what i want from VOIP

Posted on May 15th, 2006 in rant by skip

What do I want from VOIP? Features Features Price Features. I want stuff that my phone carrier could never offer. Give me options like on the crappy $50 network firewall wireless routers. Give me:

  • Custom Call Privacy. For most of the calls that I make I want my outbound caller ID blocked, but for calls that I make to people that I know, my friends and family, I don’t want my outbound caller ID blocked.
  • Caller Authentication. For all callers not on my contact list / friends list (see next feature), they should get routed to a “please press X to complete your call”. This is to weed out incoming fax machines or spamming computer dialers. Some bastard was trying to send a fax to my home voice line the other day from midnight until 4am…
  • Contact List / Friends list / Frequent Callers list. Have a type of contact list or address book on the config panel website. Either import my contact list from Outlook or off my Mac or maybe just make it a “friends” list that I define based on the “called” or “callers” list. Now I’m looking at a list of names and phone numbers, next to which I can check or uncheck call features like “No Call Privacy” or “Auto Call Hunt” or “Forward to Cell”.
  • Groups for Contact List. Users should be able to define groups for their contact list, like “Friends” or “Work” etc. just like in firewall configs you define ip address ranges or subnets and assign them to a group. Then users give the groups attributes or call features. I want the family group to always call hunt to my cell phone, but don’t call hunt for unknown callers.
  • Custom Outbound CallerID. Let me set my outbound caller id on a per-number or a per-group basis. For people that I call who are in my “Friends” group, send my name. For business contacts, send my business name. For numbers that I call who aren’t in my contact list, don’t send caller id.

increase the volume of your razr v3

Posted on May 11th, 2006 in code, rant by skip

Stupid Motorola Razr v3 phone is too quiet, all the time I have trouble hearing the person on the other end. Even with a headset… here’s how to fix it:

  1. google it
  2. Download drivers and whatnot
  3. install motorola drivers and p2k drivers set
  4. connect razr to comp through usb cord
  5. download p2k tools and p2kman
  6. download xvi32
  7. read this page on downloading and editing gain_table.bin
  8. and this page on stuff in gain_table.bin
  9. reboot phone

from mark-world.tv: ” Launch p2kman and download “gain_table.bin” from the “/a” directory. Now open “gain_table.bin” in XVI32. To adjust the earpiece gain, go to offset “0D” (in Adr. Hex, you’ll only see “D”). The default value is “01″ and you can adjust the settings from “00″ to “08.” “00″ is silent and “08″ is as loud as possible. Just type the number directly into the offset’s two-digit box. I changed my earpiece gain to “04″. Save the file, upload it to the phone and reset its attribute to “70004″ by entering “4″ in the “Attribute” box and then click on the file to highlight it and click “Change” then click “Restart phone”.”

autorun vmware image on a windows host

Posted on May 11th, 2006 in code by skip

1. make a new .txt file:

@echo off
“C:\Program Files\VMware\VMWare Workstation\vmrun.exe” start “C:\Documents and Settings\admin\My Documents\My Virtual Machines\OpenBSD Mail Server\FreeBSD.vmx”

2. rename it from .txt to .bat

3. drop it into the startup folder or make a scheduled task to run it on system start.

add a new partition or hard drive to openbsd

Posted on May 8th, 2006 in code by skip

i keep forgetting how to do this…

# disklabel -E wd0
# vi /etc/fstab
# newfs /dev/wd0d

make me a sexy hybrid plskthx

Posted on May 5th, 2006 in rant by skip

I just read this comment on Slashdot and had to post it here. My feelings exactly… I’d love to buy a hybrid or electric whatever, only I don’t want to look like a tard driving it. I don’t want a civic. I don’t want a mini-suv. I want something sexy. Give it performance and looks, make it hybrid-electric or whatever to get some decent mileage, and I’ll buy one. simple as that.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=185005&cid=15271281
by RocketScientist (15198) * on Friday May 05, @01:10PM (#15271281)

I’ve long thought that the electric/hybrid car marketing was completely stupid and backwards. Who do they market to? Two groups: environmentalist wannabees and a few gadget and tech obsessed folks.

This is stupid. For a couple reasons. How many upper-middle class folks are environmentalists or gadget obsessed geeks? Dozens

How many upper-middle class folks are car nuts? Judging by the number of performance package BMW’s I see running around, lots. A lot more than there are environmentalists, by a factor of 100 at least. Folks in that class of buyer are more likely to buy a fast car, they’ve got the cash to do it, and many many of them love cars.

Build me an electric car. Make it a simple 2-seater, along the lines of a nissan 350z. Seats with nice lateral support comfortable for long drives. Responsive suspension and steering, excellent brakes (regen’s fine, if it can S-T-O-P stop, not “hmm…maybe someday” stop). A decent, but not ludicrous, stereo. Nice sight lines so I can see what’s coming at me and get out of the way. Build me a car that can not just survive a crash, but avoid it. Because those are the cars that are FUN to drive.

Then give it so much torque that if I stomp the accelerator off the line it strains my neck, enough torque so it shreds the tires off the line.

Then design me some new tires and a better headrest.

I don’t want a friggin minivan. I don’t want a car that weighs 3000 pounds with batteries and has 90 HP. I don’t want a big whale of an SUV, and I don’t care how many horsepower it has, it’ll handle like a cow through turns. I want a car. A fast car. A fast car that I can send into the nice twisty turns and come out the other end leaving that poor sucker in the BMW M3 wondering “WTF was that!”.

Build me a 350Z, not a Previa. Build me an NSX, not a Civic.

Build cars for people who LOVE to drive. The folks who ignore their phones when they’re driving, because whatever someone’s calling about isn’t as important as the road they’re on. And don’t apologize for it. Then your cars will advertise themselves. To other car people, and to wannabe car people. Then you’ll be the company with that really hot car, that everybody wants to buy minivans and sedans from.

Start selling cars to people who love cars instead of people who tolerate them. The profit margins are much higher, and the coattails are huge.

installing python without X11 support on OpenBSD

Posted on May 3rd, 2006 in code, spam by skip

I wanted to install pyzor so spamassassin could use it… but pyzor requires python, and the default OpenBSD port of Python requires x11, which doesn’t get installed on my mail servers.

# cd /usr/ports/lang/python/2.4
# make show=FLAVORS
no_expat no_gdbm no_idle no_mpz no_tkinter no_bsddb  no_tests no_tools
# make show=FLAVOR
# export FLAVOR=no_tkinter
# make show=FLAVOR
no_tkinter
# make install clean