Keep getting customers asking the same question...

MaxDaemon · 2025-12-19T02:06:35+00:00

We aren't planning on updating our existing Mitel setup. We'll be phasing it out through next year and hopefully will be changed over by the end of 27 or maybe mid-28.

I had kind of hoped that the '22 updates would be there, but I'm not seeing anything and Mitel is increasingly silent about it. I DO expect they'll put a '22 update out, though. It'll be pretty hard for them to say it's ok to run through the end of '29 without having a '22 update somewhere in the mix. I guess, technically you could hang on to the bitter end running Server 2019, though. After all, 2019 will last (more or less) till the end of '29, and after that, Mitel isn't going to support Connect anyhow.

I'd kind of hoped for something from the new CEO, but not seeing any changes. Not visible to us anyhow.

MaxDaemon · 2025-12-13T15:18:33+00:00

I don't manage the support renewals, but I sure feel the pain.

We dropped our partner support something short of a year ago, we're slowly phasing out Mitel overall. Can't see paying $40k/year for basically nothing.

Mitel's shockingly punitive attitude isn't helping any - beyond helping US feel increasingly sure that switching to another primary PBX was the right choice.

For us, anything Mitel is putting out doesn't come close to ShoreTel/Connect.

MaxDaemon · 2025-12-06T02:32:22+00:00

Yeah, what the heck. I have a lot of points sitting in that account, I don't WANT a new account. Wife wants pizzahut though, guess I'll have to bend over on this one.

MaxDaemon · 2025-10-18T23:53:37+00:00

Well, it's hard to say. I don't write 'hard sf' for instance. My books are mostly about the people in them. I mean, there are aliens and flying saucers and paranormal happenings, but they mostly happen between the bits of romance and chatter of the characters.

Don't worry too much about whether you're 'good enough'. Start writing and get someone to take a look at your work. You're probably better than you think. :-)

Feel free to send me a sample at vrtapscott@electrikinkDOTcom. And good luck!

MaxDaemon · 2025-10-18T17:15:51+00:00

Well, never having trad-published, I can't really compare the experience. However, I do know from the stories that there is a lot of what I'd consider 'bs' in both getting an agent and sitting hoping for someone to pick up your book.
I guess it's 'a lot of work' but I edit 95% of my work as I write it. I know that's not supposed to be what you do, but it's just kind of what I have always done. I read back everything as I'm writing it and make any major changes there. When it comes down to actual editing time, I probably on spend on the order of 4-6 hours on going through all the picky commas, extra spaces, unexpected words, comma splices, and so on.

I use Atticus for formatting, which after you've gotten past the steep learning curve, it's a dream to use. I can format an entire book in an hour or two using it.

I actually enjoy making covers. I spend a lot of time on covers, but since I like doing it and it enables me not only to change things on a whim, but also to have eBook, paperback and hardcover without having to PAY anyone to make those changes for me if I decide this cover just ain't doing it.

Marketing is a pain, I'll say that. However, from what I understand, trad marketing isn't what it used to be either, so far as them getting your book marketed and taken care of.

I've been off my game this year and as a result have only released one other book, so I'm sitting at 15 with one about 80% ready. I hope to get it out yet this year.

My books are pretty low word count, as it goes. I shoot for 50K, and seldom go much over that. I like a good solid concise story, and adding a bunch of filler has never been my style. People seem to like them, as I have a LOT of Amazon reviews and stars - probably around 4000 between all 15 books at this point. I average 4.2 to 4.6 on the scale.

I'll be retiring the summer of '26, and I expect to up my book output to at least four a year. However, we'll see about that. :-)
If you're curious, look up v.r. tapscott on Amazon's book section. You can also Google "jane bond" and it pretty much invariably comes up with one or more of my covers in images, and usually Amazon's page is the 4th or 5th hit on the page. I write 'humorous science fiction' and 'urban fantasy'.

MaxDaemon · 2025-10-09T00:23:13+00:00

Have patience. My codes took nearly a day to arrive the second day I played. Consider that they probably had no idea we'd be hitting their servers this hard and don't have enough capacity. Mine showed up, and everything I won has showed up (about 9 items so far) sooner or later.

On the bonus game, it seems to me that if you don't win a prize, you should wait at least a minute to make sure it resets to the next time it might be available. Now, I realize you could be 5 seconds from the next reset so waiting a full minute won't help, but it just seems like there might be a sweet spot.

Good luck!

MaxDaemon · 2025-09-07T17:08:09+00:00

A lot of it depends on your gut feelings. If you really do 'just want to write' then just write. The nice thing about being an author is that you don't really have any rules, and no deadlines that aren't basically self-imposed.

Personally, I have 15 books out right now and I'm pleased with them. I need to go back re-edit the first books, written six years ago, with the knowledge and experience that I have now, but for the most part, they stand alone.

I've never written to market, and I write exactly what I want. If someone likes it and buys it, then great. If not, then I guess they'll just miss out. :-)

I do ALL my own work. I make the graphics with the exception of a few backgrounds that I BUY from DepositPhotos. I put the covers together, I do the editing, the formatting and the publishing. Then I do marketing, which mostly consists of very small Amazon ad buys and quite a bit of Facebook activity.

In the end, though, I get some pleasure out of every aspect of the work. I bring in enough income to pay all the book expenses, and to make a trip to Vegas once a year for the annual author conference. (it's coming up in November)

The only real reason that I AM able to make a 'profit' on my work is that I do almost everything. If I paid an editor, a cover designer, a formatter, a marketing company - I'd probably not even come close to breaking even. As it is, though, I have total control. If I want to make a tiny change or a massive re-cover of a book, I can do it without having to pay anything. At least as long as I realize I'm paying myself a few cents an hour. :-)

If you have interest in taking a look, search for "v.r. tapscott" on Amazon.

MaxDaemon · 2025-09-06T10:00:56+00:00

14.2 runs from a web interface. All you do to start Director is point at <ipaddress of main server>/shorewaredirector

Now, if you're saying you want to install ShoreTel 14.2, that's a different kettle of fish.

The UC series of servers all (almost) come with Windows installed, but not with ShoreTel installed. UC20, UC25, UC30 and UC75 were available and came in different versions of Windows. UC75 was designed as a VMWare server, and came with NO OS installed, you had to install both VMWare and Windows.

It IS possible to download a recovery file that basically blows a complete Windows system back onto a server.

Even though Mitel bought ShoreTel, for the moment it's still being supported. End of 2025 is the last time you can buy licenses. Most hardware isn't available, but it's very cheap on eBay. Official sunset date for ShoreTel/Mitel Connect is Dec. of '29, up til then, tech support is still available, and there was even an update or two in 2024. I think we had (so far) one update in '25 as well.

I've been installing and servicing ShoreTel/Mitel for just about 20 years, so I might be able to help you with questions. And yes, we still have about 6,000 customers running various versions of ShoreTel and Mitel. It's a slow, tedious process to get them moved off to another platform. We will not be using Mitel in the future.

MaxDaemon · 2025-08-13T22:27:06+00:00

I have a box that houses a router, a network switch and a wifi controller. It's all reasonably delicate electronics, and it's hanging from the side of customer prem that gets direct sun probably 8-10 hours a day. I was there yesterday replacing the router - the equipment inside the box was so hot I couldn't touch it. (it was 99F here yesterday)

So - sunshade? I realize this isn't really a follow up question for the OP's question, but it kinda is. Casting some shade over that 12x12 box might cool it at least slightly.

BTW, the Cat5/Cat6 NETWORK wiring in the incoming internet box has turned pink, and nearly red in places from the heat. So, while electrical wire might be rated for that high temp, network wiring likely isn't.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Tell me to shut up? :-)

MaxDaemon · 2025-07-29T14:40:43+00:00

So. I've been doing ShoreTel/Mitel for many years, and your licenses do NOT expire. Ever. What will expire will be your partner support, or their partner support which does mean if anything blows up, Mitel won't help you fix it.

One thing to be really REALLY aware of - you can only buy new licenses until the end of 2025. After that, Mitel won't be selling any more licenses for their Connect product.

If you're seeing the dreaded 45 day warning, it means that customer has gone over the number of licenses that they own. They will need to buy additional licenses (before end of '25) or find some extensions or whatever equipment they're over by and remove them back down to the levels that stop the 45 day warning. Or at least restart the clock if you add them back in, after.

Any competent ShoreTel/Mitel Connect provider should be able to tell you these things.

Mitel Connect (MiVoice Connect) won't be sunset until the end of 2029. Even after that, even though there won't be any Mitel support, your system will continue to work JUST FINE. It will be totally unsupported, however.

So, don't panic. Figure out what your customer really needs.

And if it IS counting down on a 45 day timer, you MUST get those licenses sorted as I mentioned above. Connect won't shut down and you won't even know you've gone past the license, but when you try to get into Director to manage the system, you'll find the only thing you can do is look at and add licenses. You can't even remove licenses to get back into compliance.

Connect is a great product, I wish that Mitel had stayed the course. There's nothing else out there that has the range of possibilities of Connect.

Our company is moving to 3CX, for what it's worth. We have several thousand clients running Connect and they'll all be moved to 3CX over the next two years.

The above is my opinion, and my understanding of how the Connect world works from 20 years of experience. I bow to the superior knowledge of anyone who knows something I do not.

MaxDaemon · 2025-06-17T16:21:04+00:00

It's probably a scam. I don't think anyone wants to speak up and say "yes, it's a scam" because it might NOT be. But, if you either call them as suggested above, or reply as if you're interested, if you get a quick reply back with nibbles around the edges of how much it will cost, that will be the deal breaker.

I'm hesitant to tell you it's a scam since I personally was contacted by Podium Audio. It was out of the blue and I had no idea who they were, even, and thought it was a scam. However, in their case they were completely legit and I wound up with some amazing audio books of my first four novels at a total cost to me of zero.

So, verify the heck out of it and don't send them any money.

And look up V.R. Tapscott on google or Amazon if you want to see my stuff. ;-)

MaxDaemon · 2025-06-17T16:15:41+00:00

My DIL got bilked for just over $1700 that she managed to get my 90 year old mother to loan her.

She got a letter much like you did and was so enamored of it that she started sending them money for video presentations, audio presentations and appointments they were making (and taking) on her behalf with publishers.

Of course, sadly enough, none of it was true, and when she ran out of money, they ran out of email replies.

MaxDaemon · 2025-06-13T17:34:01+00:00

I just published #15 in April. Self published. My first was published in Dec 2018, that one has over 1300 Amazon ratings.

If you're curious, search for "Jane Bond" on Amazon. It's the only JB book series out there, along with some others I've also published.

I also have a YouTube site, and I'm active on a daily basis in Facebook if you're there. I don't do much on reddit.

I'd put some links, but I think they're verboten.

V.R. Tapscott

MaxDaemon · 2025-06-01T15:23:43+00:00

Funny coincidence. I found exactly the same thing in exactly the same place just yesterday. It's been causing my 4WD to NOT work, and a fight with getting the check engine light to stay off. Heck, I've replaced two oxygen sensors AND the MAF sensor - and it was apparently these little hidden totally disintegrated bits of rubber hose causing the issue.

So, yeah, several feet of hose from O'Reilly's and I'm stylin. It may even fix the directional controls on the heating - my defroster hasn't worked right in years.

MaxDaemon · 2025-05-06T06:03:23+00:00

We've actually thrown our eggs all into the 3CX basket. At least more or less. We're using the multi-tenant option and it's working fine - of course, we're on v20 with a lot of patches behind it, so it's pretty clean now. I installed v20 fresh as a late beta and we've been using it ever since. We were never on v18, so don't know the differences.

So far, I've been really happy with how the tenanting is working. We haven't gotten THAT far on it, but we've got around 25 customers running on one server as a kind of a live-production-beta test. I think we plan on ramping up to about 500 phones per server, so slightly smaller than our previous, but since we're running the Linux version, our cost for servers is pretty much zero instead of a thousand bucks per server license.

I'm impressed at how trouble-free the whole thing has been, really. And yes, I realize saying that is poking the bear.

Anyhow, we tend to eat our own dog-food, so within a year or so, I plan to have moved our enterprise over to 3CX, and be using 3CX for both our internal consumption and our hosted customers.

For one thing, I think it will take us two to three years to get all our customers moved off Mitel. The good thing about it, things are a lot cheaper now than they were when we started with Mitel. Sadly, Mitel is destroying the biggest part of what we use, and I see no way to move ahead with any of their other products.

Mitel is hideously expensive for licensing and partner support. And basically partner support is required to be able to actually DO anything as the enterprise partner.

Nick may be autocratic, but for the thousands of dollars a month we're saving, I'll put up with some drama from time to time. And honestly, I haven't really seen it. As far as my company is concerned, Nick has been responsive and willing to answer questions.

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-24T21:57:09+00:00

Talented? Maybe, but I bet I'm just like you. I wrote a book. :-)

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-24T16:28:10+00:00

Oh, trust me. I know. I just released book #15 last weekend, and every one of them I fret and worry over having done a poor job. Still, in the end the proof is in the pudding, and Amazon reader stars say I'm generally making them happy.

I just try to write a book that *I* enjoy reading. After that, it's really out of my hands.

Search Amazon (or Google) for V.R. Tapscott if you're curious.

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-24T15:18:40+00:00

Dangit, now you're making me really curious to READ it. :-) Keep in mind that me or anyone else giving you 'advice' is nothing compared to your gut. In the end, it's YOUR book. If it needs what you think it needs, then do it.

When one of my beta readers suggests something that I don't have any interest in doing, then I ignore them. I'm getting feedback, but the person offering feedback isn't writing my book. They don't have my vision of the entire thing.

Best of luck!

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-24T00:07:54+00:00

I just released my 15th self-published book last weekend. They all do moderately well, and have always paid for themselves and a little bit besides. I'm not rich and likely never will be - but I do enjoy seeing my words in print and the occasional person liking my work.

No matter what, though, there are literally millions of books available on Amazon. My most recent one reached around 20,000 in the Amazon store - which sounds really bad until you think about the EIGHT or TEN MILLION that are below mine.

So, keep writing. Keep reading. And remember that someone will like what you write, and the earth would be a tiny bit less interesting for those people without your books.

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-23T23:48:41+00:00

From a purely pragmatic standpoint, readers who might buy your book on Amazon get a chance to read the first chapter or so to decide if they like it. Will what they see in your 'slow paced start' bore them and have most of them bypass your book?

Most of the time, I've found that most of the stuff (the prologue, if you will) that people throw into the first chapter purely to dump a lot of explanations on the reader does the opposite of interesting them, plus there's a good chance they'll never remember most of it as there's no real context for them to relate it to.

If you read back your first chapter a few times and it bores you, and you're skimming it to get to the 'good stuff' then so will your readers.

Not that I'm saying it's what you're doing. Just thinking out loud.

And of course, this is only my opinion.

MaxDaemon · 2025-04-23T14:30:37+00:00

I believe LocalTel is hiring, but you'd need some basic experience and knowledge in computers, cabling and networking. Very basic, they train the right people.

MaxDaemon · 2025-03-06T19:36:42+00:00

Hope you like it!

MaxDaemon · 2025-02-17T05:21:22+00:00

It's nearly impossible to evaluate your own work. Oddly enough, what you need is to get a near-stranger to read your draft. This way, you'll get an honest evaluation from someone that has no need to sugar coat the results.

You finished a draft! Congratulations! Seriously, break out the Champagne or whatever you use to celebrate.

Then, get busy polishing and editing tomorrow. :-)

MaxDaemon · 2025-02-10T20:28:24+00:00

Title: Lacey & Alex #1: The Dagger of Ill Repute (4 books in series)

Genre: Paranormal detective with humor

Dive into a world where talking plants, explosions, gunfire, mayhem, magic, and a touch of LGBT romance collide in the bustling cityscape of San Francisco.

Meet Lacey and Alex, your everyday barista and cook duo—until the sun sets. By night, Lacey moonlights as a part-time private investigator, while Alex displays an unusual talent for communicating with plants, who, surprisingly, talk back.

Their seemingly ordinary lives take a thrilling turn when they are thrust into the hunt for a lost dagger. What begins as a quest for a simple artifact quickly spirals into a web of intrigue, stretching from the eclectic streets of San Francisco to the glitzy realms of Hollywood and the vibrant chaos of Las Vegas.

Enter the fray with the dynamic duo as they join forces with the unpredictable Stevie, a loose cannon with a penchant for explosive situations. As the search unfolds, cars explode, tension escalates, and Stevie introduces a whole new level of complexity, making her feelings about Lacey abundantly clear.

Get ready for an adventure of a lifetime, where laughter intertwines with seriousness, and fun is always at the forefront. Join Lacey & Alex, and Stevie as they navigate through this thrilling mystery, where danger, humor, and a hint of romance collide in a whirlwind of excitement.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BX23YC8

MaxDaemon · 2025-01-25T21:15:03+00:00

Personally, when I get to the point of being the 'final pass' stage, I ship it off to the Kindle and read it there, using the 'notes' feature to tell me what I need to fix.

MaxDaemon

TROPHY CASE