Telemarketers suck...

Despite complaints to the contrary, the federal government *can* do things right. Or at least give it the ol' college try.

I speak of the National Do Not Call Registry. Ever since they implemented the registry, my telemarketer call volume *has* gone down. Like cockroaches, though, teleslime somehow manages to squirm back into the house.

Two big loopholes allow them to do so -- if they are a charity or a political figure, they can freely ignore the list. Same with businesses you already have a relationship with, like your phone company or your bank.

Of course, many banks, phone companies, credit card companies, etc., are perfectly willing to whore out your phone number to the highest bidder so they can call you as a "preferred partner" and get around the no call list.

I've found a way around it though... and had some geeky fun in the process! I grabbed an old Pentium III PC that I had laying around, downloaded a copy of TrixBox (formerly known as Asterisk@Home), and picked up a phone line card made by a company called Digium, and lo and behold, I set up my own PBX switch! Just like the office! Woo hoo!

...ahem...sorry. Got a little excited there. What is TrixBox, you might ask? It's a live-cd installation of the Linux-based Asterisk open source PBX switch.

What does all that get me? Well, for starters, a really nice voicemail server. See, where I live, my local phone company doesn't offer voice messaging (c'mon Qwest, I'm not exactly in the boonies y'know?), and I *hate* those stinking $20 digital message recorders. They sound like the caller's talking out of a toilet. The darn thing will even do VoIP if you want to try your hand at Internet-based telephony.

Back to my original topic, though... I also get a really nice blacklist filter as well. Tired of a particular telemarketer bugging you? Just pick up the phone, dial a special code followed by the teleslime's phone number as listed on the caller ID, and voila! They get a recording instead of the call ringing through to interrupt your dinner.

You can do a number of things with a blacklisted call, like drop it to a voicemail box, or you can simply send them to a message that tells them they aren't welcome, or you can even make them listen to evil screeching monkeys if you prefer... (muwhahaha...)

You can handle calls without any caller ID the same way, although it's probably better to just route those to a voicemail box in case it's a legit call.

I have under $200 invested in the add-on card to hook it to the phone line - the software's free and the PC is an old one that had been replaced in my last upgrade.

Mind you, this is not a project for the weak-hearted luddite, but if you're comfortable tinkering with PCs this one may be worth a look.

You can find a really good howto for TrixBox out on Nerd Vittles.

Sigh... how time flies...

Geez - almost 6 months since I last posted. How time flies.

I can't figure out why it's so difficult for me to update my blog... life for me tends to move so fast that I don't think about it on a daily basis. I guess that's why I'd never be any good at writing a diary like my grandfather did for so many years.

It amazes me how kids grow so quickly. My son is still interested in soccer (football to everyone outside the USA), but now he's showing interest in drawing, particularly manga-style. I think it's great he's beginning to develop interests of his own, and I look forward to seeing some of his work, particularly since I'm developing an interest in manga and anime myself.

Of course, my daughter is beginning to develop her own interests as well -- first with ballet, and now she is expressing a desire to learn karate.

As for me, I continue to get by. Work continues to be a challenge, given our current staffing shortage. I look forward to the day when we get a sufficiently large budget to cover enough people to get the job done. Maybe then I can focus on a few projects that have been on the back burner for a while. I'm thankful to my peers and co-workers, though -- they've been incredibly supportive and understanding of our shortcomings of late.

I got word several weeks ago that my boss was moving on to greener pastures, accepting a senior management position in the big city up the road. He's taken a lot of undeserved heat from a number of individuals over the years despite all the good work he's done for the community, yet he always pressed on, with the best interests of our little city at heart. He's always been supportive of our staff and the work we do, though, always going to bat for us when necessary. I will miss his presence in the office, as he is undoubtedly the best supervisor I've ever had. He goes to a much bigger city with its own challenges and rewards, and I wish him the best at his new job.

One word of advice, Greg - it comes in the form of a latin phrase (well, at least pseudo-latin) that goes around the Internet, and it's a favorite of mine. The phrase is illegitimi non carborundum -- losely translated, it means "don't let the bastards grind you down". Kind of appropriate, under the circumstances.

Hail to the king, baby! Duke Nukem Forever "in full production"

Joystiq is reporting that everyone's favorite vaporware shooter, Duke Nukem Forver, is "in full production".

Anyone checked the weather report from Hell recently?

The followup to the 1996 shooter hit Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forver is probably one of longest-awaited sequels in gaming history.

Publisher 3D Realms, who has historically stated Forever will be released "when its done", has hinted that it is, in fact, nearly there.

Duke Nukem 3D has probably been one of my all-time favorite FPS games - I still dust it off occasionally. Let's just hope that Forever will live up to ten years of hype...

AT&T CEO vows to put end to free and open Internet

AT&T (formerly SBC) CEO Ed Whitacre has thrown down the gauntlet to Internet content providers, stating they "shouldn't get on [the network] and expect a free ride."

His plan? Make content providers pay him for "guaranteed" access to his customers. In a story at The Financial Times' web site, he lays out a plan to force content providers such as Google to pay AT&T a fee for the privilege of allowing AT&T's customers to access their site.

Ok - let me get this straight. Companies like Google pay thousands of dollars monthly for large pipes to the Internet backbone. AT&T's customers pay a reasonable monthly fee for access to the same backbone, with the intent of accessing sites like Google. Yet ol' Ed here thinks that he should get a cut from Google as well for bandwidth *his* customers have already paid him for!

I find that downright insulting. Thank God I'm not one of his customers - paying to get on the Internet only to find out that my eyeballs have been sold to the highest bidder. So what if I wanted to go to Google? Suck it up and go see Yahoo! -- they paid us and Google didn't!

Bite me, Ed.

You see, the success of the Internet has been on equal and open access -- packets go in, packets come out. The hops in between just hand things off like a bucket brigade of bits. At the most basic level, it doesn't matter if it's between two banks or you and your favorite search engine... open access ensures that your request gets through without middleman interference.

Now, with Ed's proposal, your packets may (or may not) get to where you want them to go - it would depend on how much the distant end pays to "guarantee delivery."

I don't know about you, but where I come from that's called a protection racket, a.k.a. extortion.

"...yeah, you see Google, we can't exactly 'guarantee' your packets will get back to our customers. However, if you kick a little moolah our way we might be able to 'protect' your packets and make sure they get there..."

Gee, Ed, you sure you aren't cousins with Tony Soprano?

Fortunately, Google has already taken a stand on such ISP bullying. So should the rest of the Internet. You won't pass our packets back to your customers in a timely manner? Fine. *You* can explain to your now pissed-off (soon to be former) customers why you won't let them get to where they want (and paid you) to go.

You don't own the Internet, Ed. You get to stay with the rest of us as long as you play nice. The net was founded on equal access and cooperation between all players. Rock the boat too hard and you're likely to see a grass-roots shitstorm that'll make divestiture feel like a slap on the wrist...

Originally linked from digg...