Month: February 2014

Link: GVMax Forwards Google Voice Notifications to Your Phone

Google Voice may have its own mobile webapp now, but it doesn’t provide notifications on your phone when you get new SMS messages. Free web service GVMax solves this problem by putting full SMS support into email and IM on your smartphone.

…..

GVMax is an open source web service that allows you to send and receive SMS messages through either email or GTalk, as well as get push notifications of new SMS messages on your iPhone without keeping your computer on at home.

Full article here:
GVMax Forwards Google Voice Notifications to Your Phone (Lifehacker)
Related:
GVMax – Most comprehensive Google Voice Notification system [Tutorial] (TruVoIPBuzz)
GVMax makes Google Voice and iPhone Play Nice (Brain Dungeon)

Link: Pipelight: Use Silverlight In Your Linux Browser To Watch Netflix, Maxdome Videos And More

Pipelight is project that brings Silverlight to any Linux browser that supports the Netscape Plugin API. Using it, you can use services that require Silverlight, such as Netflix, in native Linux web browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Midori.

Netflix Google Chrome Linux

Pipelight combines the effort by Erich E. Hoover (the Netflix Desktop developer) with a new browser plugin which – unlike Netflix Desktop which requires a Windows version of Firefox to run under Wine -, lets you access services that require Microsoft Silverlight using native Linux web browsers.

This solution isn’t Wine-free because the browser plugin continues to use Wine however, this shouldn’t have a big impact on performance:

Full article here:
Pipelight: Use Silverlight In Your Linux Browser To Watch Netflix, Maxdome Videos And More (Web Upd8)
Related:
Pipelight A Silverlight Alternative For Ubuntu/Linux Mint (NoobsLab)
Pipelight Installation – A Linux replacement for Silverlight – (LinOxide)
Pipelight – Using Silverlight in Linux browsers (Ubuntu Geek)
Use Silverlight in Firefox, Chrome in Ubuntu via Pipelight plugin (UbuntuHandbook)
Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr May Come With Pipelight Support (LinuxG.net)

How to log the DID of all incoming calls (including rejected ones) in FreePBX/Asterisk

One small problem with FreePBX/Asterisk installations is that if you deny anonymous inbound SIP calls (and you should be doing that to help keep your system secure), then any incoming calls on DIDs that don’t match one of your inbound routes will be quietly dropped, and will NOT appear in your CDR (call detail record). But maybe you’d like to see which DIDs calls are coming in on even if they are dropped, in case you have one or two DIDs that you don’t know about, particularly if you receive calls from multiple DIDs on the same trunks(s).

Normally, in your trunk configuration(s) you will have a line such as this:

context=from-trunk

All you need to do is change it so that it points to a custom context that you will place at the end of your existing /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf file. So, you might change it to something like this:

context=custom-from-trunk

And then, at the end of /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf …

[custom-from-trunk]
exten => _X!,1,TrySystem(echo “${EXTEN}” >> /var/log/dids)
exten => _X!,n,Goto(from-trunk,${EXTEN},1)
exten => h,1,Macro(hangupcall,)

This will write the DID of each incoming call to the file /var/log/dids. Note that if you have already changed the context statement in your trunks to point to a custom context for some other reason, you can just add the first line of the above context as a new line in that context (don’t forget to change the line number 1 to n if it’s not the first statement in the context).

Also note that before you apply the configuration changes, from a Linux command prompt you should do

touch /var/log/dids

to create the file and then either make it world-writeable, or change the ownership to asterisk. Otherwise Asterisk won’t have permission to write to the file and nothing will be saved.

Over time the log file might get a bit large and will have many duplicates. So whenever you want to look at it, just run the the following command (you could also put this in a cron job and run it once daily to keep the file from growing huge):

/bin/sort -u -o /var/log/dids /var/log/dids

This will sort the lines in numerical order and remove the duplicates.

Once you have done this, you can take a look at /var/log/dids now and then and see if any pop up that you didn’t know you had. Your provider might be deliberately or inadvertently “gifting” you with an extra DID, or you might be getting charged for a DID you aren’t using! Either way, it’s good to know what’s being sent to your system.

By the way, you can easily combine this with the hint given in How to show the source DID in FreePBX call detail reports – simply add the line

exten => _X!,n,Set(CDR(accountcode)=${EXTEN})

between the “TrySystem” line and the “Goto” line in the context shown above.

Link: How To Set Up Unlocator DNS Under Linux To Access Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ABC, Pandora and More Outside The US

Tunlr, a free DNS service that allowed its users to access US-based on-demand Internet streaming providers from outside the US, was shut down recently.

For those who are looking for a reliable alternative, there’s Unlocator, a similar service that you can use to watch Netflix, Hulu, CBS, MTV, PBS, ABC, Pandora and more no matter where you live.

The service is free to use while in beta (I’m not sure when it will be out of beta) and once it leaves the beta, it will cost $4.95 / month.

At the time I’m writing this article, Unlocator supports 78 services, including: Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, ABC, AMC, BBC, CBS, Channel4, Discovery Channel, ESPN, Fox, HBO Go, MTV, NBC, PBS, Showtime, TV.com, VEVO, USA Network, VH1 and others. A complete list can be found HERE.

While Unlocator works as advertised, there is one issue: using the Unlocator DNS permanently is not a good idea for privacy/security reasons, speed and so on. For this reason, I’ve adapted the instructions for Tunlr I wrote a while back on WebUpd8, for Unlocator.

Full article here:
How To Set Up Unlocator DNS Under Linux To Access Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ABC, Pandora and More Outside The US (Web Upd8)

Link: Explain Shell breaks down Linux command line arguments for you

Explain Shell is a free online service that will break down command line arguments that you enter for you. If you do not know what the commands find . -type f -print0, tar xzvf archive.tar.gz or iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s ip-to-block -j DROP do, you can find out now using the service.

Full article here:
Explain Shell breaks down Linux command line arguments for you (gHacks)

Link: Linux touch command – Why do we need to change Timestamp?

We may use touch command in Linux to create an empty file. Of course we can use another command such as vi, nano or any editing tools to do it. But you may need more steps do it. But do know it that the main function of touch command is not create an empty file?

Full article here:
Linux touch command – Why do we need to change Timestamp? (LinOxide)

Link: Force YouTube to buffer your entire video

 Back in the good old days, when you started watching a YouTube video, the entire thing would download (or “buffer”) in the background, thus ensuring a relatively smooth playback experience.

If you had a slow connection, you could simply pause the video until you saw the “buffer bar” complete its journey from left to right. But thanks to YouTube’s switch to a new protocol (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or DASH, if you’re interested), that trick no longer works.

Now, when you play a video, YouTube buffers only a small amount. And that can lead to stuttering, frequently interrupted playback.

Full article here:
Force YouTube to buffer your entire video (PCWorld)
Related:
How to Preload and Buffer Entire YouTube Videos By Disabling DASH Playback (TechNorms)
Go back to YouTube’s old buffering to skip without rebuffering (gHacks)
Preload Entire YouTube Videos By Disabling Dash Playback (Lifehacker)

Link: How to Clear Spotify Cache

If you have been a regular user of Spotify (on desktop), you should know that it caches your playlist in the local hard disk so it can quickly playback the songs without having to stream from their server again. However, if you are running low on hard disk space, you might want to clear the cache to make way for more important documents. The Spotify desktop client doesn’t come with a way to clear the cache. Here is how you can clear Spotify cache in Windows, Mac and Linux.

Full article here:
How to Clear Spotify Cache (Make Tech Easier)

Link: 5 Reasons Why PCLinuxOS Is Better For Windows XP Users Than Ubuntu

I have recently written a series of articles showing How to install PCLinuxOS alongside Windows XP.

There are a number of reasons why I chose to write about PCLinuxOS over say Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Here are five reasons why I think PCLinuxOS is a better fit for Windows XP and Windows Vista users than Ubuntu.

Full article here:
5 Reasons Why PCLinuxOS Is Better For Windows XP Users Than Ubuntu (Everyday Linux User)
Related:
PCLinuxOS Makes Desktop Linux Look Good (LinuxInsider)

Link: The Beginner’s Guide to iptables, the Linux Firewall

Iptables is an extremely flexible firewall utility built for Linux operating systems. Whether you’re a novice Linux geek or a system administrator, there’s probably some way that iptables can be a great use to you. Read on as we show you how to configure the most versatile Linux firewall.

Full article here:
The Beginner’s Guide to iptables, the Linux Firewall (How-To Geek)

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