I've recently switched from DLT to external USB drives. They're cheaper, more reliable and easier to restore from than tape.
I've been doing backups this way for a few months now. It's also easier to backup. Plug in the usb drive, run rsync, unplug and take offsite. I have a script I run in cron (or manually) that tries to mount it first, and only if it suceeds, runs rsync.
I've been meaning to install another drive at my house to backup a couple servers (just haven't gotten around to it yet), but that'll be similar.. rsync over ssl, run in cron every night.
The one thing this doesn't address that tapes usually do is keeping multiple backups. I was doing this for a while - where I had a directory for I think monday, wednesday and friday - but then our storage space increased and I couldn't fit this on my backup drive anymore. It would just be a matter of buying a bigger drive, or getting another couple enclosures and drives, but I haven't done it yet.
I was playing with using rdiff-backup to make differential backups of just our file shares, but due to lack of a usable web interface I haven't bothered (I don't want to spend time selectively restoring backups for people.. if they can't do it themselves I want no part;) ). I did start working on one, but there are too many things higher on my priority list.
Firefox dev's should be more concerned with making their browser capable of properly reading all ie based content
Are you talking about non-portable single-platform technologies like ActiveX and vbscript, or how ie will render pages with blatently invalid html?
before creating their own little scheme.
Agreed, anyone who uses the w3c standards is a chump.
Its not hard to make a site that works in almost every browser - just follow the standards. There's no good reason to make a site that only works in IE (unless you're microsoft) as it's basically the same amount of work just to do it properly. No professional web developer worth of calling themselves so would code an IE-only page.
A lot of motherboards disable on-board video when you're using an AGP card. My home system is like this- after upgrading, I got an onboard card, and figured it would be an easy way to get dual monitor (along with my existing AGP card). I don't know why it disables the onboard, but it does.. and I don't see any BIOS options or jumpers to change that.
(I eventually found a pci card, but never actually got around to installing it)
Most phones are loaded with a dozen of so, one of which almost always is just a basic ringing sound.
You might think so, but my Samsung A540 would prove you wrong. Couple that with the fact that my browser is broken (something about RSA key not matching.. I've called them numerous times to fix it, and it never works, I just got tired of trying) and you have a phone that pisses you off everytime it rings.
Not that finding a basic ring on via download service is easy (or possible?) either..
Most people install Debian with the net-install CD (or at least, they should). It's about a 100MB iso that gets a base system installed, and then you can use apt-get to install anything else you'd like. Because of debian's great package management, it also means this CD can be quite old and still install a current version - you just have to apt-get dist-upgrade as soon as you're done installing. Using the same method you can also convert your system to unstable if you'd like.
All 14 CDs include EVERY package (as in, you'll get 6 or 7 web browsers, media players, and every other obscure program that is in the repository) and source. That's probably unnecessary for 99% of people out there. Not to mention a fairly big waste of bandwidth to download.
Of course, one has to wonder if said oxygen tank will allow you to properly decompress in time. Of course, when faced with running out of air, the bends may be the least of your worries.
With recreational diving, also called no-decompression diving, the idea is that you can immediately return to the surface at any point. Usually, we take a 3-5minute decompression stop at 15', just as a precaution.
To get certified (with PADI anyways) one of the things you have to do is a controlled emergency ascent (which is basically your worst-case solution if you run out of air). You actually have enough air in your lungs that on a full breath you can quickly (at the speed of bubbles) swim to the surface and you will be able to slowly exhale the whole way, since the air expands as you go. Of course, if you do this from below 60' it would probably be a good idea to go to a decompression chamber to be sure. We had to do it from 30' I think, and it was by far the least fun thing in the checkout.
I would have never thought that IIS users must go out hunting on google and actually pay for new modules for IIS that are compeletely free (and immediately available) for apache...
I noticed the same thing a few years ago (5) with ASP. My roommate in university was an ASP developer, and I had been doing PHP for a couple years at that point. He was working on some application that required DNS lookups, and actually ended up paying for an ASP module/script/whatever to do them. I was totally surprised at this (since it's one of the core functions of php) and he started telling me how there were many many 3rd party modules you had to pay for. I showed him all the built-in stuff that PHP had, and then some of the places on the web you can get thousands of scripts, and he was amazed. Not sure if he ever converted;)
Re:Heres a GSM to VOIP gateway
on
A Private GSM Cell?
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· Score: 4, Informative
That's backwards from what he's asking for - that essentially acts as a cell phone, and makes it available using VoIP. Effectively, if you had an asterisk box, you could have your cell phone number ring into it or use it to make outbound calls, which would be useful in remote locations with no phone lines, or probably even more useful as an emergency backup in the event regular phone lines go down.
The original question is asking for a way to use his cellphone as an extension on the PBX, so this wouldn't be useful in that situation.
Well, that's the thing - we couldn't find our copy of the original contract (it may have been misplaced, but usually we're good about that stuff, and have a big file for every company with any relevant documents). The bill for the month where it should have renewed didn't look any different from any other bill, and we couldn't find ANY mention of "1 year contract" on any bill. I would have at least expected to see a line item on the bill saying something like "1yr Renewal - 05/23/2005 to 05/23/2006".
They also should have been able to show us a copy of the contract, which would have said that it renewed automatically. They couldn't produce a contract, told us two different stories about it (that we signed this contract, and then that it was a verbal contract), and basically had no proof that we owed them money at all. The interesting thing about how Bell works is that they have their own internal collections agency. If you owe money to their internet company, even though they're seperate companies, they'll cut off your phone, satellite, and/or cell phone service to get you to pay. They don't take you to an actual collections agency because then you could sue them. I've heard of a couple times they've done this sort of thing. Luckily, all of our services are with other companies (and is it any wonder?).
However, I get sick of people charging way over standard postage and calling it 'handling'. Handling fees are a cost of doing business and should therefore be added into the sale price.
Well, there are two issues here. One is that when you ship something, you don't get a definite price for shipping, only an estimate. Most people will add a percentage to that estimate so they won't get screwed.
The handling thing, well.. yes, it's sort of a cost of doing business. It does take time to box and ship an order. However, handling charges are usually a flat rate, regardless of how many items you have. You get a better deal on this for the more you order.
Of course, shipping and handling are usually just added together, which allows them to bury the extra % on the shipping fee and call it "handling", and for the most part stores will make money off this.
Blocking port 25 would just about kill small business people that use a 3rd party hosting service for their webpages and email.
It doesn't matter what SMTP server you send outgoing mail from (so long as it's not blacklisted) -- SMTP doesn't check domain names or anything (which is also really the reason spam can exist so easily).
I had a situation that was really annoying a few years ago. We were on DSL with the incumbant phone company, and used our own co-located server to send mail. One day, I could no longer connect to SMTP. Called them, of course teir 1 tech support says "no, nothing has changed". I wait for a while to see if it'll go away, then call them back a couple hours later. This time, the guy says that they noticed one router wasn't blocking 25, so they "fixed" it. I decided just to use their server, since it was an easy fix (make a DNS entry in the office only that points to their IP instead of ours).
This was fine for a couple months. Then one day, we couldn't send mail again. I tried to connect to their SMTP, and it would either timeout, or VERY slowly connect. I call them, and they say they're being hammered by viruses, and it'll be fixed soon. Within half an hour it was back to normal. This happened about 3 more times, and I got really annoyed. I called and asked them to remove the port 25 block (just for my account -- even to only my mail servers IP), because it was rediculus we couldn't send email. They said they couldn't, I'd just have to wait. Well, it was several hours and still not working, so I called again, and asked to speak to a manager or supervisor. Basically, same deal "no, we can't take off the block. Maybe you can use webmail". Although it would work, I didn't want to tell everyone to use webmail instead of their email clients just because of this. I called another ISP, asked them how long it would take to get me DSL (and made sure I could use my mail server), ordered it, and called my ISP back and set to get rid of their connection.
Of course, this started another rediculus series of events. The DSL remove order and DSL add order (that get filed by old and new ISPs, respectively) got "mixed up", and a couple days after moving to my new ISP the DSL signal was lost. An angry call to the phone co had it back within an hour (yet it somehow still takes 5 business days normally).
The old ISP also decided that we actually couldn't cancel when we did - we were on a 1yr contract, and had to pay 50% of 8 months service or something for cancelling early. We had been a customer for 3 years, and none of our bills for the past year said anything about a 1year contract. They also couldn't produce the contract -- not even an unsigned version. In subsequent calls, they claimed that it was a verbal contract yet couldn't name who had supposedly made it. Eventually months later, in an effort to get our local phone service back (we had switched to a CLEC many years ago), they decided to "credit" our account for the charges. Of course, we remained with the CLEC.
Anyway, that got a tad off topic, but I felt the need to vent. Stay away from the big phone companies;)
I would just like to confirm what you say about TOSLINK. My PC is currently too far from my receiver for my optical cables to stretch, so I have to use the SPDIF connection. Every time there is an electrical event in my house (heating, fridge, freezer, kettle switching) the audio cuts out for a second or so.
This is most likely due to faulty wiring and/or a ground loop. The linked page provides a very good description of the problem.. Unfortunately, it's usually quite hard to locate a ground loop, and they are fairly common in older homes.
Put a GPS reveiver on a 20-foot wire, and have the phone require a GPS location to work.
Or at least, have it require a GPS location when it is plugged in (volitile memory so unplugging the phone will require re-GPSing).
Ok, so you just increased the cost of all voip phones by a signifigant amount. You also limited its use to places where you can get a gps signal. Where can't you get gps? In the middle of an office building. I've stayed in hotels that open to a giant atrium, instead of outside.
How about softphones? Besides the numerous issues with software and hardware compatiblity.. I've used voip to my office while sitting on my laptop in an airport using wifi.
There's probably a million different situations.
Not to say GPS is a bad idea, just, it shouldn't be required. There should be a general method to send location info -- whether that be a typed-in address or GPS coordinates.
Remember, a person can always SAY their location. One of the first things the 911 operator should do is verify the location. I'd imagine it's a fairly small percentage of calls where the person is unable to say their location, which is also why all voip providers should just route to a 911 center.
If required, setup a big 911 center that's equiped to dispatch calls anywhere across the continent, even if they just have to handoff calls to a local 911 center. Hell, they could even use VoIP to connect the main center with all the locals..:)
They've got everyone's zip code and (I would assume) a directory of each zip code's appropriate 911 response center. How hard is it to make these ends meet?
Well, the issue is that VoIP is mobile. You can take your voip router at home and plug it in at a friend's down the street or on the other side of the globe, and it'll work. Meanwhile, the 911 operator thinks you're at home.
That's why part of this says that the VoIP providers have to have a way for users to update their location.
Of course, I don't know what happens if they're in europe (where emergency service is 112 or something) or any other country.
BitTorrent is much fuzzier, because except for the first seeder, individual clients aren't uploading and downloading entire files - they're uploading and downloading small chunks, so rather than uploading 5 copies of a 1GB movie, one to each of 5 people, you might have uploaded 5GB of total stuff spread out over 25 people.
Some P2P applications do this as well. It raises a good question though -- what happens when you're only uploading small chunks? Is it still infringing because it's still part of the song?
What would happen if a P2P client broke files down into really small chunks so you download non-sequential chunks (though all at once, to save overhead) from different sources.. Each individual person would NOT be uploading actual music (if you tried to play the individual upload stream, it would either not work or be random garbage), they'd be uploading essentially random streams of data. Once you had all these random streams from different sources, you could reassemble it back into a song.
While it's really meant to be a frontend to a subversion repository, Trac may just do all the things you want. It is a combined Wiki and request tracker (and subversion repository viewer). The nice part is you can use wiki markup everywhere. I use the wiki part to document random things about the IT infrastructure (like, how the backups are performed, where certain files are stored, what all the star-codes for the phone system are, etc). You can also write a page saying "this was added while fixing bug #23" and it will make a link to that ticket.
It also has milestones, which can be handy. You can assign tickets to a milestone, and it will give you a visual progress bar of how many open vs closed tickets you have for that milestone. It's good for tracking the progress on subtasks within projects (just file a ticket for everything you need to do -- you get an itemized todo list with priorities that you can add notes/ideas to as you work through it, and can always link back to wiki documents).
Of course, if you absolutely hate Wiki's, you probably won't like it. I'm so-so on wikis in general, but Trac is an incredibly useful tool.
While it is true that multipart messages get consistently higher spam scores, if your content is not spammy you are A-OK
Well, the reason they get higher spam scores is because spam software usually adds points for being html. There's also a few additional checks specific to html -- ie, more points are added for having multiple different colors. I believe spam assassin also adds points for HTML-only.
Another thing to remember is how to use images.. I personally view my mail (thunderbird) with "original HTML", but "block images from remote sites" turned on. I get the ocasional mailer that is ONLY images from remote sites with no (or very little) text, and I can't see them at all. Their loss, as i usually just hit the delete button.
It works in at least KDE 3.3. Far superior to using ftp.
I also use WinSCP from my laptop quite a bit, and although it's not directly integrated (feels more like using an ftp browser), you can open files in any program and just hit save, and it will save it remotely (I think it just watches to see if the local temp file it creates is modified).
I recently switched my internal development from CVS to Subversion, and use trac (there site seems to be down right now) as a front end to it all. Trac is a web based interface (written in python) that is a combination wiki, bug tracker, source viewer, changelog and milestone tracker. It has some amazingly cool features, like the ability to put wiki markup anywhere.
Using a wiki for documenting code is somewhat handy, but what's even better is the wiki extensions trac adds. You can type "This is related to bug #236" and it will make it a link to that bug. The cool part is, you can do that anywhere -- such as an svn commit message. (There's also ways to link to milestones, revision numbers, etc)
I originally switched to subversion for the big features - the ability to move files/directories, and the simple (compared to cvs) tagging/branching support. Trac just made it that much better.
And of course, iPod sales in the Netherlands would suffer a huge drop... in such a small country, you can never be far away from the border.
Which would be interesting, since the electronics industry is still much bigger than the music industry. How are they going to feel about some law that gets passed that means a huge drop in sales?
Further complicating matters are players in both industries - like Sony. Sony electronics is bigger than Sony entertainment. If the electronics division sees a drop in sales due to some 'digital media storage tax' while the entertainment isn't seeing any decent revenue from it (if less people are buying, they get less money from the tax), how do you think Sony and its shareholders are going to react?
Let's not get all crazy and impractical with GPS locators etc, trying to cover every wierd case. I'm willing to bet the portability feature of VOIP isn't used very often. In truly mobile settings I think most people use mobile phones.
Exactly. It just REALLY complicates things. Cell phones still don't all have GPS locators, and I'd say cell phones are far more common than VoIP users.
It also pushes the issue of how far can you really take this? We use a VoIP-based PBX in the office, and I can access it from home (or anywhere else with an internet connection). If I were to call 911, the call would go out over our analog lines that are physically connected at the office (there's a rule that prevents them from being placed on outbound VoIP trunks), even though I'm at home, relaying the wrong 911 location.
A service I'd love to see, and I'm sure someone will come out with eventually, is the ability to connect a cellphone directly to VoIP. So for example, our cells would basically become office extensions (except using the cell phone coverage area), and when someone dials a number it would be the same as someone called from a phone in the office -- this would also relay the wrong 911 info.
What's the solution to this? Maybe add a header/field into the VoIP protocols (SIP, H.323, IAX2) that can relay location information from the endpoint.. so when you dial 911, your device can relay its position (whether that be from a GPS, manually entered as a home address, or just "mobile" or "not available") across the media path and have it end up at the 911 call center. Of course, the PSTN certainly isn't ready for this. On analog lines, it won't work at all. On digital (ISDN PRI/BRI) lines, there may be the possibility to send this, and I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I'd imagine there's no provisions for extra data like that, and it would require every access switch to get upgraded.
I'm curious as to what exactly they're complaining about?
Searching on google and yahoo for "tiger direct", "tiger computers", "tiger computer", "tiger" and various other incarnations all show Tigerdirect.com and often tigerdirect.ca in the top 3 (with the exception of "tiger" on yahoo).
What exactly are people searching for that yield different results than these? Do they market themselves as "tiger" at all? I've only ever seen references to "TigerDirect" and I've never seen it refered to as "tiger" before. I'm in Canada (and I've bought stuff from them before) so maybe it's different in the US, but.. I don't see why this affects them so much.
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I've recently switched from DLT to external USB drives. They're cheaper, more reliable and easier to restore from than tape.
;) ). I did start working on one, but there are too many things higher on my priority list.
I've been doing backups this way for a few months now. It's also easier to backup. Plug in the usb drive, run rsync, unplug and take offsite. I have a script I run in cron (or manually) that tries to mount it first, and only if it suceeds, runs rsync.
I've been meaning to install another drive at my house to backup a couple servers (just haven't gotten around to it yet), but that'll be similar.. rsync over ssl, run in cron every night.
The one thing this doesn't address that tapes usually do is keeping multiple backups. I was doing this for a while - where I had a directory for I think monday, wednesday and friday - but then our storage space increased and I couldn't fit this on my backup drive anymore. It would just be a matter of buying a bigger drive, or getting another couple enclosures and drives, but I haven't done it yet.
I was playing with using rdiff-backup to make differential backups of just our file shares, but due to lack of a usable web interface I haven't bothered (I don't want to spend time selectively restoring backups for people.. if they can't do it themselves I want no part
Firefox dev's should be more concerned with making their browser capable of properly reading all ie based content
Are you talking about non-portable single-platform technologies like ActiveX and vbscript, or how ie will render pages with blatently invalid html?
before creating their own little scheme.
Agreed, anyone who uses the w3c standards is a chump.
Its not hard to make a site that works in almost every browser - just follow the standards. There's no good reason to make a site that only works in IE (unless you're microsoft) as it's basically the same amount of work just to do it properly. No professional web developer worth of calling themselves so would code an IE-only page.
A lot of motherboards disable on-board video when you're using an AGP card. My home system is like this- after upgrading, I got an onboard card, and figured it would be an easy way to get dual monitor (along with my existing AGP card). I don't know why it disables the onboard, but it does.. and I don't see any BIOS options or jumpers to change that.
(I eventually found a pci card, but never actually got around to installing it)
Most phones are loaded with a dozen of so, one of which almost always is just a basic ringing sound.
.. I've called them numerous times to fix it, and it never works, I just got tired of trying) and you have a phone that pisses you off everytime it rings.
You might think so, but my Samsung A540 would prove you wrong. Couple that with the fact that my browser is broken (something about RSA key not matching
Not that finding a basic ring on via download service is easy (or possible?) either..
Ever tried putting a PowerBook next to, let's say, Dell laptop and just looking at it ?
"Hey, it's missing the right mouse button."
Most people install Debian with the net-install CD (or at least, they should). It's about a 100MB iso that gets a base system installed, and then you can use apt-get to install anything else you'd like. Because of debian's great package management, it also means this CD can be quite old and still install a current version - you just have to apt-get dist-upgrade as soon as you're done installing. Using the same method you can also convert your system to unstable if you'd like.
All 14 CDs include EVERY package (as in, you'll get 6 or 7 web browsers, media players, and every other obscure program that is in the repository) and source. That's probably unnecessary for 99% of people out there. Not to mention a fairly big waste of bandwidth to download.
Of course, one has to wonder if said oxygen tank will allow you to properly decompress in time. Of course, when faced with running out of air, the bends may be the least of your worries.
With recreational diving, also called no-decompression diving, the idea is that you can immediately return to the surface at any point. Usually, we take a 3-5minute decompression stop at 15', just as a precaution.
To get certified (with PADI anyways) one of the things you have to do is a controlled emergency ascent (which is basically your worst-case solution if you run out of air). You actually have enough air in your lungs that on a full breath you can quickly (at the speed of bubbles) swim to the surface and you will be able to slowly exhale the whole way, since the air expands as you go. Of course, if you do this from below 60' it would probably be a good idea to go to a decompression chamber to be sure. We had to do it from 30' I think, and it was by far the least fun thing in the checkout.
Does anyone dive with just a pure oxygen tank? Or is this writeup totally whacked?
Oxygen becomes toxic at pressure. You would likely blackout at about 20' on 100% oxygen, and as such 100% oxygen is NOT recommended for diving.
Even on nitrox, the deepest you can go on EAN32 (32% oxygen) is about 110', and I think around 90' on EAN36.
I would have never thought that IIS users must go out hunting on google and actually pay for new modules for IIS that are compeletely free (and immediately available) for apache...
;)
I noticed the same thing a few years ago (5) with ASP. My roommate in university was an ASP developer, and I had been doing PHP for a couple years at that point. He was working on some application that required DNS lookups, and actually ended up paying for an ASP module/script/whatever to do them. I was totally surprised at this (since it's one of the core functions of php) and he started telling me how there were many many 3rd party modules you had to pay for. I showed him all the built-in stuff that PHP had, and then some of the places on the web you can get thousands of scripts, and he was amazed. Not sure if he ever converted
That's backwards from what he's asking for - that essentially acts as a cell phone, and makes it available using VoIP. Effectively, if you had an asterisk box, you could have your cell phone number ring into it or use it to make outbound calls, which would be useful in remote locations with no phone lines, or probably even more useful as an emergency backup in the event regular phone lines go down.
The original question is asking for a way to use his cellphone as an extension on the PBX, so this wouldn't be useful in that situation.
Well, that's the thing - we couldn't find our copy of the original contract (it may have been misplaced, but usually we're good about that stuff, and have a big file for every company with any relevant documents). The bill for the month where it should have renewed didn't look any different from any other bill, and we couldn't find ANY mention of "1 year contract" on any bill. I would have at least expected to see a line item on the bill saying something like "1yr Renewal - 05/23/2005 to 05/23/2006".
They also should have been able to show us a copy of the contract, which would have said that it renewed automatically. They couldn't produce a contract, told us two different stories about it (that we signed this contract, and then that it was a verbal contract), and basically had no proof that we owed them money at all. The interesting thing about how Bell works is that they have their own internal collections agency. If you owe money to their internet company, even though they're seperate companies, they'll cut off your phone, satellite, and/or cell phone service to get you to pay. They don't take you to an actual collections agency because then you could sue them. I've heard of a couple times they've done this sort of thing. Luckily, all of our services are with other companies (and is it any wonder?).
However, I get sick of people charging way over standard postage and calling it 'handling'. Handling fees are a cost of doing business and should therefore be added into the sale price.
.. yes, it's sort of a cost of doing business. It does take time to box and ship an order. However, handling charges are usually a flat rate, regardless of how many items you have. You get a better deal on this for the more you order.
Well, there are two issues here. One is that when you ship something, you don't get a definite price for shipping, only an estimate. Most people will add a percentage to that estimate so they won't get screwed.
The handling thing, well
Of course, shipping and handling are usually just added together, which allows them to bury the extra % on the shipping fee and call it "handling", and for the most part stores will make money off this.
Blocking port 25 would just about kill small business people that use a 3rd party hosting service for their webpages and email.
;)
It doesn't matter what SMTP server you send outgoing mail from (so long as it's not blacklisted) -- SMTP doesn't check domain names or anything (which is also really the reason spam can exist so easily).
I had a situation that was really annoying a few years ago. We were on DSL with the incumbant phone company, and used our own co-located server to send mail. One day, I could no longer connect to SMTP. Called them, of course teir 1 tech support says "no, nothing has changed". I wait for a while to see if it'll go away, then call them back a couple hours later. This time, the guy says that they noticed one router wasn't blocking 25, so they "fixed" it. I decided just to use their server, since it was an easy fix (make a DNS entry in the office only that points to their IP instead of ours).
This was fine for a couple months. Then one day, we couldn't send mail again. I tried to connect to their SMTP, and it would either timeout, or VERY slowly connect. I call them, and they say they're being hammered by viruses, and it'll be fixed soon. Within half an hour it was back to normal. This happened about 3 more times, and I got really annoyed. I called and asked them to remove the port 25 block (just for my account -- even to only my mail servers IP), because it was rediculus we couldn't send email. They said they couldn't, I'd just have to wait. Well, it was several hours and still not working, so I called again, and asked to speak to a manager or supervisor. Basically, same deal "no, we can't take off the block. Maybe you can use webmail". Although it would work, I didn't want to tell everyone to use webmail instead of their email clients just because of this. I called another ISP, asked them how long it would take to get me DSL (and made sure I could use my mail server), ordered it, and called my ISP back and set to get rid of their connection.
Of course, this started another rediculus series of events. The DSL remove order and DSL add order (that get filed by old and new ISPs, respectively) got "mixed up", and a couple days after moving to my new ISP the DSL signal was lost. An angry call to the phone co had it back within an hour (yet it somehow still takes 5 business days normally).
The old ISP also decided that we actually couldn't cancel when we did - we were on a 1yr contract, and had to pay 50% of 8 months service or something for cancelling early. We had been a customer for 3 years, and none of our bills for the past year said anything about a 1year contract. They also couldn't produce the contract -- not even an unsigned version. In subsequent calls, they claimed that it was a verbal contract yet couldn't name who had supposedly made it. Eventually months later, in an effort to get our local phone service back (we had switched to a CLEC many years ago), they decided to "credit" our account for the charges. Of course, we remained with the CLEC.
Anyway, that got a tad off topic, but I felt the need to vent. Stay away from the big phone companies
I would just like to confirm what you say about TOSLINK. My PC is currently too far from my receiver for my optical cables to stretch, so I have to use the SPDIF connection. Every time there is an electrical event in my house (heating, fridge, freezer, kettle switching) the audio cuts out for a second or so.
This is most likely due to faulty wiring and/or a ground loop. The linked page provides a very good description of the problem.. Unfortunately, it's usually quite hard to locate a ground loop, and they are fairly common in older homes.
Put a GPS reveiver on a 20-foot wire, and have the phone require a GPS location to work.
:)
Or at least, have it require a GPS location when it is plugged in (volitile memory so unplugging the phone will require re-GPSing).
Ok, so you just increased the cost of all voip phones by a signifigant amount. You also limited its use to places where you can get a gps signal. Where can't you get gps? In the middle of an office building. I've stayed in hotels that open to a giant atrium, instead of outside.
How about softphones? Besides the numerous issues with software and hardware compatiblity.. I've used voip to my office while sitting on my laptop in an airport using wifi.
There's probably a million different situations.
Not to say GPS is a bad idea, just, it shouldn't be required. There should be a general method to send location info -- whether that be a typed-in address or GPS coordinates.
Remember, a person can always SAY their location. One of the first things the 911 operator should do is verify the location. I'd imagine it's a fairly small percentage of calls where the person is unable to say their location, which is also why all voip providers should just route to a 911 center.
If required, setup a big 911 center that's equiped to dispatch calls anywhere across the continent, even if they just have to handoff calls to a local 911 center. Hell, they could even use VoIP to connect the main center with all the locals..
They've got everyone's zip code and (I would assume) a directory of each zip code's appropriate 911 response center. How hard is it to make these ends meet?
Well, the issue is that VoIP is mobile. You can take your voip router at home and plug it in at a friend's down the street or on the other side of the globe, and it'll work. Meanwhile, the 911 operator thinks you're at home.
That's why part of this says that the VoIP providers have to have a way for users to update their location.
Of course, I don't know what happens if they're in europe (where emergency service is 112 or something) or any other country.
BitTorrent is much fuzzier, because except for the first seeder, individual clients aren't uploading and downloading entire files - they're uploading and downloading small chunks, so rather than uploading 5 copies of a 1GB movie, one to each of 5 people, you might have uploaded 5GB of total stuff spread out over 25 people.
Some P2P applications do this as well. It raises a good question though -- what happens when you're only uploading small chunks? Is it still infringing because it's still part of the song?
What would happen if a P2P client broke files down into really small chunks so you download non-sequential chunks (though all at once, to save overhead) from different sources.. Each individual person would NOT be uploading actual music (if you tried to play the individual upload stream, it would either not work or be random garbage), they'd be uploading essentially random streams of data. Once you had all these random streams from different sources, you could reassemble it back into a song.
While it's really meant to be a frontend to a subversion repository, Trac may just do all the things you want. It is a combined Wiki and request tracker (and subversion repository viewer). The nice part is you can use wiki markup everywhere. I use the wiki part to document random things about the IT infrastructure (like, how the backups are performed, where certain files are stored, what all the star-codes for the phone system are, etc). You can also write a page saying "this was added while fixing bug #23" and it will make a link to that ticket.
It also has milestones, which can be handy. You can assign tickets to a milestone, and it will give you a visual progress bar of how many open vs closed tickets you have for that milestone. It's good for tracking the progress on subtasks within projects (just file a ticket for everything you need to do -- you get an itemized todo list with priorities that you can add notes/ideas to as you work through it, and can always link back to wiki documents).
Of course, if you absolutely hate Wiki's, you probably won't like it. I'm so-so on wikis in general, but Trac is an incredibly useful tool.
Agreed, multipart is definately a must.
.. I personally view my mail (thunderbird) with "original HTML", but "block images from remote sites" turned on. I get the ocasional mailer that is ONLY images from remote sites with no (or very little) text, and I can't see them at all. Their loss, as i usually just hit the delete button.
While it is true that multipart messages get consistently higher spam scores, if your content is not spammy you are A-OK
Well, the reason they get higher spam scores is because spam software usually adds points for being html. There's also a few additional checks specific to html -- ie, more points are added for having multiple different colors. I believe spam assassin also adds points for HTML-only.
Another thing to remember is how to use images
It works in at least KDE 3.3. Far superior to using ftp.
I also use WinSCP from my laptop quite a bit, and although it's not directly integrated (feels more like using an ftp browser), you can open files in any program and just hit save, and it will save it remotely (I think it just watches to see if the local temp file it creates is modified).
Ugh, did I really just type "there" instead of "their"..? knew i should have previewed
I recently switched my internal development from CVS to Subversion, and use trac (there site seems to be down right now) as a front end to it all. Trac is a web based interface (written in python) that is a combination wiki, bug tracker, source viewer, changelog and milestone tracker. It has some amazingly cool features, like the ability to put wiki markup anywhere.
Using a wiki for documenting code is somewhat handy, but what's even better is the wiki extensions trac adds. You can type "This is related to bug #236" and it will make it a link to that bug. The cool part is, you can do that anywhere -- such as an svn commit message. (There's also ways to link to milestones, revision numbers, etc)
I originally switched to subversion for the big features - the ability to move files/directories, and the simple (compared to cvs) tagging/branching support. Trac just made it that much better.
And of course, iPod sales in the Netherlands would suffer a huge drop... in such a small country, you can never be far away from the border.
Which would be interesting, since the electronics industry is still much bigger than the music industry. How are they going to feel about some law that gets passed that means a huge drop in sales?
Further complicating matters are players in both industries - like Sony. Sony electronics is bigger than Sony entertainment. If the electronics division sees a drop in sales due to some 'digital media storage tax' while the entertainment isn't seeing any decent revenue from it (if less people are buying, they get less money from the tax), how do you think Sony and its shareholders are going to react?
Let's not get all crazy and impractical with GPS locators etc, trying to cover every wierd case. I'm willing to bet the portability feature of VOIP isn't used very often. In truly mobile settings I think most people use mobile phones.
.. so when you dial 911, your device can relay its position (whether that be from a GPS, manually entered as a home address, or just "mobile" or "not available") across the media path and have it end up at the 911 call center. Of course, the PSTN certainly isn't ready for this. On analog lines, it won't work at all. On digital (ISDN PRI/BRI) lines, there may be the possibility to send this, and I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I'd imagine there's no provisions for extra data like that, and it would require every access switch to get upgraded.
Exactly. It just REALLY complicates things. Cell phones still don't all have GPS locators, and I'd say cell phones are far more common than VoIP users.
It also pushes the issue of how far can you really take this? We use a VoIP-based PBX in the office, and I can access it from home (or anywhere else with an internet connection). If I were to call 911, the call would go out over our analog lines that are physically connected at the office (there's a rule that prevents them from being placed on outbound VoIP trunks), even though I'm at home, relaying the wrong 911 location.
A service I'd love to see, and I'm sure someone will come out with eventually, is the ability to connect a cellphone directly to VoIP. So for example, our cells would basically become office extensions (except using the cell phone coverage area), and when someone dials a number it would be the same as someone called from a phone in the office -- this would also relay the wrong 911 info.
What's the solution to this? Maybe add a header/field into the VoIP protocols (SIP, H.323, IAX2) that can relay location information from the endpoint
I'm curious as to what exactly they're complaining about?
Searching on google and yahoo for "tiger direct", "tiger computers", "tiger computer", "tiger" and various other incarnations all show Tigerdirect.com and often tigerdirect.ca in the top 3 (with the exception of "tiger" on yahoo).
What exactly are people searching for that yield different results than these? Do they market themselves as "tiger" at all? I've only ever seen references to "TigerDirect" and I've never seen it refered to as "tiger" before. I'm in Canada (and I've bought stuff from them before) so maybe it's different in the US, but.. I don't see why this affects them so much.