Justin Germino Ramblings

I had been using the MagicJack for over a year when suddenly yesterday morning it dropped one of my work calls and my phone just ceased to function.  I had a basic phone without any LCD display so I couldn’t find the problem at first, the MagicJack worked fine when I set it to headset mode and forced it to use the PC Speakers, but the phone itself would provide no dial tone.

I bought a 2nd phone with an LCD display and the moment I plugged it into my MagicJack I saw the message "Line in Use" on my phone.  The phone even had this message when I disconnected it from my MagicJack almost like the MagicJack sent a signal or spike to the phone which caused it to permanently assume it was in use. 

I opened a support case with MagicJack and it led to a confusing run around of basic troubleshooting steps first with one operator and then with another operator.

Here is a transcript of the online support call:

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Honey’
Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK43604275547X
Honey: Hello, how may I help you?
Justin Germino: I have been a MagicJack client for over a year
Justin Germino: for some reason today my MagicJack is not functioning properly, it dropped a phone call and I can’t use it with any normal phone anymore
Honey: ALright, thank you for that.
Honey: May I know when this issue got started?
Justin Germino: I bought a 2nd phone thinking it was the phone and now my phone is stuck in "Line in Use" mode
Justin Germino: even when I disconnect the phone it is stuck in this mode now
Justin Germino: I tried 3 different USB ports and rebooted my computer
Justin Germino: It just started about 2 hours ago
Honey: Ok.
Justin Germino: I have used my MagicJack about 5 hours per day for 12 months now
Justin Germino: use it all the time
Honey: May I know the name registered on this magicJack account?
Justin Germino: Justin Germino
Honey: Thank you.
Honey: Please wait while I check that for you
Honey: Thank you for waiting.
Honey: Is the magicJack plugged in with the blue light is on?
Justin Germino: Yes, and it works when I use it with PC Speakers and Microphone
Justin Germino: it just doesn’t work with plugged in Telephone
Justin Germino: I have same problem reported here:
Justin Germino: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22744080-MJ-shows-line-in-use-when-not-off-hook
Justin Germino: I think something broke with the USB Magic Jack box and it isn’t sending right voltage or signal to phone anymore
Justin Germino: not sure if I can try a firmware patch or something to reset the MagicJack
Justin Germino: and try to fix it
Honey: Do you see the dial pad in the computer screen?
Justin Germino: Yes I do
Honey: Please click on MENU in the dial pad then Volume/Headset Control and toggle it to Telephone if you are using a Telephone and Headset if you are using a Headset.
Justin Germino: Already did that
Justin Germino: just did it again
Justin Germino: it doesn’t work on Telephone, but works on Headset
Honey: Ok.
Honey: Are you using a Telephone or Headset?
Justin Germino: I have been using a Telephone for over a year
Justin Germino: it just stopped working 2.5 hours ago
Justin Germino: I don’t use headset
Justin Germino: don’t have a PC headset
Justin Germino: when I switch to headset, I can hear it dial and connect out my PC speakers, but I don’t have a microphone
Justin Germino: How long is the Warranty on the MagicJack usb device? I am fairly sure the device itself is broken, unless I can somehow flash its firmware, is there a number I can dial that reprograms the magicjack?
Honey: Ok.
Honey: Please set it to Telephone since that’s the one you’re using.
Justin Germino: Ok, I am on Telephone mode now
Honey: Ok.
Honey: Click the "Start" button  then "Control Panel" then go to "Internet Options", under "Privacy" tab, slide the bar down to "Accept all cookies".
Justin Germino: done
Honey: Click "Security" tab, click on "Trusted Sites" then click the "Sites" button.
Honey: Un-check the box at the bottom left of the window that says "Require Server Verification".
Justin Germino: done
Honey: Type the following address into the text bar, reg.talk4free.com then click the "Add" button, and also type in the following address, my.magicJack.com and click "Add" then "Close" then "OK".
Justin Germino: both done
Honey: Ok, thanks.
Honey: Let’s disable the Firewall and Anti-virus installed in your computer for 30 minutes.
Justin Germino: Done, these troubleshooting steps I already did in the faq (minus the add URL’s to Internet Options trusted sites)
Justin Germino: this isn’t the issue and doesn’t work
Justin Germino: Antivirus is off, Firewall is disabled
Honey: Ok.
Honey: http://upgrades.magicjack.com/upgrade/upgrade.exe
Honey: Please click the link (underlined words) and hit RUN.
Justin Germino: doing that now
Justin Germino: Hmm, got an incompatible error
Justin Germino: says need 64bit version
Justin Germino: I am using Windows 7 64bit
Justin Germino: this file won’t run in 64bit Windows 7
Honey: You mean, you can’t run it?
Honey: It will run on windows 7.
Justin Germino: Here is exact error i get
Honey: Ok, please give it to me.
Justin Germino: The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you are running. Check your computers system information to see whether you need an x86 32bit or x64 64bit version of the program
Honey: Please do this.
Honey: Please unplug the magicJack device from the USB port and plug it back after 20 seconds.
Justin Germino: Done, it is starting the MagicJack now
Justin Germino: after I plugged it back in
Honey: Do you still have the dial pad?
Justin Germino: yes
Honey: Try to run the upgrade this time.
Honey: http://upgrades.magicjack.com/upgrade/upgrade.exe
Honey: Please click the link (underlined words) and hit RUN.
Justin Germino: it failed, but I downloaded the file again and it works, must have been a corrupt download first time, now says "Upgrading MagicJack"
Honey: Ok, please let me know when it’s done.
Justin Germino: it is done
Justin Germino: magicjack is back to dial pad
Justin Germino: but phone still stuck saying "line in use"
Justin Germino: and can’t get dial tone
Honey: Ok.
Honey: Ok.
Honey: I am transferring you to one of our top 10% agents as rated by our customers. Please hold while I transfer you.
Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator.
You are now chatting with ‘Ken’
Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK43604275547X
Ken: Hello Justin . My name is Ken. To better assist you, let me put you on hold while I read your previous chat/s. Thank you.
Ken: Thank you so much for waiting.
Ken: Is your phone connected to a wall jack?
Justin Germino: no, it is connected to the USB port of the MagicJack
Justin Germino: I actually have no wall jack in my house
Justin Germino: I have no land line
Justin Germino: have been using the MagicJack only for over a year
Ken: Please double check if the base cord of your phone is properly hooked up to your magicJack device.
Justin Germino: it is hooked up properly, I even went and bought a 2nd phone
Justin Germino: problem is the moment I plugged in my 2nd phone, I heard dial tone for about 1 second, then nothing and phone now stuck saying "Line in Use"
Justin Germino: both phones don’t work with the USB MagicJack but the Headset mode does. I have done Google Search for this and think the USB device isn’t sending out proper signal/voltage to phone or may have fried phone
Ken: Do you mean you want to use multiple phones for magicJack?
Justin Germino: No, one phone at a time
Justin Germino: I thought my phone was broken at first
Justin Germino: so I bought a 2nd phone
Justin Germino: I only plug 1 phone at a time into MagicJack USB box
Justin Germino: neither phone works
Justin Germino: The MagicJack was working fine for over a year until it dropped a call on me about 3 hours ago
Justin Germino: now it won’t give dial tone to any phone plugged into it, it just acts like there is no phone plugged in
Justin Germino: meanwhile, the phone itself doesn’t get a dial tone when plugged into MagicJack
Justin Germino: I am fairly certain the USB MagicJack is defective and malfunctioning, what is replacement policy?
Ken: Would that be okay if we will try to fix it first?
Justin Germino: sure, I already did the upgrade, unplugged waited 20 seconds and replugged
Justin Germino: rebooted computer
Justin Germino: shut off antivirus/firewall
Justin Germino: and added 2 DNS names into my Internet Options
Justin Germino: just let me know what else to try
Ken: Click the "Start" button then  "Control Panel" then go to "Internet Options", under "Privacy" tab, slide the bar down to "Accept all cookies".
Justin Germino: already did this sir
Justin Germino: if you read the chat, I already went through these steps
Ken: One moment please…
Justin Germino: Honey had me set the Honey: Type the following address into the text bar, reg.talk4free.com then click the "Add" button, and also type in the following address, my.magicJack.com and click "Add" then "Close" then "OK".
Justin Germino: I already downloaded an upgrade.exe
Justin Germino: and the MagicJack upgraded
Justin Germino: but didn’t fix problem
Ken: Thank you for holding on.
Ken: Are you using USB extension cord?
Justin Germino: No, the MagicJack is plugged directly into USB port on PC
Justin Germino: no dongle or extender used
Justin Germino: I also tried 3 separate USB ports already
Ken: Please unplugged your magicJack and plug it back after 2 minutes to another available USB port of your computer while holding the shift key in your keyboard.
Justin Germino: ok
Justin Germino: do you want me to start device or open the files on the device?
Ken: Choose start magicJack.
Justin Germino: started and now at dial pad
Justin Germino: however my phone still says "line in use"
Ken: Do you have another available phone?
Justin Germino: Yes, let me plug the other one in
Ken: Alright.
Justin Germino: Ok, same isse
Justin Germino: phone gets no dial tone
Justin Germino: but this one doesn’t have an LCD display, so I don’t see a "line in use" but assume it has same issue
Justin Germino: I have been on chat with support for almost an hour now, same procedures tried twice. I am fairly sure I just need a new MagicJack, what is the warranty on these things?

After being on the support with them I was finally able to track down my original MagicJack order number and the company agreed to send me a replacement MagicJack USB device for only $9.95 shipping instead of having to buy a new device from scratch.

I was informed that had I purchased the MagicJack from any retailer other than MagicJack.com there would have been no Warranty, so people may want to think twice if they get the MagicJack from any local store instead of MagicJack directly.

Again, I had been using the MagicJack for a full year without any issue at all. In researching this problem online I found a few articles which mentioned the same or similar problem:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22744080-MJ-shows-line-in-use-when-not-off-hook

It makes sense that someone something broke with the MagicJack that it was either sending too high or too low voltage or signal to the phone plugged into the device.  In the meantime I went out and bought a Wireless USB headset and am using the MagicJack in Headset mode until my replacement MagicJack arrives in a week or two.

I don’t dislike the MagicJack and I have only had a few minor issues with the device up until now, I am glad they were going to replace the device even after buying it around a year ago.  I wish it wasn’t so hard to get through the support techs and get a new device ordered however.  It is important you keep your original order number, that is for sure.

Still, with talk of MagicTalk coming where you can make unlimited free calls to anywhere and any phone from your PC without paying a per minute fee, I can’t find a way to sign up for it yet to test it.  I am still using the MagicJack as it is the cheapest method of making phone calls to land lines without paying a fee or chewing up minutes on a cell phone.

I still recommend the device even though mine went dysfunctional in 15 months because I use it heavily, at least 4-5 hours of calls per day and it went through over a thousand hours of calls before it went kaput.  It may have been a fluke as well, not sure if anybody else had problems with a device after so long.  I do read a few reports about them being broken when  you first test them, but once they work they seem to work pretty well.

-Justin Germino

I had touted the benefits of Live Writer and really loved the previous version of the product but recently some changes both in the new Live Writer 2010 and my own blog have made the external blogging client less than efficient.  The primary thing is my blog theme on DragonBlogger.com changed to a magazine style theme that Live Writer is unable to import and render properly, this makes it hard to write posts and gauge how they will display on the site since the Preview Mode in WLW is non-functional since it can’t detect and use my blog theme.

The second issue is that my blog theme uses the Use Featured Image functionality of WordPress 3.x and this isn’t supported by Live Writer, so I constantly have to publish or save my posts to my blog, then edit them online and set the featured image.  This slows down my productivity further in using Live Writer and there shouldn’t be a reason why a module can’t be developed that integrates Live Writer to support the WordPress Featured Image since it is built into the platform and isn’t an extension.

Finally, the Windows 2010 version of Live Writer with its ribbon interface is slower at getting to the various menu’s and information I used to edit.  In the previous version I could edit all my post meta information (Slug, Summary, Tags and Category) from one page, now I have to open a drop down just to edit the summary and the slug which slows me down.  To top it all off the new Windows 2010 version of Live Writer doesn’t support cutting and pasting images directly from Paint.NET like the older version of Live Writer, I have to save the file first and then upload it.

I still use Live Writer for my personal blog and poetry blog where it works, but am rapidly resorting to typing posts again in my WordPress editor as the functionality of Live Writer isn’t keeping pace with the changes in the WordPress world.

I hope updates are coming out soon.

-Justin Germino

At 16 days now this is officially the longest sinus/ear/throat infection I have ever had in my life, after going to Urgent Care a 2nd time on Monday of this week they prescribed stronger antibiotics and some ear drops to help try and get my poor inflamed and hurting ear under control.  It is very out of the norm for me to get this sick as I only usually get a few colds per year and maybe have taken an average of 2-3 sick days per year compared to this year.

My whole job depends on being on conference calls all day long which is hard when your ear is so full of fluid and your eardrum is ringing and hissing like a boiling tea kettle.  I can barely hear even out of my less infected ear and concentration is severely affected.  Hopefully these new antibiotics are strong enough to start working fast, and I hope I can recover quickly.

By the way, I don’t recall having an ear infection in the past 20 years, I know now why babies and toddlers scream and cry when they get bad ear infections.  They Hurt, and not a little bit, the eardrum and area is very sensitive and I would rather have a severe throat infection or my sinuses infected again, it is less painful than having your eardrum infected.

-Justin Germino

I have been sick for so many weeks now that I barely remember what it feels like to have energy and be vibrant like my normal self.  My ear infection and ringing particularly was bad on Friday and into Saturday which drove me nuts.  The company that makes the Eardoc had read about my ailment and offered to send me a free product ($59.99) value if I were willing to do a video review and I happily accepted hoping that the product would be shipped fast enough to provide relief while my ear was still filled with fluid and ringing like the Liberty Bell meets a rattlesnake hiss.

Meanwhile, I read on CNN and some other sites that you shouldn’t work out when you are sick, I considered if doing some running/cardio or enough exercise to get my blood pumping would help fight infection and viruses, but instead according to the medical reports I was reading it can increase the risk of the blood pumping such infections to other parts of your body including your heart which would be very bad.  Also the same endorphins that make your body feel good and give you energy when working out also tend to stress your immune system if you work out to hard.

So, I am just going to have to start working out again when my illness fully subsides.  In the meantime, my wife caught my illness and came down just as sick as I.  We had to even run her last concert for Rock Along Productions on Saturday night which kept us up until around 3am while both suffering from the illness which was very rough.  She isn’t too happy with me the past few days for infecting her with my bug.

Meanwhile, I have said this before and I will say it again.  If you have a sinus infection, throat or ear infection do not try and wait it out, go to the doctor sooner.  My mistake was I waited about 8 days before going to Urgent Care, had I gone within four or five days I may have recovered before I would have even passed it on to my wife.  Now at fourteen days I am still not completely recovered.

-Justin Germino

Looking forward to taking my boys trick or treating this afternoon, my boys have elected to go as Mario and Luigi for Halloween and they make such a great matching pair.  Meanwhile, illness delayed carving pumpkins until the day before Halloween and I just didn’t have the oomph to do something overly creative like my gory pumpkin from two years ago.

Something interesting this year, there is a dental clinic in Casa Grande that will pay kids $1 for every pound of Halloween candy they turn in.  We are going to have our kids keep only a handful of candy and turn in the rest and get some money instead.  This way they earn some money and don’t end up with an overindulgent pile of candy that will rot their teeth and tempt them into poor(er) eating habits.

Hope everyone has a safe Halloween tonight, make sure if going out after dark that you wear reflectors and light clothing.

Here were the pics of our pumpkins this year:

My wife made a Pirate pumpkin, while I made a 4 eyed spider pumpkin with mandibles.  My eldest son worked on a Demon pumpkin, while I helped my youngest with a traditional little pumpkin.

-Justin Germino

Tonight I will be helping my wife run the door at the Halloween Mayhem show at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa, AZ. This will be Rock Along Productions last show and we are going out with a bang. Five bands will entertain from 8pm to midnight and there will be a costume contest with prizes given away to the best costumes.

Hope to see local live music fans out, tickets are $10 at the door but if you mention you heard about the show from this site I will personally give you $2 off and get you in for $8.

-Justin Germino

By modifying bacteria in a lab, Christopher Voight’s photographic bacteria were able to make an artistic impression. Light sensing and communication genes were injected into the bacteria so that when light was shone on the bacteria in petri dish, they were coaxed into forming pencil like outlines of any projected image, in the Popular Science article Alfred Hitchcock was used for an example.

I really enjoyed Christopher Voigt’s quote in the Popular Science article that said “We don’t care how biology works normally, we want to get it to do unnatural things for us”. Biology condition to do unnatural things, that is a scary thought and quite Sci-Fi.

The biggest thing about genetically modifying bacteria by adding more advanced genes, is that the bacteria might eventually be manipulated to find and destroy cancer cells, taught on how to craft the perfect wine or cheese and help coax human cells to grow into organs. This is an interesting prospect and only shows that genetic manipulation may still hold as much potential in developing cures and applications a stem cell therapy.

-Justin Germino

I finally had enough and after being sick for 9 days I went to Urgent Care yesterday where they found my sinuses, ear and throat were infected.  Antibiotics and steroid nasal spray were the prescription though they said Advil Cold and Sinus worked as good as any prescription decongestant and said stick with that.  Meanwhile I am hoping this works quickly, as I woke up early this morning with my entire right ear canal feeling plugged and a constant hissing/ringing in my right ear.  It is distracting to have total silence yet hear this static like feedback in your ear and this can only mean the infection is up against my ear drum.

My blogs are pretty much on auto pilot the last several days as I am too sick to stay up at night and write articles or do much promotion, I also am distraught at the amount of work I have to do at my day job and yet I am feeling so lousy it is hard for me to drive the projects I need to drive.

To make matters worse, my poor wife just came down with the beginning stages which start with a severe throat infection yesterday and she woke up already with infected sinuses.  It is really hard when both parents are out of commission and sick at the same time, the kids and house still need to be taken care of and all you feel like doing is resting in bed and moaning all day.

Here to a speedy recovery for my wife.

-Justin Germino

I do offer selling backlinks on my blogs for a reasonable fee, but recently when an advertiser offered me $250 for 5 backlinks on two of my blogs I had to stop and seriously consider the offer before rejecting it.

It isn’t that the backlinks were particularly bad keywords, it was that the advertiser wanted backlinks for 5 years, and wanted to pay $250 for 10 backlinks total (5 on two blogs) for this length of time.  Weighing in the fact that this equates to about .41 cents per backlink per month I just couldn’t accept the offer even though it was a decent up front payment.

This also includes the fact that putting in 5 dofollow backlinks on the homepage of any site is likely to damage your PageRank as you seep it out to the links you put in.

Depending on the PageRank of your own sites and whether you sell backlinks from your homepage or not you could make some decent money on the side, PR6 or higher blogs can earn between $50 per month or higher for such a backlink.

When selling backlinks on your blog homepage note that you can make some decent earnings if your site has a PR4 or greater just be sure to screen the keywords requested and target URL’s to make sure that they don’t risk hurting your own PageRank from hosting them.

I would also not sell backlinks on your site for greater than 12 month intervals at a time, as sites fluctuate too much and some sites go up and down in that amount of time.  In the fast pace internet game, too much can change in a year or more to commit to such a long term advertisement in my opinion.

-Justin Germino

I wrote this as I am currently suffering from one of the worst sinus pressure and congestion issues I have ever experienced. It started when I came down with the flu last week and somehow ended up with either sinusitis, a sinus infection or some other sinus malady.

The pressure can be so unbearable that my teeth on my right side of my face hurt, my molars specifically feel pain in the gum area from the sinus pressure. My eyeball feels like it is trying to be forced out of its socket and my entire right side of my face feels numb and swollen. Desperate for sinus pressure relief I turned to the common sources for relief but didn’t find much help there, so I scoured the web looking for the fastest and best ways to relieve sinus pressure and then tried as many as I could find hoping something would work.

Here are the results of my experiments:

Pseudoephedrine

This is one of the most common over the counter decongestants which can be powerful at relieving sinus pressure and pain.  Combined with ibuprofen or acetaminophen this can further reduce pain and discomfort as a result of sinus pressure or congestion.  From my own experience early on I was talking Theraflu every 12 hours and it didn’t provide too much relief, I switched to Advil Cold & sinus which only helped slightly but my congestion came back rapidly and the pressure worsened after the medicine wore off.

Menthol Inhalers or Sprays

These can open nasal passage airways and provide some relief, but in my own testing I would only be able to breathe through my nose for a few minutes before congestion and inflammation would set back in.

Sinus Irrigation / Rinse

I read on many websites including WebMD.com that Sinus Irrigation with a saline solution can provide effective relief but also help speed the recovery from sinus infections as the salts in the saline water act as a natural sterilizer and fight infection. I bought the Ocean Complete Sinus Irrigation kit at Walgreens and decided to try it myself. The kit was easy to use and the stream of saline penetrates deep into your sinus cavities quickly and easily, I did find the saline water burned slightly my inner nasal passages, but my nasal passages were so raw from blowing my nose a thousand times a day that it probably was just normal, it quickly passed as well. My sinuses did feel lighter and cleaned out for about ten to fifteen minutes and I had to repeat about every two or three hours but this was one of the most effective natural relief treatments I have tried so far.

Hot Steam / Warm Compress

Taking a very hot bath or shower where the steam can run up into your nasal passages does provide temporary relief, holding a hot washcloth and pressing for a few minutes at a time repeatedly to your face, cheeks and head can also allow for relief from pressure and congestion.  This is only temporary but it does provide some immediate relief and can help ease pressure when it becomes very painful and needs a quick relief.

There are other remedies that I read about online but didn’t try like:

• Cayenne Pepper

This is supposed to help open Nasal passages in the same way spicy food causes your nose to run or water.  I can’t ingest spicy food without having stomach trouble and as I was worried about my nasal passages already being irritated I didn’t want to risk further irritation from cayenne pepper.

• Apple Cider Vinegar

This seems like another online scam treatment that claims to relieve all problems and symptoms, I could find no evidence that this actually helps but if you know someone who actually tried and uses this let me know and I will try it.

In Summary:

The pseudoephedrine provided some relief but when it wears off you can feel more congested and worse than before you took it, the other side effect is you will go from being stuffed up to being so runny that you are blowing your nose constantly. I tried combining the pseudoephedrine with an anti-histamine like chloramine maleate but this just ended up with me being back to stuffy and congested again.

The hot washcloth and steaming water combined with the nasal saline irrigation system seemed to provide good temporary relief while I was doing it, but I would quickly become congested again a few short hours later. That being said, I think the nasal saline solution is probably the best at actually helping cure a sinus infection as the salt in the saline will help fight and kill the infection and can help speed recovery. I have read much to this effect from the various medical and health remedy related websites.

So far, I am still suffering from severe sinus pressure and congestion issues but I don’t have what are the key traces of infection (yellow or green thickened mucous) so I am not sure what is causing the congestion and pressure if it may not be an infection. If it continues to persist I will be heading to the urgent care to get it officially looked at and something prescribed later this week, in reading online it states that you should go to a doctor if your sinusitis or sinus congestion/infection doesn’t clear up within 4-5 days.

One other note, sucking on throat drops that contain eucalyptus and menthol seem to help alleviate the symptoms slightly, but I wound up having to suck on the throat drops constantly and even when resting on the couch fell asleep sucking on one and could have choked.   If anyone has home remedies that you swear by, let me know.

-Justin Germino