iCall -- Seemless transfer from mobile to VOIP calls

So I picked up on this article that Slashdot was running that had a link to a proof of concept video from a few Apple developers working on the iCall project. Needless to say I'm a bit interested because I've always wondered why it has been such a problem for mobile providers, such as Verizon or Sprint, to incorporate such technologies into their phones. I mean, for the majority of us, we use our phones in our homes for a significant portion of the time, or for those who don't have a home phone, mobile phones have become a home phone replacement. But when we use the phones in our homes or at our work places, we run the risk of poor reception due to all the layers of physical infrastructure that stand between us and the closest cellular tower. From my own experiences, mobile calls into my office which is in the heart of Downtown Chicago, are absolutely the WORST and I'm using a Blackberry 8830 on Verizon, so I guess the network got stopped at security downstairs! Needless to say if I had an option to transfer the call that came through my mobile from mobile to wireless, that would be infinitely better in terms of QoS and in terms of cost savings.

So check this out, and see for yourself. If ever there was a real reason for me to switch my mobile carriers, this may very well be it!

How to protect yourself online without turning your life upside down!

As many have already made the move, one of the best things that you can do for yourself online these days is to get smart about how you get online. You've all seen the NetZero ads that have the CEO say something to the effect of "... they all get you to the same internet ...", while this is absolutely true, getting to the internet from a connection standpoint and viewing the internet are two drastically different things.

One of the best things that I've picked up in my travels is the little bit of advice on how you can protect yourself online. First off, anyone who tells you firewalls, blah, anti-virus, blah, pop-up blockers, blah--IF YOU HATE VISTA, then you would NEVER buy into all of this. Why? Because it add LAYERS upon LAYERS that you have to traverse to get online. What does this mean, slower connection, more things that can break, more things to keep updated and maintain, long story short, a big nightmare.

So a few tips to keep you safe and at a reasonable level of sanity, all for the cost of nothing but your eyeballs to keep reading!

First things first, the at the gateway, get yourself a decent router. Nothing fancy, for the more advance go build one, that's right, get a box, get to google, and google away to figure out how to build yourself the biggest baddest router you can possible get with all the bells and whistles that it itself doesn't even know its online when its online! For the rest of us, get real, and just spend between $100-$200 and buy a Netgear, Linksys, or Dlink router and be done with it. It has all the firewall protection you need, NAT, blah blah blah, PERIOD.

Second, get yourself a decent anti-virus software, one that doesn't infest your system with tons of crap! McAfee was a great piece of software, until it became the demon in your system, infesting it in every nook and cranny! Get rid of that and go with something simple and free, like AVG! I've even saved you the clicks, just CLICK HERE to get the software!

Last but not least, do yourself a favor and get off the soap box of which browser is better. They are both great, yes I am talking about IE7 and Firefox, but you have to be willing to say openly that they are great in their own way. Just think about it, if you have two children, they are not the same--even identical twins are not the same, so stop comparing browsers in the same way! Isn't it alright to say that a browser is just a browser and what it's good in, the other doesn't have to be as well? Certainly! So go ahead and use IE7, use it to your hearts content, but here's the rule--ONLY use IE7 for the VERY IMPORTANT things, things that DO NOT involve checking your email, but things such as banking, or checking your stocks, or online shopping, things that require credit card information, etc. But here's the catch--YOU CAN ONLY USE IT FOR THAT ONE PURPOSE! It will become your secure browser that will work with almost everything, and you don't infest it with random websites, emails, bogus ActiveX components, blah blah blah--and guys, stop looking at porn through IE7, you cause more damage than good!

For the rest of your browsing entertainment, use something rock stable like FireFox.



you might as yourself why? Because every day web-browsing can be dangerous! It's a brave new world out there and you have to be a conscious shopper. That means you can't keep using that one browser until it DIES! Get smart, get firefox, and be smart about which browser you use for which activity and stick to it and be consistent!

Deans List

As of Spring 2008, I made the Deans List at Lewis University! Yahoo! Only 8 weeks left to go!

To Wii or Not to Wii--That is the Question!

So my cousin and my Aunt and Uncle came out to visit. For the most part, this went off well, but one thing that they brought with them that I was not expecting was the Nintendo Wii. Now we had just gotten the PS3, primarily for the BluRay capabilities--which by the way are fantastic! So in all actually I wasn't prepared to spend close to $500 on another gaming system and all the things that comes with it.

After we hooked up his Wii, the first game that we played was Boxing. Now I haven't played Wii much before this, once at Marvel's place after he got the Wii for Alexis, but I have to admit, I had a blast! For 2 days, we played the Wii and aside from some technical problems, we had a grand old time.

Needless to say, you can see where this is going--when they left for Jersey on Saturday, I immediately went online and started to scout out businesses to see who has the Wii. Wouldn't you know it, after almost a year of being out on the market, the demand is still very high for it, and no stores had Wii's in stock. But I did find an interesting tidbit:

• Circuit City will get their Wii's on Saturday to go on sale Sunday
• Best Buy will get their Wii's on Tuesday to go on sale Wednesday

So with it being Saturday, I checked with the local Circuit City, and wouldn't you know it, they had just gotten a shipment in that day, to go on sale Sunday. So we talked about it, and decided to go ahead and get one. Sunday came around and we got up early to be one of the first in the store. Luck played it's part and we were the first ones in the line and got our hands on the Wii. As far as other stuff, be prepared to get the following:

1. Wii Console
2. Wii Play
3. Nyko Charge Station
4. SD Card
5. Wii Nunchuck
   

In addition to this, we got the Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party. Now there are other things out there that you might be thinking about getting, namely the HD cables. After getting the Wii setup, I found that the highest resolution that the Wii will go up to is 480P with HD cables. This compared to the 1080P with an HDMI cable that the PS3 can do, save your money! The regular stereo cables (Yellow for Video, Red and White for Left and Right Audio) does fine given the graphics of the console. If you are looking for better graphics, put your money into a PS3 or Xbox 360.

The Wii Play is necessary because you need to get at least 2 controllers, unless you are going to be playing solo, and let's face it, that's no fun at all! You could by another controller separately; however, if you pay $10 you get 8 more games to play on the Wii Play disk, so it's that worth it?

The SD card is something that you may nor may not have to buy. We have a Nikon D40 so we have a few 1GB SD cards laying around that we use as extra cards when we go on vacation, so LUCKY, I just took one of those cards to put into the Wii instead of spending the extra to get another SD card. Look around the house, you may find you are in a similar situation.

While both the Wii Play and the Wii Console come with 2 AA batteries for the controller, please please please, do the right thing and don't be someone who just uses AA disposable batteries and fill up our landfills with more waste that doesn't biodegrade and is harmful if it gets into the underground systems. The Charge Station is great, as it comes with 2 rechargeable batteries, nice rubber battery covers, and a 2 controller dock.

You do have to purchase another Nunchuck as the Wii Console only comes with one controller and one nunchuck, but at $20 this isn't that big of a challenge.

All in all, this was a painless experience, granted it could have gone differently, and perhaps I wouldn't be with Wii today! My favorite game at the minute is probably Wii Tennis, but the wife is loving the DDR be it there is a bigger learning curve for that.

Long Time Coming - Oliver James

Was watching the movie: What A Girl Wants--yeah, I know it's a chick flick, but for those who know me, those are my secret movies that I love to watch! At any rate, this song is pretty good:

Device Manager in Ubuntu

For those familiar with Windows, you are probably more than use to use the following when you want to find out what hardware is attached to your machine:

1. Right Click on My Computer
2. Go to Properties
3. Click on Device Manager

and vola, your hardware comes up for you. So it took me awhile to figure this out, and given how simple this really is I was almost dumb struck, but you can run:

sudo lshw

and after a second or two, you will get a pretty detailed output of your devices and basic configuration. Very handy for those who like me, are trying to find out the next little fix to their rig but can't remember what the heck they put into the AGP or PCI slots.

Installing Cisco VPN Client 4.8 on Ubuntu 8.04

The first that you will want to do is to get the Cisco VPN client software from your IT department. I tried to get this directly from Cisco's website, only to find after going through their completely too long registration process, that the software wasn't made available to me because I wasn't a special registration type (I'm figuring you have to register with some sort of Cisco specific ID or something particular to the products that you have purchased from Cisco). At any rate, I got mine from my IT department.

Once you have it, download it to your /home/user directory. Replace user with the user that you are currently logged into as.

Most likely this is in a .tar.gz format, so you'll need to run the following from a Terminal:

tar zxvf vpnclient-linux-x86_64-4.8.01.0640-k9.tar.gz

this will unzip the file into /home/user/vpnclient directory.

Next you'll need to know that you have the linux header file for the current version that you are running. You'll want to run the following to show the current version:

uname -r

When I ran this on my system, I got:

2.6.24-18-generic

To make sure that you have the right version, you'll want to run the following:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.24-18-generic

For me, my update manager has downloaded this before, so I didn't have anything to download. After this is run, you'll want to make sure you are in the /home/user/vpnclient directory and run the following:

sudo make

This will make the installer for the vpnclient. Because you need to run a patch, make sure you've run:

sudo apt-get install patch

Now to the fun stuff, download the patch from here and save it to your /home/user/vpnclient directory. Run the following from the vpnclient directory:

patch < ./vpnclient-linux-2.6.24-final.diff

and you should see the following:

patching file GenDefs.h
patching file interceptor.c

Once that is done, run the following:

sudo ./vpn_install

You should see the following questions asked:

Directory where binaries will be installed [/usr/local/bin]

Automatically start the VPN service at boot time [yes]

In order to build the VPN kernel module, you must have the
kernel headers for the version of the kernel you are running.


Directory containing linux kernel source code [/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/build]

* Binaries will be installed in "/usr/local/bin".
* Modules will be installed in "/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/CiscoVPN".
* The VPN service will be started AUTOMATICALLY at boot time.
* Kernel source from "/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/build" will be used to build the module.

Is the above correct [y]

Answer yes to all of them. All things considering you should see that the install process goes through. The last things that you should see when the installer finishes up is:

Setting permissions.
/opt/cisco-vpnclient/bin/cvpnd (setuid root)
/opt/cisco-vpnclient (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles (group bin readable)
/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Certificates (group bin readable)
* You may wish to change these permissions to restrict access to root.
* You must run "/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start" before using the client.
* This script will be run AUTOMATICALLY every time you reboot your computer.

Then you'll just need to move your *.pcf files into the profiles directory and away you go! This can be done by a simple:

cp *.pcf /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles

Then you'll want to start the software, you can do this by running the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start

Within your profile names, make sure that you don't have any spaces in them. To start the software, you'll want to run:

sudo vpnclient connect NameOfConnection

You'll replace NameOfConnection with the name of the connection file without the .pcf extension.

What paint to use for first time painters?

So the wife and I embarked on one of those time tested traditions--that is to create a personalized space within our home by adding a bit of color to it. What's odd is that we've lived here for a few years now, so it may be a bit odd to people that we have waited up until now to paint.

It does not come as a surprise to anyone that I'm not the most handy kind of person. True, I can put together a kick a** computer, but when it comes to matters of the handy, that I am not. But unlike the typical male stereo-type, I am freely admitting this to all. When we had our garage door put in, I called in the professionals. When we had our storm door put in, same, more professionals, so wouldn't it surprise you to know that when it came down to painting, my first inclination was to hire in those trusty professionals again, but the wife and friend convinced me otherwise.

The situation then came to which paints to use. This seems to be an age old question, similar I'd say to the question of stick shift verses manual. There are SO many different kinds of paints, and producers of paint, that the process took a longer time than I had expected. We had to choose between Behr, Sherman Williams, Benjamin Moore, Glidden and others, and I have to admit, that was probably more thought than I had expected.

In the end, we choose Benjamin Moore for a new line of paint that they had--Aura. Now the tag line for this paint is: Quite Simply the finest paint... and I have to admit, the name lives up to the tag line for once.

First off, the paint is going to be more expensive. But the trade off is two fold: First you don't seem to have to prime the surface (give it a good wash to remove any dust and such), and Two you don't have to put more than 2 coats of paint on, Period.

Having said that, the colors in the palette were also very interesting. All of them were in harmony, meaning they could be used with each other without fear of clashing. This isn't to say that you are limited, as the good folks at Benjamin Moore can mix whatever color you want in the Aura formula.

For our house, we choose the Eggshell finish, and we used Aura in all our rooms. So far we have only done part of the living room and the kitchen, but as you can see, the results are AWESOME!

Also just to give credit were credit is due, not all Benjamin Moore stores are alike. Living in the Chicago suburb area, we are close to two stores. The first:

MEADE BALTZ PAINT 01
928 N PLAINFIELD ROAD
JOLIET, IL 60435
(815) 726-5400

Was terrific. We went in on a Saturday, and got our paint, and the guys there were both knowledgeable as well as honest. They didn't try to sell me a bunch of stuff, such as brushes, drop cloths, and most importantly primer. The sales man was a former painter by trade, so his advice was invaluable, and the customer service was terrific.

But that same weekend, we needed another gallon of paint, and Meade Baltz was not open on Sunday, so we headed up to the Benjamin Moore store in Naperville:

JC LICHT (F) NAPERVILLE 06
419 S WASHINGTON STREET
NAPERVILLE, IL 60540
(630) 961-1771

What was great was the fact that they were open on Sunday, the downside is that the customer service was POOR! This was very surprising after our previous experiences with Meade Baltz. We walked in and discussed with the gentleman what we needed, we needed another gallon of paint, here was the color, and we even gave him the information from the lid of the previous gallon as we wanted a perfect color match. Wouldn't you know that the first thing he said was that we probably need another as we have to put 3-4 coats on and the fact that we didn't put primer on would result in poor quality. Now I'm thinking, this guy works for BM, and is trying to tell me that Aura needs 3-4 coats, when the advertisement saids no more than 2 coats--EVER, and is self-priming?

At any rate, we paid the man, got home and after the 2nd coat, the walls looked AMAZING! Now I don't consider myself to be someone who is handy, we know this, but the job looked professional and the walls were even coated with no evidence of brush strokes or rollers. The paint didn't drip, and went on very evenly. Head to my gallery (link on the right side) to view pictures from the paint job.

All in all, I'd recommend Aura for anyone who is considering to touch up their room or add a bit of color, like my wife and I went out to do.