• DevilsPie - GNOME Live!
  Some reference for Devil’s Pie
  Tags: devilspie linux gnome metacity
• YouTube Clone script
  "A script identical to youtube."
  Tags: google youtube clone video
• uClinux on the PSP
  If you run out of things to do on the PSP, install Linux.
  Tags: psp sony linux embedded portable uclinux
• Say goodbye to Microsoft. Now.
  I’m currently waiting for some guy to modify one of these installers and turn it to a virus. World domination in a snap! Muwahahaha!
  Tags: debian windows microsoft installer linux

I’m starting a new “series” (Journals of a Penguin == JP; Woo hoo!). It’ll be my boring notes on using Linux, configuring Linux and Linux applications.

• Send a keepalive packet every 30 seconds in SSH (I missed this from PuTTY)
  echo "ServerAliveInterval 30" >> /etc/ssh/ssh_config
• htop - top with more bells and whistles (…and colors)
  

  an interactive process viewer for Linux. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. Tested with Linux 2.4 and 2.6.

• Devil’s Pie
  

  A window-matching utility, inspired by Sawfish’s “Matched Windows” option and the lack of the functionality in Metacity.

• Fenopy Fake Finder
  Find fake torrents uploaded by the MPAA/RIAA.
  Tags: bittorrent p2p piracy mpaa riaa torrents
• WiiBot
  I’d like to order 2 please.
  Tags: games hardware robotics wii nintendo
• BumpTop Prototype
  A desktop UI concept. Pretty interesting. Great for tablets.
  Tags: tablets software ui interface desktop
• Humvee Traffic Driving in Iraq
  Dennis found this and like I said, "how’s this any different from the roads here?"
  Tags: us army humvee war bush politics iraq

One reason I love my job so much is I learn a lot. Also, I can apply everything I’ve learned and be able to do something with it (read: play with a lot of stuff). The following is a forwarded email at the asterisk-ph Yahoo! Group. Originally posted here. Asterisk users are such cheap bastards. Ha ha ha!

Who needs this?

If you have an unlimited incoming cellphone service plan, you can use this method to call out without paying outgoing minute charge. You may also take advantage of your low long distance calling rate of your VoIP service by calling out through your home Asterisk server.

Requirements

1. Your Asterisk box should be able to make at least two simultaneous outgoing calls. (One to call you back and the other provides DISA to dial out.)
2. A separate Direct-Inward-Dial (DID) number dedicated to this task.
3. Your cellphone should have a legitimate CallerID number. (We use this to identify the caller.)

How it works?

1. Call your DID number on your Asterisk box from your cellphone. When you hear the ringing tone, just hang up your cellphone.
2. Wait 20 seconds, your cellphone will get a incoming call from your Asterisk box. Answer it, follow the instructions. Press your password and the #. If everything is all right, you should get a dial tone.
3. Now you may make an outgoing call from there. All calls should be routed from your Asterisk PBX using the lowest calling rate.

Setup

Here is how I setup my home Asterisk on Slug. I am using UnSlung 6.8 with Asterisk14 installed. A DID number 6085558888 from MyVSP is setup for this task. My cellphone number is 6081112222. You should change these to fit your situation.

1. Create a file named /opt/etc/asterisk/callback.call with the following lines:
   Channel: SIP/6081112222@MyVSP
Context: custom-DISA-out
Extension: s
Priority: 1
CallerID: 6085558888
2. Create a file named /opt/etc/asterisk/callback_exe with the following lines:
   sleep 20
cp /opt/etc/asterisk/callback.call /opt/var/spool/asterisk/outgoing

   Make this file executable:
   chmod +x /opt/etc/asterisk/callback_exe

3. In your extensions.conf:
   [MyVSP-incoming]
exten => 6085558888 ,1,NoOp(Incoming call from # ${CALLERID(num)})
exten => 6085558888 ,n,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num)}" = "6081112222"]?custom-CallBack,s,1)

   [custom-CallBack]
;;prepare for callback and DISA
exten => s,1,NoOp(Hangup then callback to cellphone)
exten => s,2,Hangup()
exten => h,1,NoOp(copy callback.call file to /opt/var/spool/asterisk/outgoing)
exten => h,2,System(/opt/etc/asterisk/callback_exe)
exten => h,3,Hangup()

   [custom-DISA-out]
exten => s,1,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Background(agent-pass)
exten => s,n,Authenticate(87235) ;this number is the password
exten => s,n,Background(pls-wait-connect-call)
exten => s,n,DISA(no-password|out-pstn)

4. In your modules.conf, make sure the following modules are loaded:
   load=app_authenticate.so
load=app_disa.so
load=app_system.so
load=pbx_spool.so
load=func_callerid.so
5. Restart Asterisk and test it.

I saw this in this morning’s paper. Picatoo is an online photo [printing] service brought to us by Mozcom in partnership with YKL and Air21.

Don’t rejoice yet. It isn’t anything like Flickr. In fact, it’s almost an inverse of what Flickr is doing. Let’s see…

• No tagging
• I’m assuming you can’t share photos either
• Limited storage (photos stored for 3 days only)

I’m certain that this will fail unless they start revising their strategy. This is not for the Friendster generation. It’s ironic that Mozcom, an ISP, hasn’t heard of the so-called “Web 2.0″. Are they still stuck in the 90’s?

According to their FAQ page, you can pay online.

We only accept online payments. We support all the major credit cards, Bancnet/Megalink ATM cards, G-Cash, Smart Money and UCPB my1Time through the PayEasy Online Payment System. We do not accept checks or Cash On Delivery (COD) as of the moment. PayEasy supports offline over-the-counter bank payments at EastWest Bank, Banco de Oro and Chinabank.

It’d work better if they include prepaid schemes. Aren’t they familiar with the success of prepaid internet cards? They work so damn well with dial-up. Can anyone remember Rebel?

I have to steal the idea from Kodak. Photos are still moments. And what do you do with those moments? You store and share them. If you can’t store and share them, you can’t call it an “online photo” service.

At least they still have a good sense of humor.

Q: I don’t have broadband Internet access. How can I send you my photos?
A: You can go to a neighborhood Internet cafe and upload the images from there.

Forgive me for thinking big.

A couple of days ago, we got a call from someone at the newly opened village store. The lady at the other end told me that the owner of the nearby distilled water store lives in the village. They’re now selling distilled water in the village store as well and they’ll deliver to our house any day of the week. I got their number and said thanks. That was great, we didn’t have to bother going to the market (like it’s so far!).

Two days later, she called again. This time asking if we still have water. I appreciate the store owner’s concern. It was so thoughtful of them to check if we were dying of dehydration or drinking tap water with high levels of chlorine. But I think it’s best that they leave us alone. We’ll friggin call them when we need water.

Man, this is invasion of privacy. I can give the clubhouse the benefit of the doubt on giving private information to third parties. It’s pretty easy to guess the homeowners’ numbers here. We all got phone lines almost at the same time. Might as well ask them.

They just can’t do that. Don’t they know that I’m building a meth lab at home?! The cops at the nearby gas station might find out!

• Mythbusters was wrong on Archimedes’ Death Ray
  Leave it to the MIT guys.
  Tags: science archimedes death ray sun mirrors mythbusters mit
• How to draw a car in MS Paint
  Reminds me of Shorty’s "paintings"
  Tags: paint photoshop art
• Get a First Life
  Everybody loves spoofs.
  Tags: second life spoofs
• VoomPC-2 Enclosure for Car Applications
  Just half the price of a 30GB Apple Video iPod. Oh wait, that’s just the enclosure. Still cool though. Put one in every car then you could have a mesh.
  Tags: cars embedded enclosure hardware
• I Park Like An Idiot
  Those stickers could come in really handy.
  Tags: driving parking idiots
• PHP for Microsoft AJAX Library
  Everybody knows that MS recently released the first version of the AJAX library. Here’s the server part …for PHP!
  Tags: ajax javascript php atlas microsoft

For the unaware (or don’t care), Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007 Launch is on February 3, 2007 at SM Mall of Asia. There’ll be fireworks [again]. More details at the website.

I’m still not sure if I’m going. There’s a 30% chance that I’ll be there. Eat the fence. You know naman.

If I get bored, maybe I might go there if somebody wants to go there with me. I don’t like being out or far from home on Saturdays anymore.

I won’t be upgrading. Maybe after a year or two. Vista is too bloated advanced for today’s hardware. It won’t run on my laptop will crawl on my laptop with all the apps that I always have open.

To be honest, I’m only using Windows for iTunes and games. To be more honest, I’m playing DOS/Win95-ish games on Linux now. But Windows is great if you’re not a developer.

I like the fact that text is neatly displayed in Windows. The UI is nicely tied into the OS too. I want to hear reviews from the real users (not reviewers, they’re not ordinary users and they usually don’t get the right perspective).

Lastly, I want to hear the batch of viruses that will be released. A clean code base is always good. But that means new bugs and different kinds. I wonder how different it is from the last time it was demonstrated to us. Oh, and Office looks interesting (but only if it works in L.

In my opinion, Windows, Mac OS and Linux are all on the same level. It’s just I don’t have enough resources to get new hardware. Aaaand, I’m waiting for the next genaration of laptop hardware to mature. So, who’s going? Who’s upgrading/switching? I’m pretty sure the Apple n00bs fanboys will say no and laugh.

P.S. - I didn’t want to mention Linux and avoided bashing, but I’d be lying if I deleted them.

P.P.S. - I know my friends who work at MS don’t read my blog but in case they bump into this entry, I’d be really happy if they provide an RSS feed for MS Events.

I can say that I’ve concluded my experiment on using a wiki as a note taking alternative.

I’ll only be using it for my J.P. Rizal and Algorithm Complexities classes. I can’t use it with my math class, specially with Integral Calculus. Encoding math formulas still take more time than writing it by hand. Even with Wiki Syntax+TeX, it takes a while to catch up.

It was more convenient though. I was so thrilled that it worked, it distracted me from listening to the lecture (looking at the formula syntax and all that).

It’s great for taking notes as long as it doesn’t involve a lot of math formulas. You see, math is evil and the force is too strong.

I was going to write about something but my connection is a bit slow. I’ll give a short update to keep this blog from getting stale content. Access to some sites have extremely high latency (~7.8 seconds). No packet loss, just high latency.

I wonder how it’d sound on VoIP. It’ll probably be like talking to someone on Mars. You yell, “Hey ya!” Then 20 seconds later somebody yells back, “Hey ya back!”*

By the way, I upgraded to Wordpress 2.1. A little yanking** here and there almost brought it back to the way it was. I’m loving this autosave thing. I seriously want to start on this new theme that I’ve been telling myself to work on. I just can’t find the time for it.

* To the über geeks: relax, I know it’s not 20 seconds.

** For those that have polluted minds, yanking means copying text on Vim.