Try this one on for size! Mike is right, I come to your site for information about PBXs, not some egotistical spew about politics!

What the heck do you have to complain about? Most people go to Alaska to get away from it all, and you’re groaning about how bad your internet connect is!?! Did you ever think of the people who put up good money and worked hard (and maybe even risked their lives!) to satisfy complainers like you, for very little profit? How long ago was it that your ancestors were crossing the country in a wagon? And you’re complaining about a four-hour airplane ride with no snacks? You should be ashamed of yourself!

An how about self-sufficiency? Most people who live in Alaska do not need technology to survive. I bet if all your electronic devices were taken away from you, you’d be a nervous wreck in a few hours.

AND DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE THE COMMENT "I HAVE TO AGREE", OTHERWISE I WILL NOT STOP REMINDING YOUR VISITORS WHAT A &#^$&^$# YOU ARE.

Of course, this message will disappear before long, just like my first message. But I promise you, it will be back. And when it disappears again, it will be back again. And when comments get disabled, I’ll take to the blogs, maybe even start my own anti-NV blog. Censorship is awesome, isn’t it?

[WM: Aren’t fans wonderful. Someday Jason will grow up and have young children of his own. Then he’ll better appreciate that four-hour airplane rides with no snacks aren’t the best of ideas. And, no, we didn’t starve or freeze to death. Jason also will be thrilled to learn that everyone’s iPads worked just fine so nobody got the shakes from tech deprivation. 🙄 ]

How did it feel to pay $100 in order to test the Incredible PBX on the Cruise Ship internet? Huh? Huh?

You know you want to tell us! 🙂

Hope you had a great time. I plan to make the trip myself one day … I hope.

[WM: The $100 was well spent. It kept email from piling up and let us manage our sites using SSH with ease. Unfortunately, VoIP phone access wasn’t really possible because of the poor bandwidth and latency.]

WM: When we receive comments with fake email addresses or spam-catcher email addresses that make it impossible for us to verify that the poster is, in fact, legitimate, we ordinarily toss the comments in the bit bucket. But we thought it might be helpful to reiterate our policy in light of a couple of diatribes which have not been posted, not because of their content, but because of our inability to verify their authenticity. If you want to post anonymously, this isn’t the proper forum for you. And feel free to exercise your Constitutional right to cancel your subscription at any time. 😉

WM: Nice!

There have been many efforts over the years to move the state capital from Juneau to somewhere on the highway system, but these efforts have gone nowhere largely because it would kill Juneau.

When Palin was governor, she got a lot of flack within the state for conducting much of the state’s business from Anchorage, including holding legislative sessions there, and not requiring some of her government officials to move to Juneau, as previous governors had done.

Though no Palin fan myself, I do think you do her and all Alaska governors a disservice with your comment about the ‘ “leadership skills” of someone governing … in a place as isolated and uninhabited as the great state of Alaska." That isolation doesn’t mean that the governorship doesn’t require leadership skills. Most people don’t think of the difficulties that arise in such a state. Scattered population in small bush villages that are inaccessible by road are just as much the responsibility of the governor as the population in the major cities. Overseeing such things as Medicaid is different in a state where the state must not only cover costs of medical care itself, but also transportation and lodging costs, and to even get to a doctor, a patient may spend a whole day (or two) traveling, having to take a snow machine, bush plane, and airliner. The education needs of a small one room schoolhouses in the middle of nowhere must be met just as much as the 100-school district in Anchorage.

But as for the quitting early thing, I’m with you there.

[WM: We visited Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan. It looked like all of them would be dead without cruise ships. At least until the cruise ships appeared, statehood appears to have all but killed Ketchikan’s major source of income: prostitution. As for leadership skills, you’re certainly correct. There is plenty to manage in a place like Alaska. But those problems have very little to do with most of the major issues confronting our country. Palin’s divisive comments aside, I’m glad we at least agree that managers who quit when the going gets tough have no place in state government much less national politics. Just my $.02, of course.]

How was your VOIP access on the iPad out and about?

[WM: Where there was WiFi access, VoIP connectivity with the iPad through our PIAF server in Charleston was fine. But there’s no 3G service to be found in Juneau, Sitka, or Ketchikan. And AT&T’s Edge "service" was next to worthless.]