstrated a small trick in SAS. The people on the call had been working with Metaswitch for years, so this wasn’t an introduction to SAS or basic troubleshooting…. Continue Reading
What Soccer Video Analysis Can Teach Us About Better Network Operations
My daughter’s under-14 soccer team has recently started using a video analysis system called VEO. The idea is pretty impressive. A camera is set up around the halfway line and records the entire field throughout the game. Afterwards, the footage is uploaded to the cloud, where it is processed into something much more useful. The… Continue Reading
Speaking Telecoms in French
Early in my career at Metaswitch, I was working on a small team trying to develop a simple audio conferencing product. We were working with a third-party vendor based in northern France, and my boss wanted to send someone on-site to speed up the testing. I admitted that I’d studied French at high school, but… Continue Reading
The Noise Under the Floor
When I was 17, our high school choir embarked on its first ever concert tour to mainland Europe. We were heading to Salzburg, then on to Italy, including Venice and Lake Garda. To keep costs down, the school hired a coach rather than flying. It was quite an adventure: we travelled from northern England by… Continue Reading
The Longest Thirty Minutes I’ve Watched in Years
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s a World Cup going on – and our family has dual allegiance to both the USA (playing later today, as I write this) and my native England. I’ll admit that not every soccer game is amazing, but even the most casual fan must admit that England’s victory… Continue Reading
The Shot That Broke the Goalkeeper
I help coach my 13-year-old daughter’s soccer team. During practices, I’ll occasionally jump into scrimmages to help out – usually making the tactical mistake of assuming that because the players are still technically “kids,” things will remain reasonably safe for the adults involved. A couple of months ago, I volunteered to play goalkeeper during one… Continue Reading