I hope that this message reaches the people I want it to. Those in the marketing departments of the largest tech companies on the planet. I’m talking the big ones, Microsoft, Cisco, HP, VMWare, and of course all the others. Are you listening?
In the last few years I have attended Cisco Live!, Microsoft Management Summit, and other large IT conferences. I love to bring home some cool swag, and no better swag than the T-Shirt. The T-Shirt business is huge, with Cafe Press giving me the ability to make and sell anything I want. I literally have drawers of T-Shirts that I almost never wear. Why?
THAT’S WHY! I literally have drawers of shirts like this. They have HUGE designs on them that look goofy, or say things like “I’M INSECURE” on it. There is no way any reasonable person is going to walk around in public with this shirt on. I certainly will not visit any clients wearing this either.
I will not mention which IT company this is from – as this isn’t really the point, but the point is – 90% of my give away shirts are like this.
So what do I end up doing with these shirts? Well, I can tell you I don’t go out for dinner, or visit the mall. I wouldn’t even be seen at the local coffee shop in most of these..
This is what I use them for… That’s right… Shop shirts…
Hey don’t get me wrong I need a few shirts for banging around in the shop. However I could literally wear them once and toss them I have ended up with so many. They are relegated to protecting me from dirt in my shop, but never see the light of day in public — which is the point of marketing swag anyway isn’t it?
T-Shirt’s are supposed to be walking billboards. Moving marketing, that move, walk and talk around people who are probably your clients. This is targeted advertising! Except the only thing this shirt is targeting — is the greasy spot from my oil change.
Splunk Nailed It.
The team at Splunk do it right.
They even run around saying “We are a T-Shirt company that makes great software”. I know people that will actually find their booth, and WANT to listen to their pitch because they know at the end is a cool T-Shirt.
Not to mention – these ones you can wear! They are cool, classy, a little saying (Think Geek style) and their logo on the back. No huge designs, no flashy colours. Just a cool tech shirt that people actually wear. I see Splunk shirts more than anything else actually being worn.
When shirts are this cool, people even Tweet about them. Michael Brown @Supermathie posted this photo of him in one of my personal favourites.
Golf Shirts – Expensive – But Worn
It goes without saying, a good golf shirt, will get worn. However it has to be classy and simple, see this?
Basic, simple, the corporate logo on the breast side, no weird designs – something you could get away with on a work day. I know they tend to be more expensive – but again, I have these and wear them.
Conclusion
So a short blog post today, which hopefully reaches all the vendors before this years Cisco Live! 2016 event. With your help we can get the message to marketing departments across the country and the world. After all this is an ecological message. IT professionals, nerds and geeks alike are willing to be your marketing billboards around the world. However we would rather do it without the embarrassment.
After being in telecom and collaboration for almost 20 years, I have watched the video space evolve over many years. Everyone seemed to think they had “the next big thing”.
Telepresence is not point to point or desktop video. These are two very different technologies and you have to treat them different if you are going to respect each – because to compare them just is not fair.
This article might seem lengthy, and I am trying to avoid a history lesson, but my opinion is based on the history. So let’s take a walk back in time.
The advent of video calling goes back to the 60’s when AT&T came out with the Picturephone – however we will not go back there.
The first real game player started when Polycom started with the table or screen top “Viewstation”
These systems locked to ISDN-BRI technology over the PSTN, you had 128K or maybe 512K if you wanted to combine lines, but then you had to call someone who’s system would talk to yours. H.320 video was supposed to make things “just work” but it didn’t always work that way. The quality was decent, and the system even had a Pan/Zoom/Tilt (PZT) camera which was of good quality, and the audio was PSTN quality. Later versions worked with IP, but firewalling issues, bandwidth constraints (remember this was the early 2K’s) and other problems plagued the adoption of such products.
Nortel 1535 SIP Phone
In walks Nortel, a great Canadian company who continually innovates and in they walk with the first real mainstream enterprise ‘Video phone’ with the 1535 SIP Phone (Yes others came before it, but this is a mainstream conversation). The quality wasn’t great, but it was a integrated office video phone over IP. It was expensive, but you can pick them up for about $50 online now and they can be connected to Asterisk for FreePBX and other systems as well, so if you want some cheap SIP video phones for home – it is a good option – but why?
Cisco/Tandberg Alliance and Acquisition
Before Cisco purchased Tandberg in December of 2009 they were one of the leaders in the field, and many organizations, including Cisco were re-branding their products. Even today it isn’t difficult to see how the Tandberg T3, Looks like what became the Cisco CTS 3000 Telepresence.
If Tandberg had the marketing prowess of Cisco, they would have been even more successful, but it took Cisco’s marketing to bring these products mainstream.
Getting back to why we are here.. Tandberg and Cisco launch the absolute desk hog called the 7985, which was basically a re-badged Tandberg 150 MXP – it ran a modern H.264, but cost $3000+ and ate up all of your desk space.
Not very popular, they were in demo centres all over the place and mostly executive offices who got them for free from Cisco – because they were hoping for adoption. That didn’t work. Keep in mind that many shops back then didn’t have the WAN services to really support this kind of bandwidth use, the $3000 desktop phone was only part of the cost, and that problem doesn’t change today.
Cisco disrupts with Unified Video Advantage
This in my mind — is the perfect product. The phone is just a phone, and in this case it could be almost any phone. Even low end phones with grey scale phones worked with it. Unfortunately due to poor marketing and high cost, it didn’t catch on.
Why is this perfect? How often are you LOOKING at your phone? Chances are you are looking at your PC screen, possibly collaborating on a document or maybe taking notes – but chances are, you are not looking at your phone. It was also SIMPLE, a very small little applet detected the phone you were connected to, and when you got on the phone – video just started. Easy to install, easy to operate.
Except — Cisco Unified Video Advantage aka CUVA – is discontinued. It also started out very expensive, with a re-badged Logitech Camera with a Cisco badge on it, and custom firmware, it required this special Cisco Camera at a high price. They removed the requirement for the Cisco specific camera later on – but the product eventually just died.
Cisco Telepresence DX Series
Ok now we are getting somewhere. Cisco offers up a Telepresence / Video unit with a big enough built in monitor that you can use this as your monitor, and do Video on it. This makes a little more sense, but at $2500+ for the smallest version, it isn’t cheap and remember you still need the back end licensing and infrastructure to make it work.
Lync and Jabber Are Getting it Right.
Where do we see the biggest uptick in desktop video? It started with Skype at home, but now Microsoft Lync and Cisco Jabber is where I see the most use. The cost is low, the imapct is high and I still get to look at my documents at the same time. Not to mention the collaboration features of being able to share my screen. With the new generation being used to messengers, instant messengers and presence these types of platforms are gaining momentum quickly. The cost of entry is low, and the quality is “good enough”
For desktop video – the quality will never be a factor in my opinion – we have quality that is good enough. Video guys keep pushing the quality up, but it’s much like audio guys, they all push 24/96 — but the average consumer is fine with a lossy MP3 file. This is no different, 480P is fine, the user cannot tell the difference if it’s 1080P — especially with small video windows.
Not the Solution
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Remember what I said before – nobody looks at their phone. Cisco and Avaya are all touting 720P or better packing phones with high fidelity screens and high end cameras. I have two comments.
I never look at my phone
My laptop/pc which every modern desk has — already has a high end camera and nice screen
In modern terms, these are costly.
I just do not see these as taking off. That’s the bottom line.
Good Enough is Good Enough
Microsoft Lync and Cisco JAbber are what I call the “Just good enough” solution.
For the record, I am not bashing these products at all, infact on the contrary. Microsoft seems to have captured the “Good Enough” very well. Many clients aready own Lync, many have Lync licenses via Office 365, the service setup isn’t that bad. It does basic video/audio conferencing out of the box, the client is easy to use and even the room systems are pretty good, the Round Table isn’t telepresence, but it gives you 90% of what you need for around $5,000. Even Cisco’s SX20 will cost you double that by the time you license it and get it all running – not to mention it is arguably harder to use.
Jabber from Cisco also meets this requirement, you get easy point to point video, and you can do conferencing with Cisco’s telepresence line or an SX20 – but the cost sky rockets and it is significantly more expensive to deploy
Telepresence – Not Desktop (Almost)
Cisco really brought telepresence main stream with the CTS3000
The idea was as you can see – extend the desk, full size people, amazing audio and visual experience, a high end engineered light bar. Cisco even issues specs for your room design, wall coverings and other things to make this a real experience. Everyone that used it the first time went “WOW!”. They also went WOW At the price – $300K for the system and $70K a year for support and a back end that could power NASA to make it go — but — nobody else was doing this, it was disruptive. This product continues to push the limits and show what can be done with telepresence and Cisco is taking full advantage of their Tandberg acquisition.
The new Cisco IX5000 is really something to behold, the cameras do not move, they are 4K, and they process for what they need. Take a few minutes and watch this video of the unveiling, this product is a work of art, and has amazing features.
Telepresence = feel like you are there. Telepresence does not mean “See the other person” it is much more immersive than that.
The new MX line is bringing telepresence prices WAY down, you still get the full experience, but in a smaller footprint. The quality is still top notch and the devices look elegant. They are even pulling in the RED DOT awards for the recent designs. http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/mastering-design-one-red-dot-at-a-time
The home executive is still getting the option for the DX series, you can join telepresence sessions with the utmost quality, a F2.2 lense and 63 degree view, a high quality screen and an “App” capable experience. It runs Android in the back today – but that is changing with Cisco optimizing the experience with a new operating system.
The Telepresence should not be considered in the same ball park as point to point or desktop to desktop style video. This is for full meeting room collab. If you purchase Telepresense you know what you are getting into, a very high quality product, well engineered that provides a very high end experience. It isn’t designed to compete with desktop. While the DX70/DX80 solutions do bridge that gap – I think those will stay relegated to desktops of executives, I would be surprised if we saw mass adoption.
Bring back CUVA via Jabber
Companies like Cisco need to keep the “Just good enough” crowd happy. This is where 90% of people operate day to day. The Video Advantage feature set was simple, and it worked, and makes more sense to me than video desk phones do.
I have heard rumours that the Jabber client may add this feature in the way of escalating a voice call on a controlled phone to video on the desktop, but the question is how easy will it be. Hopefully it will enable very easy, and quick ad hoc video calling, because that in my opinion is where the future of desktop video lies.
That’s 30 separate collaboration training environments, with over 60 partners learning about the new collaboration platform products. The best part? Not a single server in sight. Each desk has a brand new 720p Camera attached Cisco 8865, and a DX70 Telepresence device. The performance of all pods is PERFECT, you would never know that all of this is being virtualized thousands of miles away in Cisco’s high end dCloud data centre.
Yesterday, a few had lab issues, which is common in training environments. One quick web site visit, and those pod’s were reset. Back up and running in minutes, saving valuable training time and money for partners.
Rumors of Upgrade
Rumors online and from people in the know suggest Cisco is not slowing down with dCloud either, there is the hint of major investment in the program. With more and more uptake on dCloud services, and Cisco continuing to tell us it is – and will continue to be a free offering for partners, no other technology company in the world is putting this kind of investment into a learning, development, demo and training platform.
UPDATE: After the posting of this blog entry, we received confirmation from @briancsco at the Cisco dCloud team that expansion of the program with “Major Investment” is “imminent” and that #Cisco is “#allin”
Off Label Use Soaring
People are finding new and innovative ways to use the platform, including Cisco internally. These Collaboration Training sessions are now being hosted via dCloud. New and innovative internal use cases are starting to bloom.
Some of the off label use cases I have seen are things like
Prep of RFP and Documentation when screen shots are require
“I just need to try something” — logging into a lab for a few minutes just to try something
Running a lab guide — You have a lab guide from previous training, and you need systems to run scenarios on
POC – Proof of Concept – proving that something works the way you thought, or of course proving it to a customer
Development – You have written some new integration software, or code and want to sandbox it.
Practice, Testing, Break/Fix – You want to test out a solution to a problem, but are worried about damaging something.
Self Training – There is no better way to learn new product, with (as of this writing) 27 specific LAB offerings
The best part is, unlike your lab, it’s never broken, and if you do break something, a quick switch and it is all reset.
Cisco is encouraging this off label use for the platform, and people are finding new and innovative ways to leverage dCloud.
Sound off in the comments — what do you use dCloud for?
dCloud Momentum
How much is dCloud being used? Well, check this one out – at 9:30AM Eastern Time… Over 1200 active sessions!
Recently I upgraded one of my machines only to find out that some Outlook plugins that I need were incompatible.
The 2010 edition still installed wasn’t functioning properly, so I also removed the recent 2016 upgrade only to find out that everything I did resulted in this error
“NOT IMPLEMENTED” or “CANNOT SAVE, NOT IMPLEMENTED” basically my email was broken, my calendar was broken I couldn’t do anything.
The MAPI upgrade from Office 2016 remained after uninstall.
Close Outlook
Go to this folder
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
Delete / Rename OLMAPI32.DLL (Remember you have to be admin)
FlightChops producer and flight geek Steve Thorne @flightchops had a friend out recently who accidentally dropped an iPhone 6 plus out of the side door of a Super Cub.
Assuming the phone was history, his flight buddy moved on, only to get a phone call from the police when the phone was recovered. Check out the video below, more importantly check out Steve’s other amazing videos from Flight Chops.
Oh.. and remember.. Keep your Flight Chops sharp! 😉
I have been doing wireless for some time, and while some day I hope to be as skilled as Steve the @wifijanitor so a quick plug for Steve. It seems every day you learn something else, and sometimes it comes as an embarrassing and unnecessary TAC ticket which response reads like “Yep, that’s by design, read this” and you end up feeling like “Gosh I should have known that”.
If you are like me, and have a single Meraki AP at some sites, or have a single Meraki AP in a lab or home — keep reading, there is something important here.
Background
I have had some sporadic range issues with Meraki AP’s for some time, not being able to really figure it out, and only running in to it occasionally it was not bothering me that much. Recently however I ran into a client who was not deploying ubiquitous coverage across the entire building and they came to me and said “We had much better coverage with our 1140’s in this area”
Interesting – I have an 1140 in my lab, and I had the same problem as well, so I started to investigate more.
In a non fully overlapping environment I commonly “Use 100% power” or in environments where we just want to get as far as we can
The Problem
My client called me up later on thinking he had found the problem and indeed he had, “Why are some of my MR26 AP’s only cabable of 17DBM and some are capable for 30dbm and some 24Dbm”
That is good question! So off to a support ticket I went – ok ok ok, I could have googled it more, but we do pay for support right? It was the end of the day, I had somewhere to be, and I figured I would let support school me a bit.
Why?
As it turns out “Always use 100%” is a little bit of a half truth on the 5GHZ band. Let us look at this table from wlanspros.com
If we discuss 20mhz channels, UNII-1 channels 36-48 are POWER LIMITED by the FCC because of all the users in that band. For indoor applications you are limited to 17 DBI or only 50mw Ouch!
The other problem, is that in 2 of my dashboards at sites with only a single AP, and one with only 2, I caught the channel planner using UNII-1 Channels 36-48 by default! I would like to point out, all of these sites had no other channel noise or problems that would cause the AP to channel switch due to noise.
Why would the dashboard choose these low power channels by default? You would think they would start at least in the band that allows 24Dbm, or even the higher channels that support 30DBm – especially if I specified always use 100% power, you would think it would chose the channels where it can run higher power. Instead by default it chose the lowest power channel option.
The Solution
By now the solution is pretty easy, hard code your channel, and hard code the power – and you are good.
Choose a channel that is not 36-48, and you can get 100mw, if you go into the UNII-3 channels you can even go to a full 1W, but with 100mw clients this may not help you and just wipe out that channels to neighbors.
This works ok in quiet environments (My lab is in the country, 1000 yards from anything else, my noise floor is super low), however this may cause problems in other environments. Also keeping in mind pushing 30Dbm – 1W of power on channel 161 may do you little good if clients operate at 100mw so simply pumping the power to full blast may not be advantageous or the best idea.
The other problem is hard coding channels makes the rest of the “AUTO” AP’s do funny things.
“Make a wish”
As you know the Meraki dashboard has a “Make a wish” option – please go in there and request the following “Please allow individual channel or band blocking or allow” I have run into other clients where customers need specific channels barred, or bands barred because of other devices in band (Zigbee on 2.4ghz as an example) so this feature is needed for more than just this situation.
I have not written much on the blog about DCloud, and I spend days and then not days on DCloud testing and learning. It is currently one of my favorite tools from Cisco, and something that no other vendor in the industry is doing. Cisco is spending a ton of dough on this, and for good reason.
What is DCloud?
What is the worst thing about your lab, assuming in this day in age you even have one? Unless you are extremely vigilant, it is always broken. Someone is in a rush, they do something in the lab which almost always involves changing something or breaking something and then when you need it, it’s broken.
The other problem is that your lab is really only setup one way. Do you have 3 versions of UCCX? How about 3 different management tools. I am sure Justin Chin-You @jchinyou does over at Cisco, but for many of us it does not work that way.
What DCloud does is give you the ability to test, demonstrate and run 143 (as of this writing, they are constantly adding more) different labs, demos and sandboxes. On everything from iWAN, ACI, Voice, Video, Routing, Switching, Management tools, SDN and many more. Instantly.
Checkout this quick Youtube video from #DCloud Steve
They even have real hardware for some demos, and if you want you can connect real telephones to it — Wait.. how? They have a slick VPN setup, with pre made configs that you can use to extend the lab right into your office.
It really is that good. Labs turn up in moments, everything is just setup and ready to go – and you can either follow their lab guides for demos or learning — or just login and mess around. Don’t worry you cannot damage anything when you are done the lab resets automatically. This is no simulator, this is the real deal and you are more than welcome to hack around and learn. They even have traffic simulators so that when you do firewall and security labs, there is actual traffic in there. You get full admin access – passwords for god access into everything. Build your own demo or lab scripts based on their hardware setup if you want. This is not just for demo. Ever wanted to play with a new technology like iWAN or SDN and just do not know where to start? They include a full PDF lab guide for you with step by step instructions if you want.
Here is a quick video posted by the #DCloud team showing one of my favorite labs
Hot off the E-Mail presses – #DCloud Rolls Splunk
One tool I just have not had enough time with – is Splunk. Did you know Splunk made software – they make more than t-shirts. Splunk does an amazing job of visualizing and analyzing security products in a consolidated way. Now you can actually get your hands on it, in DCloud and try it your for yourself without the pressure of a timeline.
Here is the descriptor right from the DCloud site.
Splunk and Cisco have collaborated to deliver out-of-the-box visibility across Cisco-centric security environments using ASA/PIX/FWSM firewalls, Identity Services Engine (ISE), pxGrid, FirePOWER IDS, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), Web Security Appliance (WSA) and Email Security Applicance (ESA). The scenarios in this solution illustrate how the Cisco Splunk Security Suite delivers unified visibility across Cisco devices to help:
Protect you before an attack happens
Enable you to respond quickly during an attack
Enable you to perform a rapid forensics investigation after an attack
Splunk Enterprise 6.2 with Cisco Security Suite v1 provides a consolidated view of your organizational posture across the entire Cisco security environment, with the ability to drill down into specific areas, including:
Email security using ESA.
Web security categorizes web traffic coming from the proxy using the WSA.
Network security presents data from Cisco ASA pix, Next Generation Firewall with FirePOWER IPS, and new detection data.
Identity services present user and device information from the ISE policy management platform.
Ranges of trigger alert thresholds can be set to queue events, leveraging data from multiple security routes and sources. Using this solution, it is possible to combine Cisco AMP data with device information from ISE in order to identify infected devices and classify events.
If you look in your Meraki Dashboard you will see the following options for an SSID.
Your options are Dual Band, Only 5Ghz, or Dual Band with Steering. What no 2.4Ghz only??
In some challenging wireless environments, specifically those where you do not have 100% coverage, and especially those with a lot of concrete, leaded glass and other RF challenges – 5Ghz can be problematic. Some devices just love to hold on to 5Ghz connections even if the 2.4Ghz signal is better. We do not always have control of our clients as well, especially in a guest world.
To help in these challenging environments, I have found that disabling 5Ghz outright keeps clients on 2.4Ghz and then they do not roam around as much and signal penetration is better.
There are many reasons why you might want to force users on to 2.4Ghz.
You want to band segregate users groups – Voice or Corporate users on 5Ghz, and Guests on 2.4Ghz
You have challenges in the 5Ghz world, due to co-existence with another network, interference or environment.
You are integrating with an existing network and want band parity
You are in a region where 5Ghz can not be used
Well, there is a solution! As with many things in the Meraki world — this CAN be enabled in your dashboard, but only Meraki support can do it. Simply do what you do all the time, open a case and ask for 2.4Ghz to be enabled in your dashboard.
There it is! 2.4Ghz band Only is now an available option. The questions is — why do I need to keep asking for really basic things by calling support.
If you have not read up on Cisco’s iWAN architecture it is pretty cool stuff. I will not explain the entire concept, but provide you a link to read on.
The concept is pretty simple, instead of having a WAN circuit like an MPLS, and then an Internet with a VPN backup that is inactive, Intelligent WAN will let you use both the WAN and the VPN at the same time based on all sorts of things, link performance, latency and application routing. It is all based on PFR and various topics which I will admit – I am not that good at, I have however looked at it, and it is VERY complicated. After speaking with a colleague who set it up, his message was “It works well, but it was hard to setup and get working properly”
Meraki Goes iWAN!
Today Meraki announced more details about how they are adding iWAN technology to their portfolio.
They explain it pretty simple – Dual Active Path and intelligent path control. If Meraki can bring the Meraki simplicity to something as complicated as iWAN — All I can say is, bravo. This is not a simple technology to setup, and Meraki has a history of making the complicated simple. As soon as I can get my hands on this I will be testing it out, I have a few clients that will be extremely happy to hear about this.
Imagine if your Intranet, Sharepoint site, and other services could be sent over Internet VPN, and file sharing over expensive WAN links. The savings could be significant, and now iWAN can be used by the SMB marketplace. I know that @networkingnerd is always asking the question — is Meraki Ready for Enterprise — if they keep doing things like this — and if the implementation is good this will be a huge step forward.
Now for the down note.
Meraki removes WAN Optimization
This is not the first time Meraki has retired a feature, some of the MR series used to support PPPoE as an example.
To quote a recent email blasted from Meraki
After careful review, Cisco Meraki has determined that the current WAN Optimization feature in the MX Security Appliance product line does not meet the quality standard that our customers and partners deserve. As a result, the decision has been made to retire the WAN Optimization feature. This will allow the Meraki team to focus efforts on providing the best security platform in the industry for distributed networks.
Wait a second — Didn’t Meraki market this feature – as an example in this blog post. What if a customer purchased this feature only to find out that
They are removing it by end of 2015
You are forced to implement a new feature which means possibly bringing in a partner or support person to help
Between now and the end of 2015 there will be no more bug fixes
How would you feel if you were marketed this feature, and then it is removed, with no idea on how the new feature will function and if it will provide the same features or not.
The argument could be made that if you purchased a NON Cloud product, and that feature was working just fine – you could keep it because it works for you – however in this case Meraki because of the cloud controller concept is removing a feature regardless of how the end user customers feel about it. While I am sure if I pour through the fine print at Meraki Policies there is something that says “Yeah we can just remove features you paid for”
This is the kind of stuff that makes people nervous about “Cloud” controlled products. We will see how this ends up.
How do I know it is ad mail? Well it appeared in my mailbox, it has no address on it, it is obviously screen printed, and others received the exact same notice.
The company – BlueSky GreenValley http://www.blueskygreenvalley.com/ and they are trying to get you to purchase a MicroFIT system, for those not in Ontario Canada, it is a feed in program that you can get paid for installing solar on your home.
This company is clearly attempting to use social engineering techniques to get people to call them and hear about their product. When you call they ask for personal information which I am sure they database.
We are teaching people to avoid real scams, and here is what appears to be a legitimate company, using what in my opinion is a deceptive marketing practice, and methods normally employed by criminal organizations to market their product?
The questions that come to mind when I received it range from things like… If you are willing to trick me in this way to get me as a customer, how will I be treated when I am a customer?
So when does guerrilla style marketing become dis-honest? When it turns to trickery, and dishonest advertising
Does this go as far as fraud? I don’t know, this is something authorities would have to decide. The criminal code says…
False or misleading representations
52. (1) No person shall, for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or use of a product or … any business interest, by any means whatever, knowingly or recklessly make a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect.
In my opinion they knowingly made a misleading representation with this advertisement mailer.
I would think this is a deceptive marketing practice as well
Misrepresentations to public
74.01 (1) A person … who, for the purpose of promoting, … the supply or use of a product or … any business interest, by any means whatever, (a) makes a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect.
The key phrase is “Material Respect” — In my mind suggesting I have a package that I do not — which is the entire intent of this face notice — IS MATERIAL.
The penalties are severe
Using mails to defraud
381. Every one who makes use of the mails for the purpose of transmitting or delivering letters or circulars concerning schemes devised or intended to deceive or defraud the public, or for the purpose of obtaining money under false pretences, is … liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
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