Trigger Happy

Google Voice recently added a feature that really appeals to me. There are times where I work in buildings where I have no service on my cell phone. Google Voice has helped this situation by allowing me to forward my Google Voice number to wherever I am. The problem is, not everyone has my Google Voice number, and even if they did, they’d still see my cell number whenever I call them. If someone calls my cell phone and leaves a message when its out of service, I don’t get the message until I’m on the road, which is usually too late.

The new feature Google Voice has added is allowing me to using Google Voice for voicemail on my cellphone. It doesn’t work with all cell providers but they hit the major ones including US Cellular (who I use) which usually is left by the wayside. Not only does it consolidate voicemail boxes, it also allows me to forward my cell calls to my Google Voice number which then dials any number I set up. So now I can even receive those calls that I would normally miss and I don’t really need to hand out my Google Voice number.

If you’re tired of me raving about Google Voice and just want to try it, I have three invites to hand out. Leave a comment or dm me on twitter with your email address and I’ll hook you up! (If you leave a comment, I’ll already have your email so you don’t need to include it in your comment)

Also, sorry for the lack of posts lately. We’ve been very busy the past few months. I’ll be posting some gaming stuff soon (hopefully).

XBL Accept is a command line program that runs on most Linux distros. It might run anywhere you can run python but I’m not much of a python programmer so I can’t be sure. Basically, all this tiny app does is connect to Xbox Live and it accepts any pending friend requests. This is perfect for groups who want to be able to meet up but don’t want to add everyone to their personal list. The usual problem with group gamertags is that someone has to keep an eye on it to accept friend requests. Those days are over! Just run this from a startup script on a Linux server and forget about it. We’re using it over at Co-Optimus for a few gamertags.

XBL Accept is a modification of XBL Status by Chris Hollec. All credit should be directed his way for now. I honestly did not do much to his program in order to get this up and running. If you’d like to contribute to either project, let me know!

Hit the link below, check out the README for prerequisites and instructions on how to run it. If you have any questions, reply to this post for now. Maybe I’ll set up a page in the future.

xblaccept-0.0.1

I can’t resist. I have to post this…

(click to make it big)

Tech Support Cheat Sheet – [xkcd]

I recently bought a refurbished Linksys CM100 cable modem for $20 since the cable modem Time Warner Cable provided has been a pain in the ass (we had a Toshiba PCX2600). Being a huge fan of Linksys hardware, I couldn’t resist such a great sale. The only problem was I knew activating it was going to include spending an hour or more between fighting an automated phone system, waiting on hold, convincing a level 1 support person that it IS possible to put a new device on the network, more holding, then getting a higher up tech person to get their act together. Luckily, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting.

First step was to get to an actual human. Time Warner Cable must have updated their phone system recently because I’ve never dealt with a voice recognition system that actually works as well as Goog411. I wasn’t able to get to a human the first try since it decided I was just having connection problems and told me to restart the modem and watch the flashing lights (impressive, but not what I wanted). I couldn’t figure out how to get out of that process so I hung up and called again. As soon as I gave it my phone number again, it said “I’ve noticed you recently called for tech support. Is this call for the same problem?” Answering “Yes” connected me directly to a level 1 tech. Shocking! I’m definitely keeping that trick in mind.

The level 1 tech agreed to set me up, no questions asked (fully expected them to ask why I got my own since they don’t charge rent). He asked for the MAC address which he looked up and found it wasn’t on the system. He opened a ticket for me and forwarded me to a higher level tech. I sat on hold while he called the 2nd tech and was quickly connected. I verified the MAC again with the 2nd tech, he clicked away for a minute then asked me to restart my router and BAM! Internet was back up and faster than ever.

Maybe TWC is getting their act together… Maybe I just got lucky. Either way I applaud their new phone system since I’m sure it helps keep the lines open for more obscure requests like my own. I also applaud their techs because they weren’t reading a script. They knew their shit. Well done TWC!

That said, they had better not try to re-introduce those tiered billing plans again. If they do, they might just wind up next to Apple on my Shit List

Since my wife has joined the scene, we’ve decided to rename our blog and give it a bit more focus. She came up with the name “Trigger Happy” which we both liked but unfortunately, squaters are holding triggerhappy.com for a $70,000 ransom. Considering we’d have to take out a second mortgage (and then some) to snatch that domain, we decided to go with TriggerHappy.me for practically free in comparison.

So here we are at TriggerHappy.me!

Old links and feeds will still work so nothing needs to be done on your end unless you don’t like seeing the old domain. Happy Fragging!

All the Google Voice app nonsense in the past few weeks has really turned me off of Apple. I had started to warm up to them considering they have had some great products recently and their OS is built with Unix at its core. While I would never purchase an Apple product, I welcomed their competition to drive innovative products. I could rant on about the Google Voice fiasco but I feel like Mr. Arrington does a pretty good job of summing it up while explaining why he quit the iPhone.

Anyway, while the Google Voice thing pissed me off, I’m outraged that Apple is now censoring dictionaries. There are so many things wrong with that. So without further ado, I’d like to simultaneously introduce a new feature on my blog as well as…

Welcome Apple to my Shit List.

What’s that, Apple? Is that word offensive or inappropriate? Feel free to censor the sh*# out of it.

I’ve been meaning to make a few other lists as well so stay tuned, there will be more (like my anticipated games, etc).

Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary – [Engadget]

I’ve tried alternate DNS services in the past but I’ve never had much luck with them. They never had anything substantial to offer other than being “better” than your ISP which was a marginal improvement at best. Recently I had an issue with www.co-optimus.com not resolving properly and RoadRunner kept sending me to their search page. I’ve had it happen on other sites too but it was never a major issue. Finally, I asked if anyone else was having that problem and nobody did, but Nick (bapenguin) suggested I should try Open DNS. Reluctantly, I did. And I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did it fix my DNS problems, it also introduced me to several DNS features I’ve never seen offered before.

DNS Resolution: As the primary service Open DNS offers, they do a fantastic job. I’ve yet to run into the issues I had with RoadRunner’s DNS servers. The Open DNS servers are quick (<15ms), and have yet to fail on me.

Dynamic IP service: I’ve been using DynDns.org for longer than I can remember so it took a leap of faith for me to switch my router from using DynDns.org to Open DNS’s DNS-O-Matic. To my surprise (again) DNS-O-Matic is capable of updating all kinds of third party services with your IP. Since my router is always on, I have yet to change IPs since we moved so I can’t really vouch for its reliability, but it always responds right away when my router reboots and says no update needed. The fact that it updates so many other services is a huge bonus and I plan on taking a good look at the list to see what else I’ve been missing.

Domain and Category Content Filtering: With Open DNS, you can set up content filtering in three ways. The first is a level system where “none” disables filtering, “minimal” prevents you from visiting known phishing sites, “low” and “moderate” block adult/porn and illegal activity sites, and “high” blocks time wasting sites (social networking, music, videos, etc). You can also use the “custom” level to pick and choose from 52 categories. If there are specific domains you want to blacklist or whitelist, you can do that too. Using this method, I’ve blocked a few ad networks that I don’t care for. The only problem I’ve had with this is I can’t get Last.fm to work while blocking doubleclick.net. I’m sure that would be an issue with any ad blocking method so I can’t blame Open DNS for that. However, it would be nice to set exclusions so doubleclick.net would not be blocked while visiting Last.fm. From a DNS server standpoint, that would be difficult.

Shortcuts: I personally don’t see much of a point in using shortcuts but I could see how they might be handy. Basically, I can set up a shortcut to go to my blog by typing “blog” in the address bar and hitting enter. You can also set up advanced shortcuts where you could type “wikipedia internet” and it would search wikipedia for “internet.” That, I could see being more useful.

Stats: Open DNS keeps track of all your requests, if you desire, so you can see graphs of requests on your network. You can see a list of all the domains you’ve requested and how many times you’ve requested them. This could be a very handy feature for some people but personally, its not too exciting.

Ease of Use: The initial setup can be daunting if you’re not a network guru. This is not something a novice should set up on their own because it could really mess up your network. However, they do have pretty good guides for people who take the time to understand what they’re doing. Once everything is set up, nobody needs to know its even there. It works just like before, just safer, and more reliable. If you need a hand, feel free to ask me!

There are a few other features to play with but these are the features that stand out and can be pretty useful. Overall, Open DNS provides safe, secure, and dependable browsing. I hope they stick around because I really don’t want to switch back to RoadRunner’s crappy DNS servers.

Poor Steve Ballmer. You can always count on him to stick his foot in his mouth. Whether its claiming a new trend will never be big (ie. iPhone), or accidentally revealing something that M$ wasn’t ready to announce, or just plain being wrong, he’s always good for a laugh. Recently, he seemed a bit confused as to why Google is releasing a second client OS. Last I checked, M$ has had two current client operating systems for quite some time (PC, mobile). Why that’s so perplexing to him, I have no clue. Google made their directions of the two operating systems pretty clear (Android = mobile, Chrome OS = netbook/laptop/PC) which is pretty much M$’s model as well, minus all the different releases (Home, Pro, Media Center etc). All I know is I’m looking forward to that new xbox coming in 2010 (joke).

How We Know Chrome OS Will Be A Hit: Steve Ballmer Doesn’t Think So – [TechCrunch]

I never thought I’d see the day. Google Apps is finally out of beta. But just in case removing the beta tag lessens its “cool” factor, you can re-enable the beta tag in the logo from the settings menu in Gmail.

Google may have a different view of “beta” software but I think its a wise route to go. Especially in Google’s case where they’re providing such feature rich online applications for free. Besides the obvious liability issues, they also gain some breathing room when it comes to implementing new features. If something doesn’t work the first day they put it out, they can avoid a lot of flack by saying its in beta. While that might seem like a cop-out, it allows them to test with a huge volume right off the bat to eliminate scaling and compatibility issues. Its not always ideal for the end users but that’s something you just have to weigh against its obvious benefits as well as against its competitors. Personally, I haven’t had any major issues with any of the Google Apps and they are extremely handy.

The only reason I regret to see Google Apps leave beta is that it may slow the rate that they implement new features. The Labs features will remain but they certainly won’t be moving features into the mainstream as fast as they have in the past. Of course that’s just my speculation, but taking the beta tag off usually implies they’ll keep the products stable and will try their hardest to avoid introducing new bugs. That means they’ll have a more careful and slower development cycle.

Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really) – [Official Google Blog]

Onion routing is some seriously cool secure networking. This is way beyond encrypted tunnels. Basically you have a series of “onion routers” which each have their own public/private keys. When you send a message to the first router, it randomly picks a series of the other routers and encrypts the message with each of those routers’ public keys. Then it sends the message to the last router who’s key was used to encrypt it. That router decrypts it and sends the message to the next router who’s key was used to encrypt the message. So you have multiple layers of encryption, each router peels a layer from the “onion” and sends it to the next router creating a completely random path. When it reaches its destination, the response is put in the included “reply onion” and sent back a different path. Therefore not even the destination knows the origin!

In order to compromise this, one must either have control of ALL the onion routers, or break the multiple layers of encryption. Sounds pretty solid to me.

I just have to note one thing though, the Wired article is inaccurate since its saying they’re poking holes in Iran’s firewall. Really its not poking holes. Poking holes implies you’ve hacked the firewall and opened up access to something that was previously blocked. This tech is sending encrypted packets through protocols and ports that are apparently still open. Whoever controls the firewall could easily block known onion routers or block the protocols/ports they’re using, making it a much more difficult first hop. They also do not mention if this traffic is masked as simple web traffic or what. Onion routing is simply a means to disguise the origin, destination, path, and messages, not for bypassing firewalls. However, if the firewalls block Twitter.com, for example, the firewall would not know to block these onion messages going to a random onion router who’s final destination is Twitter.com. Still, that’s not “poking holes” in anyone’s firewall. That’s just being sneaky.

Must reads:
Activists Use U.S. Tech to Poke Holes in Iran Firewall – [Wired]
Onion Routing – [Wikipedia]