Google Voice / Sipgate / ATA
Well, Google shut down Gizmo's SIP service, so I went shopping for another SIP service. Sipgate is it. I have a wired phone connected to an ATA connected to my home LAN and routed through the Linux firewall.
Sipgate is very similar to Gizmo, although Google Voice needs to connect to it as a phone number vs. a native SIP server like Gizmo was.
So more details are:
1. A Google Voice phone number that has my Sipgate phone number as one of the phones configured.
2. Incoming calls to my Google Voice number ring my Sipgate phone number.
3. At home, I have an ATA that registers with the Sipgate SIP server.
4. Outgoing calls go through Sipgate and are 1.9 cents per minute.
This all still allows other non-technical people to use this phone without extra weirdness. If calls are initiated through Google Voice online, they're still free.
Still holding back on using this as our main phone. I want to get more time on it before I declare it ready for prime time.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Coons
What a day. Last night, we heard some muffled thumping noises outside our room. We saw one of the cats out there, so we assumed it was just the cat messing around. This morning, Shelly noticed the louvers of the end vent to the attic were pulled open and there was insulation on the roof right below it. We put two and two together and figured that a raccoon had gotten into the attic.
After a long hard day, made harder by the prednizone I am on for severe poison ivy (another story) and the challenge of unruly kids, I ventured into the attic at around 9:30.
Our attic is not a nice attic. There is a giant HVAC unit taking up all of the generous space up there, leaving just extremely tight crawl ways in front and behind. These are constricted even more by various ducts that obstruct the ways.
Well, the end vent is probably the hardest spot to reach in the entire attic. I was hoping that there would be some way to crawl around behind the furnace through the gap in the roof trusses (an inverted triangular opening through each truss) so I donned my blue jumpsuit, hat, mask, and rubber gloves to go spelunking in the attic.
Finally I got up in there and found some boards to put down to prevent falling through the ceiling. I crept my way forward and finally made it near the end vent. What I was very disappointed to learn, however, was that there is a giant duct below the vent but above where I was crawling that made it not only impossible to get to the vent, but impossible to find space to turn around.
I may not have mentioned that one of the side effects of prednizone is anxiety and edginess. The claustrophobic's worst nightmare is getting stuck head first in a crawlspace you can't turn around in. Well, I took a deep breath, but not too deep because of all the fiberglass floating around, and slithered backwards until I emerged into the larger part of the attic. Freaky!
Undaunted, I went around to the other side of the furnace and squeezed between some flexible ducts over top of a non-flexible one and manage to get my torso suspended so I could staple the hardware cloth to the inside of the sheathing over the vent hole. I also bent over several nail ends that were poking through the sheathing to keep the hardware cloth in place.
While my torso was up in this space, I was able to see very clearly several raccoon footprints in the dust on top of the giant duct that had almost given me a panic attack.
I hope my fix will keep the buggers out, because I don't want to have to go up there again.
After a long hard day, made harder by the prednizone I am on for severe poison ivy (another story) and the challenge of unruly kids, I ventured into the attic at around 9:30.
Our attic is not a nice attic. There is a giant HVAC unit taking up all of the generous space up there, leaving just extremely tight crawl ways in front and behind. These are constricted even more by various ducts that obstruct the ways.
Well, the end vent is probably the hardest spot to reach in the entire attic. I was hoping that there would be some way to crawl around behind the furnace through the gap in the roof trusses (an inverted triangular opening through each truss) so I donned my blue jumpsuit, hat, mask, and rubber gloves to go spelunking in the attic.
Finally I got up in there and found some boards to put down to prevent falling through the ceiling. I crept my way forward and finally made it near the end vent. What I was very disappointed to learn, however, was that there is a giant duct below the vent but above where I was crawling that made it not only impossible to get to the vent, but impossible to find space to turn around.
I may not have mentioned that one of the side effects of prednizone is anxiety and edginess. The claustrophobic's worst nightmare is getting stuck head first in a crawlspace you can't turn around in. Well, I took a deep breath, but not too deep because of all the fiberglass floating around, and slithered backwards until I emerged into the larger part of the attic. Freaky!
Undaunted, I went around to the other side of the furnace and squeezed between some flexible ducts over top of a non-flexible one and manage to get my torso suspended so I could staple the hardware cloth to the inside of the sheathing over the vent hole. I also bent over several nail ends that were poking through the sheathing to keep the hardware cloth in place.
While my torso was up in this space, I was able to see very clearly several raccoon footprints in the dust on top of the giant duct that had almost given me a panic attack.
I hope my fix will keep the buggers out, because I don't want to have to go up there again.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Movie Comments
From the trailers, the movie Men Who Stare at Goats looked great. Shelly and I went to see it last night, and while there were some funny moments, overall it was pretty pointless. I would say that they didn't really pick an angle and go with it hard. Was it a comedy, a comment on U.S. policy, or a tour of mental illness? If it had picked any of those and run with it, then it could have succeeded. As it was, the movie seemed to just play around at our expense. The acting was ok, but could not save the movie.
The movie Sublime was great. It is a frightening look at the fear of hospitals and the fear of getting old. Tom Cavanaugh is really good in this, and shows he has a lot of depth above and beyond his role in the TV show Ed. The movie is scary, twisted, graphically stimulating, and has something to say---all qualities I like in a movie.
The movie Sublime was great. It is a frightening look at the fear of hospitals and the fear of getting old. Tom Cavanaugh is really good in this, and shows he has a lot of depth above and beyond his role in the TV show Ed. The movie is scary, twisted, graphically stimulating, and has something to say---all qualities I like in a movie.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Frustrating VLC Repeat Icons
I get what "no repeat" looks like:
Which one of these is "repeat one" and which one is "repeat all?"
Which one of these is "repeat one" and which one is "repeat all?"
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
BlueAnt Z9i Not So Good
My Plantronics Explorer 220 has no noise reduction and people cannot hear me in my car. I got a BlueAnt Z9i to try and solve this problem. It seems to solve it, but I have some major gripes with the Z9i:
- It does not sit reliably in my ear.
- It has an annoying high-pitched whine all the time.
- It does not put out sufficient volume with my Blackberry Curve.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Update on Current Projects
Google Voice / Gizmo / ATA
Well, I finally got a VOIP phone line working at home! It's a wired phone connected to an ATA connected to my home LAN and routed through the Linux firewall.
The trick was doing port forwarding both on the SIP and RTP ports. I had the SIP port forwarded to my ATA, but not the RTP port. This resulted in not hearing the audio from the other person for outgoing calls. If you enable port forwarding on both ports, you do NOT need NAT traversal using a STUN server.
So more details are:
1. A Google Voice phone number that has my Gizmo SIP number as one of the phones configured.
2. Incoming calls to my Google Voice number go to my Gizmo SIP number.
3. At home, I have an ATA that registers with the Gizmo SIP server.
4. Outgoing calls go through Gizmo and are 1.9 cents per minute.
This all allows other non-technical people to use this phone without extra weirdness. If calls are initiated through Google Voice online, they're free.
Right now I am holding back on using this as our main phone. I want to get more time on it before I declare it ready for prime time.
Contact Us Page for ClassySassyCards.com
Finally got this page done for Shelly. It's working great now. This is another add-on for the monolithic PHP script that is her web site.
Slide Scanning
I want to get back this project. I have some bad scans I want to redo. Turns out on the Canon Canoscan 5600, you want the slides to be oriented so they read properly from INSIDE the scanner (the "this side to screen", date, or logo goes UP) and the tall dimension should go parallel to the scanner's tall dimension. If the orientation is wrong, you get a lot of the image cut off. Also, if the slide is wider left to right, the top of the image goes to the left to make the resulting scan have the top up. I want to figure out how to get the scanner to prevent washed-out scans even if the slide is a little light.
Well, I finally got a VOIP phone line working at home! It's a wired phone connected to an ATA connected to my home LAN and routed through the Linux firewall.
The trick was doing port forwarding both on the SIP and RTP ports. I had the SIP port forwarded to my ATA, but not the RTP port. This resulted in not hearing the audio from the other person for outgoing calls. If you enable port forwarding on both ports, you do NOT need NAT traversal using a STUN server.
So more details are:
1. A Google Voice phone number that has my Gizmo SIP number as one of the phones configured.
2. Incoming calls to my Google Voice number go to my Gizmo SIP number.
3. At home, I have an ATA that registers with the Gizmo SIP server.
4. Outgoing calls go through Gizmo and are 1.9 cents per minute.
This all allows other non-technical people to use this phone without extra weirdness. If calls are initiated through Google Voice online, they're free.
Right now I am holding back on using this as our main phone. I want to get more time on it before I declare it ready for prime time.
Contact Us Page for ClassySassyCards.com
Finally got this page done for Shelly. It's working great now. This is another add-on for the monolithic PHP script that is her web site.
Slide Scanning
I want to get back this project. I have some bad scans I want to redo. Turns out on the Canon Canoscan 5600, you want the slides to be oriented so they read properly from INSIDE the scanner (the "this side to screen", date, or logo goes UP) and the tall dimension should go parallel to the scanner's tall dimension. If the orientation is wrong, you get a lot of the image cut off. Also, if the slide is wider left to right, the top of the image goes to the left to make the resulting scan have the top up. I want to figure out how to get the scanner to prevent washed-out scans even if the slide is a little light.
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