Divide By Zero

Rants, Gadgetry & Boring Ole Philosophy

PBX In A Flash: Custom Dialplans & FreePBX

Written By: Tyler Style - Jul• 07•11

PIAF is a great collection of Asterisk tools, and I'm pretty happy with the fact that someone has collected them all for me and put them together in a decent package.  However if you're wanting to delve a little deeper and get into more complex Asterisk dial plan scripting, it can be a bit of a trial to work out exactly which config files you can safely modify without tanking your existing installation.  The documentation can be hard to find and/or follow, especially since material is often ambiguous as to the version of PIAF.  So I thought I'd share a little of what I've scraped together for those who want to start rolling up their sleeves and tackling their own scripting with Asterisk!

For the record I'm using PIAF 1.7.5.6.2 based on CentOS 5.6 (32bit), which is based on Asterisk 1.8, and my main self-study material is the incredibly well written Asterisk: The Definitive Guide (May 2011). Continue reading “PBX In A Flash: Custom Dialplans & FreePBX” »

Posted in Technology, Telecommunications , , , | No Comments »

Android App Review: Remote Desktop For Your Phone!

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 30•11

The other day I came across a must-have app for anyone who administers Android based devices like cells phones or tablets: SmartDog Studio’s Remote Web Desktop.  This app has some nice polish and great features, the most prominent of course being the ability use your browser to remotely control the phone’s interface.  You need to root the phone to use the app, but that’s a pretty minor requirement.  Overall I’m very impressed with how well this app works. Continue reading “Android App Review: Remote Desktop For Your Phone!” »

Posted in Android, Mobile App, Mobile Phone, Software, Technology, Telecommunications | No Comments »

PBX In A Flash: Send Email Using Gmail / Google Apps

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 26•11

Recently I’ve been experimenting with PBX in a Flash, a CentOS based distro meant to make setting up Asterisk quick and easy. It comes with sendmail, which is fine if you don’t already have an email system set up. However, most of my clients Google Apps for Business for email and so I wanted to integrate PIAF with existing Google Apps. I found a decent little tutorial aimed at Gmail users that helped me with set up sendmail as a SMTP relay to Google Apps It was missing a few bits and bobs and the English isn’t too good so I thought I’d write my own guide not only to remind me later but hopefully to provide a little clarity for others. Continue reading “PBX In A Flash: Send Email Using Gmail / Google Apps” »

Posted in Technology, Telecommunications , , , , | 13 Comments »

Android Security Apps Review: Lookout, SeekDroid, Cerberus, Prey & Theft Aware

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 19•11

Today’s free app from Amazon.com’s AppStore is SeekDroid, so I though I’d give it a try.  I’m a big fan of security apps given how incredibly integral smartphones are becoming in our lives.  Losing your smartphone these days can be absolutely crippling for those of us who enjoy a high tech information rich lifestyle!  So far I’ve tried out Lookout and Cerberus as well as SeekDroid, and I’m going to go over how well each app does in offering minimum necessary security features and overall value. Continue reading “Android Security Apps Review: Lookout, SeekDroid, Cerberus, Prey & Theft Aware” »

Posted in Android, Mobile App, Mobile Phone, Software, Technology , , | 44 Comments »

How To Get Amazon’s Free Android Apps From Outside The US

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 19•11

The Amazon.com AppStore is great – the daily free apps to promote the store are a good marketing touch.  However, Amazon’s AppStore has a serious drawback: you can’t use the native Android app to install apps directly if you’re not physically located within the United States.  If you try, you get the message “The Amazon Appstore for Android is not yet available in your region.”  Well, my phone is a US phone, with a global plan from Verizon.  Just because I am using my phone in Canada or Mexico doesn’t mean that I’m not a US customer!  This is a serious oversight by Amazon.  Fortunately, I have a work around that will work for anyone who has a US Amazon.com account regardless of what country you’re in!

Continue reading “How To Get Amazon’s Free Android Apps From Outside The US” »

Posted in Android, Mobile App, Software, Technology , , , | 13 Comments »

Google Music Beta Impressions (vs Subsonic)

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 16•11

Today I joined the Google Music beta.  I’m a big fan of most Google products, and get beta invites to most of Google’s new offerings.  Generally most of them are pretty slick, and offer easy to use features that are technically difficult for the average joe to set up (like Google Voice’s personal virtual phone PBX) or are commercially expensive (like the Android Google Navigation app instead of a dedicated GPS or the browser-based Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office).  Unfortunately, Google Music doesn’t have anything new to offer feature wise and isn’t really any less expensive than alternatives.  I’ve been using Subsonic music streamer myself, and find it to have much better features, easier to use and it covers many more phone and operating system platforms. Continue reading “Google Music Beta Impressions (vs Subsonic)” »

Posted in Android, Mobile App, Software, Technology , | 4 Comments »

Swype & SwiftKeyX Android Virtual Keyboards Review

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 14•11

Personally I prefer a physical keyboard, as I have big stubby fingers, and virtual keyboards generally require a fairly deft touch even if you have a large screen.  Another big con for me is that virtual keyboards take up a lot of screen space as well, blocking my view of the app I’m trying to use it with.  No, for precision and visibility a physical keyboard can’t be beat – especially if you’re using a terminal emulator app like ConnectBot.

However, for tasks where precision & accuracy are not important like texting and casual email, you can get a real speed boost from predictive typing and a typo or word screwed up here or there doesn’t usually much impact readability.  So to get a speed boost for those sorts of things, I have been trying out both the Swype and SwiftKeyX betas as replacements for the stock Android on-screen keyboard. Continue reading “Swype & SwiftKeyX Android Virtual Keyboards Review” »

Posted in Android, Mobile App, Software, Technology | No Comments »

Why You Can’t Just Tell Your Computer What You Want It To Do

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 14•11

I was taking my morning constitutional through reddit today when I clicked through to the blog post “We need a programming language for the rest of us“.  It’s basically a short rant about programming being hard and it not being fair to the average Joe who can’t speak computerese and dammit why ain’t the gubmint doin’ sumpin’ ’bout it???  I left a long comment in reply, and thought it would make a good blog post of my one.  So without further ado, here is why you can’t just tell your computer what you want it to do in plain old English. Continue reading “Why You Can’t Just Tell Your Computer What You Want It To Do” »

Posted in Programming | 2 Comments »

Cellphone Use Is NOT Giving You Cancer

Written By: Tyler Style - Jun• 01•11

There has been some sensationalism in the news and blogs the last few days around a recent WHO report from their International Agency for Research on Cancer.  Eeek, cancer!  Cell phones!  Possible carcinogen!

Let’s not get in a panic here.  The report just summarizes research over the last decade or so on the effects of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields such as those used by cell phones – this is not new research, just a field survey of the existing stuff. Continue reading “Cellphone Use Is NOT Giving You Cancer” »

Posted in Mobile Phone, Technology | No Comments »

Facebook Messages Offering “Unprecedented”? Um, No…

Written By: Tyler Style - Mar• 22•11

Here’s a weird one from the Facebook blog about their new “Messages” service that has been rolling out over the last few weeks.  The fundamental idea is interesting, in that all your texts, emails, instant messages or “Messages” are consolidated into one collected stream.  Of course, you have to use a facebook.com email address and you and your friends need to have your cell phone numbers registered on Facebook (which will be made available to Facebook applications too).

There’s a few problems with that, methinks.  Your whole online life could just go poof if Facebook decides to ban you or accidentally deletes your data.  Plus there’s the whole security issue, with Facebook less than stellar track record at keeping your information private.  And from what I can see this messaging only will be accessible through Facebook.  You wouldn’t have ownership of your own personal communications with friends and businesses, like you do by syncing an email account with Outlook or Thunderbird. Continue reading “Facebook Messages Offering “Unprecedented”? Um, No…” »

Posted in Social Networking, Technology , | No Comments »
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