Author: Matthieu

American Thanksgiving (and other stuff)

2010-11-23 / / 0 Comments

So it’s the end of November. Haven’t written a post in the “Life” category in ages. Anyway, finally got my car stuff sorted out, and got my new workstation at work. Helped a few people out, cleaned up my desk, finalized the new FreeBSD-based captive portal… I did manage to miss lunch, which I regret now. I really like hanging out in our depressing little lunch room at work, because while the room might be a bit of a downer, the company is good. Overall, I must say I had a pretty good day today.

Would have been nicer if the temperature didn’t just drop like 20 degrees between 8am and 8pm. Anyway, I suppose it is November after all.

Isn’t it strange that Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving this week? Pumpkins and fall foliage and turkey and all that seems like ages ago for us in Canada. Everything here is cold and frozen, albeit with Christmas just out of sight around the corner. I really could use an apple cider right now.

Another thing I find strange (well not really strange, but kind of wrong) is how Thanksgiving has been turned into another excuse to watch football and go shopping. Black Friday sales anyone? So much for “thanks”.

And what about this Macy’s parade? What’s that all about? This past weekend we had the Santa Claus parade in both Brampton and Toronto (the latter of which I stumbled into whilst on my way to a beautiful choir performance).

My final thought for today: I really need to take to writing more. I’m completely out of practice. Fragmented sentences, unorganized thoughts… ugh. Speaking a random combination of English and French at work can’t be helping either.

Phone messages

2010-11-13 / / 0 Comments

Was a bit bored, and just set up my Asterisk PBX with outbound calling via Google Voice. As such, I decided to abuse the free calling service to contact a few major American tech companies. Here’s what their IVRs said.

Apple (408-996-1010):

Thank you for calling Apple. We are closed. Apple’s normal business hours are 8AM to 5PM Pacific Time, Monday to Friday. If you are calling for Product Sales, press 1. Technical Support,  2. If you are calling for any other reason, please call back during normal business hours and thank you for calling Apple.

Google (650-253-0000):

Thank you for calling Google! If you know the extension of the person you would like to reach, dial it now, followed by the # key. Press 8 to dial by name. At any time during this greeting Press 9 for the main menu. Most of your questions can be answered by using one of the following 5 options: Interested in advertising, call….

Microsoft (1-800-642-7676):

Thanks for calling Microsoft! Your call may be monitored and recorded. To get started, tell me what you’d like help with. You can say Tech support, pre-sales information, security, partner support, or Call an employee.

I think all 3 of these messages really say what each company’s attitude is.

First Apple. Their message says “We’re closed. Don’t bother us. Call us back at a time that’s more convenient for us here at Apple. Or, if you’d like to buy stuff, press 1. If your Apple stuff is broken, press 2. Otherwise, bug off.” Also, note this message is said in a rather unwelcoming voice.

Second, Google. Their voice is considerably more friendly. And, true to their roots in search/information, they provide you with a bunch of options which hopefully will get you what you want, with the least amount of effort from them or you.

Finally, Microsoft. Again, a happy voice that sounds excited that you called. Then, the legal disclaimer about call recording before anything starts. Also, note the very familiar tone, using words such as “Thanks” and “tell me what you’d like help with”. Very Windows 7. It’s interesting to note this is the only one of the three that uses voice recognition technology. And of course, the menu options correspond to the things Microsoft values most. Tech support (probably for a fee), sales, “security”, and business partners.

The Social Network. Partly based on truth.

2010-11-02 / / 0 Comments

Last week, I went to watch The Social Network with my cousin. I was quite impressed with the lines they gave Mark Zuckerberg when he was describing how he “hacked” together facemesh. I never imagined anyone in hollywood would know what Apache or wget was, much less mention it in a film. Turns out they aren’t that creative, they just pulled the lines from Mark Zuckerberg’s Online Diary.

Oh well.

At least they paid enough attention to use KDE3 on the screens in the movies, instead of one of those bogus future-computer interfaces.

Configuring PBXinaflash, my way

2010-10-24 / / 0 Comments

Setting up a PBXinaflash with a cheap Wildcard X100p card. A bit rough; for future reference.

Part 1: Initial setup and dahdi config

  1. Installed pbxinaflash (Bronze, Asterisk 1.6)
  2. set passwords using passwd-master script
  3. Enable ICMP ping in iptables.
  4. Run dahdi_genconf -v
  5. Run dahdi_cfg -v
  6. Add #include /etc/asterisk/dahdi-channels.conf
    to /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf
  7. At this point, asterisk should answer calls from the PSTN and play a “not in service” message.
  8. Next step is probably to edit /etc/asterisk/dahdi-channels.conf and set context to from-zaptel to be able to assign a DID using the FreePBX web GUI.

Part 2: Adding SIP trunk

  1. PEER Details:
    username=14165551212
    type=peer
    secret=s3cr3t
    host=voip.voipprovider.net
    dtmfmode=auto
  2. USER Details (not sure what’s necessary here, probably some of this shouldn’t be here)
    username=14165551212
    type=peer
    secret=s3cr3t
    qualify=no
    promiscredir=yes
    nat=yes
    language=en
    insecure=very
    host=voip.voipprovider.net
    fromuser=14165551212
    fromdomain=voip.voipprovider.net
    dtmfmode=auto
    disallow=h263&h263p
    context=from-trunk
    canreinvite=no
  3. In System Admin> Asterisk SIP settings page, change useragent and activate NAT/external IP options

Part 3: Fax Config

  1. Installed Fax Configuration module from “Module Admin”. Configure destination email.
  2. Installed Free Fax for asterisk using license obtained from Digium
  3. Add a “Misc destination” for System Fax to extension 666
  4. Enable Fax detection on inbound route. Set destination to Misc destination created in step 2
  5. Further reading: fax_for_asterisk_admin_manual, http://bestof.nerdvittles.com/applications/fax/ and http://nerdvittles.com/?p=237. Didn’t end up using the extension created by the script, but perhaps the rpms installed are necessary.
  6. Finally, Web fax for Asterisk : http://www.csrdu.org/nauman/2010/10/18/web-fax-for-asterisk/