TJ's Tech Thoughts

We moved again

2011-12-05T15:29:00.000-05:00

Because I'm seeing an increase in traffic to this "old" version on my blog, I'll point any Google-sent visitors to my new (but not much more frequently updated) version of this blog at http://tjschmitz.com/blog .

We've moved

2006-02-18T07:58:00.000-05:00

We've moved! I've moved my blog to http://cstarsys.com/blog . I'm now running Wordpress, which gives me a lot more control over how the blog looks and adds categories, which I've been wanting for quite a while.

Troubleshooting internet usage

2005-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:00

For all three of my regular readers, sorry for the slow updates. I've decided to make the site a little less newsy and more about what I'm learning on a day-to day basis.And I've been learning quite a bit, because about three weeks ago, our internet usage spiked incredibly - saturating our T1s out to the internet and slowing traffic down to a crawl.The chart below shows the traffic flowing into

Page 'O Ports

2005-05-05T16:38:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some network troubleshooting, and with my limited/forgetful memory of what ports are used for what, Kurt Seifried's port lookup page is a lifesaver. It has a total of 8,457 ports listed, and has some nice explanations on what the ports should or should not be doing. Thanks Kurt!

Nice DNS and Reverse lookup page

2005-05-05T16:35:00.000-04:00

I recently needed to do some alternating DNS and IP lookups recently, and this lookup page let me do both without having to switch between pages - very useful!

The TAO of Backup

2005-05-04T16:08:00.000-04:00

The TAO of Backup was forwarded to me recently, and while it has a blatant plug at the end, it is thought provoking on the needs for secure and reliable backups.

Jeremy Allison leaves HP to go to Novell

2005-04-30T14:12:00.000-04:00

Allison is the chief engineer of Samba. Novell is really moving along nicely in their SUSE Linux offerings, and this won't hurt that one bit!

VoIP growls on OS X

2005-04-30T10:21:00.000-04:00

From Om Malik's weblog:If you love OS-X, then there is more good news coming your way, thanks to yeoman’s effort by Benjamin Kowarsch, the genius who developed an OS-X installer for Asterisk, the open source PBX system. (You can download it from here!) VoIP Weblog points out that Benjamin is now leading an efforts to create device drivers for Digium’s Zaptel telephony cards. The stability and

VoIP: Cisco buys Sipura for Linksys

2005-04-30T10:17:00.000-04:00

Should be interesting, although I favored Sipura's wares over Linksys - I wonder if they will lock them to a VoIP vendor like the existing Linksys ATAs or keep them open?From the press release: Cisco Systems today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Sipura Technology, Inc. This represents Cisco's first acquisition for its Linksys division, the leading provider of wireless

Buslink USB GPRS/WiFi adapter

2005-04-29T05:49:00.001-04:00

Interesting gadget from Buslink provides GPRS and WiFi via USB:Quick & Easy to connect: Simply plug into any PCs w/ USB port for Wireless LAN connection or slide in your cell phone’s removable SIM card - Features Wireless Network connection, allowing networking where other 802.11b devices may be present - for use on your wireless cellular carrier’s network. - Provides users w/seamless wireless

isolinux.cfg tweak for bootable CDs

2005-04-26T12:02:00.000-04:00

I ran across this interesting article on configuring the isolinux.cfg on ZenWorks imaging CDs to allow booting to the local hard drive after a timeout.

Font fights dyslexia

2005-04-26T11:49:00.000-04:00

There is a new font out called Read Regular, that has the interesting goal of making it easier for dyslexic people to read. From the looks of the samples, it should be easier to distinguish a b from a d. While this font should be significantly easier to read, it would also be much harder to teach to emerging writers - making me wonder if it will be confusing for children to learn to write one

New report to say that schools save $ with open source software

2005-04-26T07:32:00.003-04:00

Apparently they can't release the report right now due to restrictions on government announcements during an open election, but the preliminary findings released so far sound good. From the Register story: "The landmark report will show that OSS can be implemented successfully in schools and present documented examples of cost savings from its use. Becta's report, based on a study of 15 schools,

StompBox - Mobile 3G/WiFi Router Project

2005-04-22T06:14:00.000-04:00

The StompBox (Mobile 3G/WiFi Router Project) caught my eye as being one of those projects that is truly cool and makes a huge difference in the creator's use of technology. I can't wait until there is an $80 Linksys device that does this like the creator speculates. That and unlimited mobile data not being $80/month, and I'm all over this setup.

Terastation update

2005-04-21T10:16:00.000-04:00

My earlier post on the Buffalo TeraStation has been one of the biggest draws to my blog to date. Obviously a lot on interest on it!At least, enough for someone to set up a Wiki on hacking (or working with open-source firmware ) it at http://terastation.org. As they posted in my comments "Nothing much yet, but it's a start". So far it looks like they have a how-to on adding a serial console.It

Essays marked by computer program

2005-04-09T06:37:00.000-04:00

The University of Missouri is testing a program called Qualrus, that scores student essays. Sounds like it will save teaching staff a lot of time, but how long is it until the students develop a program that writes essays Qualrus likes?

Philadelphia's city-wide WiFi plans

2005-04-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

Looks like Philadelphia's going ahead with it's city-wide WiFi plans after all. I know my city has been holding off vendors for over 7 years now - long before 802.11 was standarized. Our bigger neighbor to the northwest, however saw value and executed on it. I hear it's very nice!

Interesting take on the "Open Source War"

2005-04-08T15:35:00.000-04:00

eSchool news has an interesting editorial on the "Open Source War" between Linux and Microsoft. Food for thought...

Setting up a Linux NFS Install Source for Your LAN

2005-04-08T09:27:00.000-04:00

Great howto on setting up a Linux NFS Install Source for SUSE Linux. Aimed a relative Linux newbies (ie: I understood it....)

Two-User PC - a nice fit for schools?

2005-04-08T08:52:00.000-04:00

CRN has an interesting story on how VARs are selling schools PCs with additional video cards and using Win XP's multiple user sessions have two users use the PC at the same time. Microsoft seems fuzzy on the legality of doing it this way, but it's an interesting way to stretch a thin tech budget.

Block IE use via Proxy registry settings

2005-04-06T16:30:00.000-04:00

Another amazingly simple idea from Novel's cool solutions crowd - blocking access to IE via pushing out the proxy settings in the registry.

SchoolMatters: online data for schools

2005-04-06T16:10:00.000-04:00

Standard & Poor's has brought SchoolMatters online recently. They bill it as "a public source for information and analysis about our nation's public schools." It has some very nice data analysis and comparison tools, although I would like it if you could compare more than four schools at once.

Copy between USB devices with no computer?

2005-04-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

An interesting writeup of the Sync Box USB II caught my eye. It boasts the ability to copy data between two USB devices with no computer. Would be useful for dumping digital photos to a memory key or similar applications.

More Lessons on Skype

2005-04-06T16:02:00.000-04:00

Interesting blog entry on VoIP / Skype: I like his point on branding. This is the 2nd of two posts. The 1st is worth reading as well.

Linux versus XP on the desktop

2005-04-06T15:59:00.000-04:00

The Register has an interesting article about Linux vs. Win XP adoption on the desktop in England. The most interesting part is the results, of course (.PDF file)

Installing GroupWise on SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server

2005-04-05T12:25:00.000-04:00

Another great walkthrough from the folks over at Novell's Cool Solutions.

VNCon - VNC for lab management

2005-04-05T09:53:00.000-04:00

Came across an interesting tool called VNCon that gives VNC some lab management functionality.Here is a list of the main features included with VNCon: Computer Switching: Cycles through the list monitoring activity, and allowing you to take control or send a message at the touch of a buttonPassword Support : You can specify a default or a specific password for each connection Grouping

Is Microsoft a BlackBerry Killer?

2005-04-04T15:49:00.000-04:00

Internet Week has an interesting story about Microsoft's aspirations to kill off Blackberry and make it's upcoming Windows Mobile upgrade, code-named Magneto the kind of the handheld hill.The reasoning is there- why pay for Microsoft Exchange and RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server software if you can get all of the functionality from Exchange by itself? However, with RIM adding support for 3rd

Hacking Treo 650 for Verizon

2005-04-04T15:44:00.000-04:00

According to engadget, Verizon customers have started converting Sprint Treo 650s for use on Verizon's network. If if people are willing to go through such effort to geth them to work, they must be good, right? Or are they just another iPod like status symbol?

New FCC chief friendly to schools

2005-04-04T15:13:00.000-04:00

According to eSchool News Online: "Kevin J. Martin, President Bush's choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into a new era of digital transmissions, is a firm supporter of the eRate and other telecommunications programs that benefit education, according to an analysis of his voting record and public statements he has made as an FCC commissioner." It will be interesting to see

AstLinux VoIP server

2005-04-04T11:49:00.000-04:00

AstLinux 0.2.4 VoIP server is now available. I've looked at this as an alternate to Asterisk@Home. The nice thing about this distro is that it can be booted from Flash ROM, USB, or CD - making it possible to make a VoIP server with potentially no moving parts.

Speakeasy to Launch Business VoIP

2005-04-02T07:26:00.000-05:00

It sounds like SpeakEasy will be announcing hosted VoIP with PBX-like features on Monday. The service, purpotedly aimed at businesses, should highlight Speakeasy's advantage of being a high-speed ISP - being able to provide end-to-end quality of service, that other providers can not.

UK reveals 7 point plan to tackle their "digital divide"

2005-04-02T07:06:00.000-05:00

BBC News' story has a strong focus on the educational aspects of the plan. Another interesting part of the plan is a "digital challenge" prize awarded to the local authority for giving universal online access to services - sounding similar to the technology X-Prize for local government.

Avaya Touts IP Tech as 'Transformational'

2005-04-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

eWeek has an interesting interview with Don Peterson, CEO of VoIP vendor Avaya.

On Novell and Tally

2005-03-30T13:16:00.000-05:00

The Register has some nice coverage on Novell's purchase of Tally Systems.

Buffalo TeraStation

2005-03-30T12:52:00.000-05:00

Lots of buzz about the Buffalo TeraStation this week. The Register has a story, and I've read about it in a couple of other places (that I forgot to bookmark).With impressive specs like 1TB of storage, a 266MHz Freescale PowerPC processor, 512MB of SDRAM, a Realtek gigabit NIC, a RAID controller, and Linux-based firmware, I wonder how long it will be until this becomes a popular firmware hack

Spectrum-starved US prepares to feast

2005-03-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

Story on newly and soon to be available spectrum in the US

The Neat and public services

2005-03-30T12:38:00.000-05:00

Working for a public school district, I found this article from the BBC interesting. I think they are right - in the end it's the quality of service, not the method of delivery that is the most important.

High School students' "Stinky" robot beats MIT in underwater bot championship

2005-03-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Wired has a great story about how four high school students built an underwater robot for $800 and beat the pants off of engineering students from the likes of MIT and their $11,000 robot. A great read - definitely worth reading through until the end!

Using USB Drive with ZENworks Imaging

2005-03-30T10:11:00.000-05:00

Very simple clear instructions for using a USB Drive with ZENworks Imaging. Worked for me, although on some machines I had to replace "MOUNT /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbhd" with "MOUNT /dev/sda4 /mnt/usbhd" or sometimes /dev/sda3.

Power-hungry PCs cost users

2005-03-30T06:56:00.000-05:00

The BBC reports on the cost of not shutting computers off when not in use - ""Most people could easily save £100 a year and a small-to-medium sized company should easily cut £5,000 off its bills just by following our advice," said Mr Ross." For those of us in the US, that's $9170. Our Middle School had a big lights off and computer off campaign a year or so ago, and saved over $10,000. Not bad

Cell-phone complaints: A sorry picture for Cingular/AT&T

2005-03-30T06:54:00.000-05:00

Consumer's Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) has released their annual report on complaints against cell carriers.The data seems to match my experiences - with Cingular, we have had few billing issues, but have had a fair number of service issues. It's too bad, because I believe that most of the problems I encountered could have been prevented by their staff being better-educated about their

VNC via cell phone

2005-03-30T06:48:00.000-05:00

KDDI and Hitachi Systems and Services have teamed up to bring "micro-VNC" to KDDI's au phones. I've played around with VNC on palm/pocket pc's and fount it barely useable. I'm not sure what benefit porting it to a cell phone brings, but it's still somehow impressive!

Novell Announces Enhancements for GroupWise

2005-03-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

"Novell to deliver new product features, 10-year extended support commitment and pre-bundled Linux with upcoming version of leading collaboration product"At this week's BrainShare conference, Novell made some nice announcements about GroupWise. Announced upcoming features are: enhanced client code for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and the Web, support for Microsoft Outlook, and new SOAP/XML

HP sues ink refillers

2005-03-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

News.com reports on the HP lawsuits against Rhinotek and InkCycle. Looks like now HP is just using it's patent arsenal to force refillers to list their cartridges as "used" and "refilled" - which only seems fair, as it allows consumers to make an educated comparison. I just hope it's not foreshadowing of bigger and more sinister things to come, as HP holds 4,000 patents related consumable

VoIP for the masses?

2005-03-25T11:55:00.000-05:00

The Washing Post has a story on how Texas is suing Vonage because someone who failed to activate the 911 feature was unable to make 911 calls from their VoIP line. I thought it was interesting that this was one of the few articles that points out that: "Vonage notifies customers twice during the subscription process that they must register for 911 service, and subscribers are repeatedly notified

Another nail in the coffin for traditional telecom?

2005-03-25T06:58:00.000-05:00

Another interesting announcement at CTIA was Motorola's announcement of their Cellular Residential Gateway. Even though the sign next to it in the Wireless Home exhibit announced "Shipping Now", details on it are murky with no sign of it on Motorola's website. It appears to be similar to a cable modem/wireless router, but replacing the cable modem with a CDMA2000 1x EV-DO connection. I see this

Combo EDGE/GPRS/GSM/802.11 card from Sony Ericsson

2005-03-25T06:39:00.000-05:00

At the recent CTIA show Sony Ericsson announced a new multimode PC card that supports EDGE/GPRS/GSM/ and 802.11b/g. In my opinion, this would have been great news 6-12 months ago. Now most laptops are coming with 802.11 support built in, and this doesn't give a traveler much of an edge unless they have an older laptop. What I would find

Why does everyone fear nonexistent wireless VoIP?

2005-03-25T06:21:00.000-05:00

Why does everyone fear nonexistent wireless VoIP? Is the question Mike Masnick asks on The Feature this week. From the article: "You can't really go a month in the wireless world without hearing of the next big "threat" to some wireless technology. This month it's wireless VoIP that's going to take down just about everything else in the wireless space. That might be a tad optimistic." He's got

Script to ensure renaming of imaged Mac

2005-03-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

I ran across this interesting script that checks to make sure that a Mac has been re-named after imaging, and queries for a new name if it hasn't. Neat little tool, and I think it supplements my vb script that renames our PCs after imaging to their Dell service tag #.

Cell/WiFI combo devices on the horizon

2005-03-23T07:44:00.000-05:00

I'm glad to see that the cell providers and handset/PDA companies are finally starting to 'get it'. Some heartening news this week that brings me to this conclusion. eWeek has a story about the cell providers testing IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) in their phones in addition or in replacement to their current UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) protocols currently in use. The big difference here is

self-replicating rapid prototyper with a twist

2005-03-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

Interesting story about a refrigerator-sized machine that would make "household items and gadgets, including kitchenware, cameras and even small musical instruments" out of metal or plastic. The cool thing, is that it would be able to make copies of itself - making it self replicating, and enable to original purchasers to defray the cost of thier machine by selling copies of it. This would be

More SIP phones from Zultys

2005-03-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

The article: ZIP 2: another entrant in the VoIP phone marketplace by ZDNet's Russell Shaw talks about the new ZIP2 line of phones from Zultys. Their website lists the following specs for the phones: ZIP 2+ ZIP 2P ZIP 2x2L ZIP 2x1 ZIP 2x2

Road Cell Phone

2005-03-20T08:37:00.000-05:00

Came across an interesting phone - the ROAD S101. Another phone that combinde cell and wi-fi access, instead of blocking it like the Treo 650. It'll be interesting to see if it ever makes it to the US.

Download details for Novell's Open Enterprise Server

2005-03-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

Novell is providing instructions on how to download just the needed iso files to install OES, as well as receive 30 days of free updates. Was a nice surprise to me, as I realized I wouldn't need to re-download the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 isos again.

Sci/Tech High School with a cool name

2005-03-15T05:40:00.000-05:00

Network World features an interesting sounding high school - Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The "cool name" part comes from it being referred to as the "TJ". The "interesting" part was the description of how students are involved in the ID department, with some volunteering up to 20 hours per week, working on production systems was intriguing. Our high school just had

Blackberry adds IM to devices

2005-03-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

RIM has just announced it will be adding AOL and Yahoo IM capability to their Blackberry products.I've been looking at replacing my cell phone & PDA with a combo device, and have been intrigued by RIM's Blackberries. We run GroupWise at work, and I was impressed by the BlackBerry/Groupwise webinar I recently saw. I demoed

Mac OS X and Novell eDirectory Integration

2005-03-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

Following right on the heals of their article on Linux/eDirectory integration, this week's CoolSolutions has a great story on Mac OS X and eDirectory integration. I've been wanting to give this a try for a while, since we're still about 1/5 Mac. It's a very in-depth read, and doesn't look like the process has become any simpler since I last looked into it. I've also heard of people hosing their

Harvard and MIT sat "No Way" to hackers

2005-03-11T08:58:00.000-05:00

Prospective students who used a flaw posted in online discussion forums to access the ApplyYourself service will not be attending Harvard or MIT anytime soon.From the Boston.com article:'Schmalensee said he made his decision to reject the 32 applicants after seeing the directions posted by the hacker. ''The instructions are reasonably elaborate," he said. ''You didn't need a degree in computer

Software Streaming

2005-03-09T15:26:00.000-05:00

Network World has an interesting article on Software Streaming that caught my interest. It sounds like they are describing a product similar to Apple's NetBoot, which I've Seen in action at CCC. The article however is very sparse on details - a lot of theory, but no actual how-to's or off the shelf software to accomplish it.I've seen similar concepts, like the formentioned Apple NetBoot, and

Building Your Own PBX with Asterisk@Home

2005-03-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Kerry Garrison has an interesting tutorial on using Asterisk@Home on his website. The best bit for me was his suggestion for getting Digium Wildcard X100P FXO cards on eBay for $6.95 each....I'm still researching the MultiVoIP MVP210 I've got on my desk, and seeing what it can do...

Authenticating SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 and NLD to eDirectory via LDAP

2005-03-07T09:44:00.001-05:00

Cool Solutions strikes again with a great document on authenticating SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 and NLD to eDirectory via LDAP. I've had this project on the "back burner" for some time now in conjunction with LTSP, and this walkthrough will make it a bit easier, since it looks like it corrects some of the inaccuracies in the Novell docs that had me stuck.

Invisibility?

2005-03-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

Scientists have discovered that Plasmons can be used to make very small items invisible. From the article:The proposal involves using plasmons -- tiny electronic excitations on the surfaces of some metals -- to cancel out the visible light or other radiation coming from an object. "A proper design … may induce a dramatic drop in the scattering cross-section, making the object nearly invisible

Sony DVD Direct burns DVDs without a computer

2005-03-02T11:15:00.000-05:00

I found this device interesting, as I just bought an external dual-layer DVD burner for about $100 less than this and a standalone DVD recorder for about $300... so if I had picked this up instead, I would have saved $200..... and gotten the same functionality.

Quick and simple Student/User logging in Netware

2005-03-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting idea on logging student (or user) computer useage from the login script. It's one of those ideas that's so simple you wonder why you didn't think of it.

Paris Hilton & You

2005-03-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

Frank Hayes has a great article in this week's ComputerWorld on how the Paris Hilton hack should get IT thinking about the use of state-of-ther art cell phones. Once again, do you really want your sensitive information out of your hands - or better yet, as the article asks: "you don't realy want to end up like Paris Hilton, do you?".

T-Mobile Hack Used Known Hole

2005-02-28T12:46:00.000-05:00

Wired reports that the method Nicolas Jacobsen used to gain access to T-Mobile accounts was through a known hole in their WebLogic server - for which BEA had a patch available.This however didn't make Jacobsen a 'script kiddie' - he ended up writing his own custom interface to their customer database.Another good example of the need to keep those systems patched!

Firefox IDN update

2005-02-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

Firefox has released version 1.0.1, which fixes the IDN spoofing issue, as well as about a dozen other security issues, and added some performance enhancements.Right now it's a manual install, and sounds fairly tricky. You may want to stick with the fix I posted earlier for working around this problem until Firefox releases 1.0.1 via autoupdate - sometime around March 7th.

Microsoft and Cisco aiming to bring more girls to IT

2005-02-26T20:07:00.000-05:00

It caught my eye that there were two different articles about major IT companies aiming to bring girls into IT this week.eSchool News reports on Cisco's efforts to make IT, and in particular, their Tech Academy more appealing to girls. One of the interesting points of the article is that research shows girls are more interested in to learning about technology in the context of "broader social

Password Complexity

2005-02-25T12:50:00.000-05:00

There must be something in the water cooler over at Information Week, because I think this week's Secret CIO column is right on the money, and I usually disagree with him, or skip the column because it's just whining about corporate politics.He talks about the commons sense that short password expiration times, combined with prohibiting re-suing of a large number of passwords just forces people

Rational RFID reporting

2005-02-25T12:45:00.000-05:00

Bob Evans from Information Week has the most sane reporing I've read to date on RFID. I'm not sure why most reporters feel the need to create a stir about this technology, but it's nice to hear a voice of reason.

'easy bake' .ISO's to CDLinux and Windows

2005-02-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

A couple of posts ago, I talked about mounting .iso files as virtual CDs, but what if you want to burn that file to a CD in order to give it to a friend? (only legal software like Linux distros, right?) I've been using two easy ways to do this for a while without having to load a mastering program like Nero.Under Linux you can use a command similar to:cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -data

Sysinternals releases free rootkit detector

2005-02-24T05:46:00.000-05:00

I've been a big fan of Sysinternals' freeware offerings for some time. They recently released a rootkit detector that they describe as: "RootkitRevealer is an advanced root kit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit. RootkitRevealer successfully

Paris Hilton Sidekick hack:breach, blunder or brilliant marketing?

2005-02-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

There is a lot of discussion going on about the hacking of Paris Hilton's Sidekick. There seem to be four trains of thought: The bimbo gave out her password or used a weak one. Or was it socially engineered from her? At least, that's what T-mobile should be praying. This was part of Nicolas Jacobsen's original hack, just now coming out in the clear. Or perhaps it was the same person who

Windows XP SP2 Registry Keys for Student PCs

2005-02-22T16:59:00.000-05:00

Andrew White has posted another excellent article @ Novell Cool Solutions on registry hacks for administering student PCs. He calls them 'draconian", but I think they're very insightful.

Asterisk@Home follow-up

2005-02-22T16:21:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on Asterisk@Home.1st - they have come out with two new versions since I've given it a go - I'm downloading v6 as we speak.2nd - Install was no problem, I got it up and running with a very minimum of effort. I do not have any cards in my test machine, but it appears to be capable of detecting and installing most of them.3rd - All management functions are available via the web -

Mounting .iso images: Windows, Linux & Netware

2005-02-22T15:27:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with a lot of different software lately, and have started bemoaning how many times I've burnt a .iso file to a CD for one-time use. I was going to buy a couple of CD-RWs to be less wasteful, but then I wondered if it was possible to mount them as virtual cds. I came across some interesting ideas: Microsoft Virtual CD driver. Unsupported, undocumented. Worked like a charm for

Why are cell carriers so afraid of data via bluetooth?

2005-02-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

So, my 3rd Motorola T720 finally stopped charging, and I decided that even though this phone was free from Cingular, I needed something a little less flaky. I'd really like the ability to have my phone act as a data modem for my PDA (or replace my PDA) and laptop, letting me connect anywhere anytime I need to digitally "thwack" a server into shape. I'm willing to pay the full $80/mo Cingular

Excellent Phone Tech Support Bulletin Board

2005-02-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

I have searched a couple of times over the last few years for a discussion forum or other online help for supporting our Executone phone system. We've been doing self-support for about 3 years, and can handle most of the basics no problem. But those weird/rare problems pop up we're at the mercy of hourly support to handle it. A lot of these are easy fixes, if you've seen them before. At $100/hr,

Music - open source and/or free

2005-02-19T13:01:00.000-05:00

My household has been rocking down to O-zone's "Dragostea Din Tei", and I've been thinking "I could have written this with one hand tied behind my back". No really, I could have - back in college I had a rockin' band with a lot of gear. But I really couldn't now, because ever since our first baby was born, the studio became a nursery and the gear was sold off due to lack of use or financial

honeypots & life expectancy

2005-02-16T17:22:00.000-05:00

Honeynet has an interesting article online comparing the "life expectancy" of unpatched systems. Apparently, the mean time before compromise of Linux has gone from 3 days to 3 months! While Windows have gone from days to hours or even minutes before compromise. It's also interesting that they note the compromised systems were attempted to be user for IRC bots and phishing scams.

'Easy' screen recording with VNC to SWF

2005-02-16T15:25:00.000-05:00

VNC to SWF sounds like the open source equilivent of a rough version of RoboDemo.... It lets you record screen activity to a shockwave file via VNC. I was unsucessful in my attempts to get this running on my OS X box, but had some fun playing around with it in Debian. With the new addon to edit the generated swf file by splicing mp3 sound or cutting/re-arranging scenes, it really does come close

Fix for Firefox IDN spoofing

2005-02-15T16:33:00.000-05:00

I've stumbled across a fix for the IDN spoofing bug (it lets websites look like another site - ie: hacker site appears to be paypal....) that uses Adblock, which I already use and am a big fan of.I'd definitely recommend implementing this if you use Firefox

Network storage made cheap and easy?

2005-02-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

So I ran across the Linksys NSLU2 at ThinkGeek today. A perfectly simple device, it has an Ethernet port and 2 USB 2.0 ports. You can plug in UBS drives (or a memory key) and make it available over the network. Tom's Hardware has a good review of it, where they mention it can also perform simple network backup functionality. While googling to see if it can talk to windows only (it can talk to any

An interesting Cell to landline adapter

2005-02-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

I've been shopping for a new phone, and one of my considerations (although low on the list) was getting one that would work with Cingular's Fast Forward Service. None of the phones I like work with the service, so I gave up on it for dead. Until I ran across PhoneLabs' Dock 'n' Talk. Unlike Cingular's service, it doesn't save minutes by re-routing your calls, but it allows your cell phone to

Sub $100 laptop for Education?

2005-02-08T13:45:00.000-05:00

BBC is reporting on MIT's Media Labs' attempt to produce a very inexpensive laptop, predominantly aimed at education in the 3rd world. It's being aimed at a textbook replacement. They only envision selling in in very large lots (millions) to governments, so don't count on picking one up anytime soon.

Enterprise cell to landline adapter

2005-02-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

After reading about PhoneLabs' Dock 'n' Talk in a Slashdot thread, I came also came across Telular Corporation. They make enterprise versions of cell to landline converters that are designed to be integrated with a company's PBX. You could use their Least Cost Routing or other products to make calls to cell phones from your PBX using free cell-to-cell airtime. Another potential big savings in

Windows AMP on a USB

2005-02-07T19:43:00.000-05:00

Interesting read - basically instructions on how to install Apache, MySQL and PHP on a thumb drive (USB memory key) so you can run it on different windows machines. It could come in very handy for testing or demos. I only wish they had a zip file of everything ready to go rather than making you download them all separately.

fwdOUT Phone Sharing Network

2005-02-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across the new service from Jeff Pulver over the weekend. I'm not sure how I missed the Slashdot article on the story, but I'm glad I stumbled across it. The basic premise is that home Asterisk users 'donate' their outgoing dialtone to internet VoIP users in a Napster-style PTP way. You would get 10 call credits for every 1 call you allow to go out your lines. It could be interesting,

Mobile Personal Server

2005-02-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

I just ran across startup Realm Systems' Mobile Personal Server. It's basically a cell phone sized server (400 MHz dual PowerPC processors, up to 64 MByte DRAM, up to 20 GByte hard disk space, up to one GByte Flash memory) that you plug into any USB equipped host computer (OS X, Windows or Linux) and it "hibernates" the host PC's operating system and takes over hardware components such as screen,

eWeek review of Zultys MX250 Media Exchange

2005-02-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

It took me a while to get to this one, but last week's eWeek has an interesting review of Zultys' MX250. I've been intrigued by their advertisements of inexpensive VoIP systems, and have ready very positive reviews of their phones. The downside seems to be very restrictive licensing. According to the article, the report detailing their licensing options is 25 pages long! Thanks, but no thanks -

VoIP over VPN

2005-02-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

This week's Network magazine is a veritable smorgasborg of VoIP info. This story is about the offerings MCI and AT&T have for offering VoIP over Private IP VPN services. An interesting read.

More VoIP Hype - "VoIP's Impossible Divide?"

2005-02-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

Well, another article is out slamming VoIP - because our networks aren't "ready" for it. I started reading it expecting to find gems of hidden knowledge on VoIP implementation pitfalls, but instead found another naysayer who is holding VoIP to higher standards than POTS. The main thrust of the story is that VoIP can't possibly be deployed yet, as the protocols used to provide for data network

Open source LMS - Moodle

2005-02-04T14:20:00.000-05:00

Today I took a break from my Mambo and Asterisk work to attend a regional coordination meeting. Had some interesting discussions on a variety of topics - including one on Learning Management Systems (LMS). A variety of software was discussed, including Blackboard (which we currently use), Educator (used by Florida's virtual schools?), and Moodle. Moodle caught my interest, as it's open source and

Deploy VoIP With Care, Feds Warn

2005-02-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

This week's Computerworld has an interesting article on VoIP security. The article states: "NIST made nine recommendations for implementing VoIP in a secure manner. For example, the report calls for IT managers to build logically separate voice and data networks. Another recommendation is that "if practical," PC-based VoIP softphones shouldn't be used in deployments in which either security or

Live Asterisk CD

2005-02-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

After browsing the list of Live Linux CDs this morning, I started wondering if there were live distros of Asterisk or sipX. After a little googling, I came up with the Asterisk Live! CD. It's put together by Andy Powell, the author of the original Getting Started With Asterisk guide. So far, I've downloaded it and it boots in VMWare. For those of you who missed the root password like me, it's "

Mambo security patch available

2005-02-02T14:24:00.000-05:00

From the MamboForge site: Patches are available for Mambo Version 4.5.0-1.0.9 and Version 4.5.1a at http://mamboforge.net/frs/?group_id=5 to counter a vulnerability within Mambo. All administrators of Mambo sites are encouraged to upgrade at their earlist convenience. New installations can use the 4.5.1b release, which incorporates these security fixes.

The Live CD List

2005-02-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Neat resource - lists a boatload of rescue CD's available. Lets you sort by purpose or size. I found a couple that are quite useful. KnoppMyth is a great way to get MythTV set up on a box, and the Trinity Rescue Kit has saved me from a couple of crashed hard drives and forgotten/corrupt Windows Administrator passwords.

This can't be my original idea

2005-02-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

I had one of those 'eureka' ideas this morning and it goes something like this... Background first: Out of the roughly 500 phones in place in my district, I'm replacing 2-3 a month. This doesn't surprise me as they're now hitting about 6 years of use, and all of the analog phones (2/3 of the 'fleet') were a discontinued model when we purchased them. I've been replacing them with Vodavi Starplus

Speaking of VoIP, anyone have a spare $67,140?

2005-01-29T20:15:00.000-05:00

Russel Shaw of ZDNet as found the eBay auction of my dreams. Now I just need the funds for the VoIP cutover. Anyone want to make a tax-deductible donation to my school for this? I'll need more than 100 phones, though - so make that an even $100,000, OK?