Zeacom Christmas Party

This evening was the Zeacom Christmas party. Cogent has their party on the same night, however they did not allow partners to attend, so Anisha and I went to the Zeacom one. The party was held at Pontoon on Westhaven Drive. Just under 100 people attended tonight.

I am not much of an alcohol drinker, but I did have a fair share or alcohol tonight. One of the key aspects of the evening was the speech by Martin Davis talking about the companies success, and then eventually awarding prizes to our most valued employees.

There were too winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Zeacom Success 2007 award. The winners were Lee-Ann Sterling and Grant Wright.

Lee-Ann also surprised me with her singing performance. Lee-Ann had been part of a band as a singer, and organised her old band to perform tonight.

After the party, we had a taxi take us thought the drive through at Macdonald's (after stopping some guy trying to pinch our taxi), where we ordered something to eat.

Useless Information: If the sound of a balloon popping startles you, you’re not alone. A bursting balloon actually creates a small sonic boom! Once a hole is made in an inflated balloon, the quick release of the balloon’s energy, or air, causes the hole to grow at almost the speed of sound in rubber. Since this speed is much higher than the speed of sound in air, the hole in the balloon actually breaks the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom.

Skype and Windows Live! Messenger

With the introduction of instant Messaging integration into Zeacom Communications Center, I brought my Veo Webcam and one of my many headsets to work. I installed the camera on my Windows Vista Ultimate computer. Unfortunately, there are no drivers for the Veo Advanced Webcam for Windows Vista, and the Veo website appears to now be defunct.

On insertion of the Veo Advanced Connect installation CD, I am advised that the driver is only compatible with Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP. Fortunately, I was able to get around this. I used the Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode on the installation application and it installed without a problem. I had a quick video-conference with Jason Roberts over Skype.

Whether video-conferencing with your customers, or with people within your own company becomes commonplace, is yet to be seen. Further integration of Video Conferencing into our application is a future possibility. It would however be encroaching on our friends at Cogent who already have video-conferencing solutions on the market.

In relation to video conferencing, Alex Wilson (Zeacom Installer) has been talking about using this as a tool for use in the field to talk with our support desk. Ive let him know I'm ready for testing, and I'm waiting for a response from him.

I include greater details on how I installed the Veo Advanced Webcam at the following link:

How to install a Veo Advanced Webcam on Windows Vista
http://hayden-tennent.blogspot.com/2008/01/install-veo-advanced-webcam-on-windows.html

Veo Advanced Connect Installation CD-ROM & Bundled Sofware [Version: AdvCntV008-VIM]
Nero Image [Mirror 1] | ISO Image [Mirror 1]

Useless Information: Bill Bowerman, the co-founder of the shoe company Nike, got his first shoe idea after staring at a waffle iron. This gave him the idea of using squared spikes to make the shoes lighter.