John Mann's Weblog (on sng)
 

String around my finger
A 'blog to remember things I found.
Tie a string around your finger
My Home Page
I work for NIS ITS Monash University Australia.

Index

Flavours

  • index
  • circa 1993
  • RSS
  • Links
    These are a few of my favourite links.

  • Home Page
  • Live weblog
  • Static weblog
  • raelity bytes ;-)
  • Slashdot
  • Subscribe
    Subscribe to a syndicated feed of my weblog, brought to you by the wonders of RSS.


    blosxom

    GeoURL

    IP Geotargeting
    Visit eBay

    Click to call me FWD# 61159

       
    Thu, 15 Mar 2007

    MONROBOT XI

    Back in 197x, I played with several Monrobot Mark XI computers at Scotch College Melbourne. The "Computer Club" had a room in an old Army-style building with 2 Monrobot XI computers.

    We started with one such computer, but when it broke down, we went looking for spare parts, manuals, expertise etc, and eventually collected 5 computers, another complete set of circuit cards and maintenance manuals.

    We had a grand time, writing code in "sexadecimal", typing it in on the electric typewriter, saving programs to/from paper tape, repairing paper tape, playing blackjack and other games.

    There was a higher-level language QUIKOMP http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/MonrobotXI.jpg and a Nmemonic Assembler, but it was generally simpler to just type in the Hex.

    The Character set was based around the puched card data format " ",1-9 0 A-I J-R "/",S-Z Sexadecimal I/O used the characters 0-9, S, T, U, V, W, X (easy to map from punced card to 0-15).

    Graham ??? tried to "network" two Monrobots together by cross-connecting I/O channels though a interconnect box that recognised certain characters as "push button X on the control pannel".

    Our systems had extra half-cabinters on the end holding large 240V to 110V transformers. Internally the 110V AC was rectified and then fed to valves used to drive the parallel output devices.

    The electric typewriters had extra mechanical soloenoids and combs underneath, which If you e.g. pressed a key while trying to unjam an electric typewriter, you could get ~150V DC through your fingers!

    				BRL 1961, MONROBOT XI, start page 0672
     
        

    MONROBOT XI

    Monroe Calculating Machine Mark XI MANUFACTURER Litton Industries Monroe Calculating Machine Division Photo by Monroe Calculating Machine Division APPLICATIONS The Monrobot Mark XI is a stored-program, general purpose electronic business computer capable of operation with a wide variety of input-output equip- ment. PROGRAMMING AND NUMERICAL SYSTEM Internal number system Binary Binary digits/word 32 including sign Binary digits/instruction 16 Instructions/word 2 Instructions decoded 27 Instructions used 27 Arithmetic system Fixed point; programmed floating point Instruction type One address Number range 0 to 231 - 1 or 0 to +- 109 or 0 to +- 2, 147, 483, 647 Instruction word format +---------------+-----------------+ | 16 11 | 10 1 | +---------------+-----------------+ | Instruction | Address | +---------------+-----------------+ ARITHMETIC UNIT Incl. Stor. Access Exclud. Stor. Access Microsec Microsec Add 9,000 3,000 Mult 34,000 28,000 Div 500,000 500,000 Division is programmed. Construction (Arithmetic unit only) Transistors 190 Diodes 1,675 Arithmetic mode Serial Timing Synchronous Operation Sequential STORAGE No. of No. of Average Access Medium Words Digits Microsec Magnetic Drum 1,024 32,768 6,000 INPUT Media Speed Punched Paper Tape 20 char/sec Electric typewriter 10 char/sec 16-key numeric keyboard 10 char/sec 80-column card 16 col/sec Teletypewriter 10 char/sec The machine can accomodate any three of the above input devices simultaneously. Punched paper tape may be any code, 5 to 8 level. Quoted input and output speeds include conversion to and from binary as well as translation of any tape language to machine code. Higher speeds are possible using pure binary input and output. OUTPUT Media Speed Punched Paper Tape 20 char/sec Electric Typewriter 10 char/sec 80-column Card 16 col/sec Teletypewriter 10 char/sec The machine can accomodate any three of the above output devices simultaneously. Punched paper tape may be any code, 5 to 8 level. CIRCUIT ELEMENTS OF ENTIRE SYSTEM Type Quantity Tubes 5727 10 - 30 (10 tubes/output device) Diodes Primarily 1N636 2,300 Transistors Primarily 2N412 383 CHECKING FEATURES Parity check on input and output. Parity may be omitted. Action taken on parity failure depends upon program. With Teletype or other parity-less codes, parity is not used. POWER, SPACE, WEIGHT, AND SITE PREPARATION Power, computer 0.850 Kw 0.940 KVA 0.9 pf Volume, computer 48 cu ft Area, computer 15 sq ft Room size 10 ft x 10 ft Floor loading 30 lbs/sq ft 100 lbs concen max Weight, computer 375 lbs System requires 15 amp, 110 volt, AC, 60 cps line. PRODUCTION RECORD Number produced to date 7 Number in current operation 6 Time required for delivery 6 - 9 months COST, PRICE AND RENTAL RATES Cost of computer with operator desk, 1 typewriter, 1 tape reader, and 1 tape punch $24,500 Additional Equipment 16-key numeric keyboard 300 Tape Reader 1,250 Tape Punch 700 Typewriter 2,350 Buffer for third device 600 Above prices are approximate. Monthly rental of computer with operator desk, 1 typewriter, 1 tape reader, and 1 tape punch, including service $700 Maintenance contracting is $1,200/year after 90-day service guarantee. PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS Manufacturer makes a programmers' school available to users. One operator is required for each 8-hour shift. Virtually no operator training is required. RELIABILITY, OPERATING EXPERIENCE, AND TIME AVAILABILITY Conservative solid-state design assures long life and wide margins under all but the most extreme operating conditions. Pluggable printed circuit boards provide trouble-free operation as well as ease of maintenance. Monrobot XI operates with full +-25% voltage margins at 110oF ambient. ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND REMARKS The Monrobot Mark XI accepts alpha-numeric information in any code from up to three independent input devices and can output information to any combination of three independent devices. System can simultaneously prepare independent output documents in any format, and can merge transaction and unit record input tapes in any format.

    Manuals

    [ /misc | # ]

    Wed, 03 May 2006

    Nearing Zero

    Cartoons, many with a Science bent. Browse the Subject Gallery or in bunches of 10.

    My favorite is:

    nz017Environmental Scientists in the Wild West.[...higher res version...] (no deep linking).

    [ /media | # ]

    au.pool.ntp.org - NTP for home / SMEs

    For machines at home, instead of configuring to use Monash's NTP servers, use a pool of public servers.

    To use this pool zone, add the following to your ntp.conf file:

    server 0.au.pool.ntp.org
    server 1.au.pool.ntp.org
    server 2.au.pool.ntp.org

    Of course, if you aren't in Australia, use the appropriate pool.

    [ /networks | # ]

    Bitsavers.org

    As of Feb, 2006 there are over 8818 documents containing over 830,000 pages in the archive.

    Would you like to help bitsavers? We're looking for documentation and software for minicomputers and mainframes, from the 50's to the 80's. email contrib at bitsavers dot org if you can help.

    Help Us Save What Bits Still Exist.

    Work on the bitsavers project has been going on now for over five years, and it is appears that very little software for minicomputers and mainframes has survived in machine-readable form from the mid-seventies and earlier. If you know of surviving software on 1/2" tape, paper tape, cards, DECtape, etc. from users groups or computer manufacturers, please contact us. Equipment is available to recover these bits, and in some cases can be brought on-site.

    [ /hardware | # ]

    Monty Python's Completely Useless Web Site

    Welcome to the completely unauthorized, completely silly, and completely useless Monty Python web site!

    Contains information about Monty Python's TV shows: Monty Python's Flying Circus and And Now For Something Completely Different; and movies: Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl, and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

    Includes stills, MIDI theme musinc, sound grabs, and/or scripts. Also a Forum with news and discussions.

    A wonderful resource!!

    [ /media | # ]

    Voipbuster - the Free Calls Company

    Warning: These Web pages use a nasty Cross Browser marquee from Dynamic Drive that sucks all your PC's CPU time !!! Don't leave this site ticking away in a browser tab or two !!!

    Offers Free calls to landlines in many countries including Australia, and free VoIP-In numbers in e.g. United Kingdom. You need to install and run the Windows client to create yourself an account.

    " You can now make FREE calls to several countries. These calls are limited to 1 minute per call. If you want UNLIMITED calls to our FREE destinations please go to our website and buy 10 Euro worth of credit. "

    * Max 20hrs per month of free calls.

    Rates to other countries are e.g. 1 (Euro cent?) per minute to USA.

    SIP settings:
    Username: 	Your VoipBuster username
    Password: 	Your VoipBuster password
    SIP/Proxy registrar: 	sip.voipbuster.com
    Domain/Realm (optional): 	voipbuster.com
    STUN server: 	stun.voipbuster.com
    

    Always dial 00 + countrycode + areacode + subscribernumber.

    ?? Test numbers

    [ /voip | # ]

    oztralia.com again

    I've re-subscribed to oztralia.com for inbound Fax-to-email (I've cancelled my 2nd Optus landline) and for testing Asterisk trunking.

    The web site hasn't improved much -- all the detailed information is still in the forums.

    Their plans have been simplified down to just two, plus added services.

    IAX Software

    [ /voip | # ]

    Whirlpool - Australin Broadband News links

    This post is to collect up VoIP links on Whirlpool.

    Forums - Internode
    Discussions about Nodephone, Billion 7402VGP and Sipura gateways ...

    Wiki
    Links to FAQs, including Wiki - VoIP Providers and Wiki - VoIP

    Forums - Voice over IP
    Includes General VoIP Information and Reference, How to unlock engin VoIP Box (Sipura SPA2000), Spa 3k dial plan (& 2k, linksys pap2 &c), VOIP Provider Wiki, Australian Asterisk VoIP Users Group, Forums - Voice over IP - Asterisk .

    [ /voip | # ]

    Asterisk@Home

    I installed V2.7 on an old IBM Personal Computer 300PL/. Asterisk@Home is an interesting IP PBX based on CentOS and chock-full of VoIP goodies.

    It does take a little while to get to grips with everything that is included, and work out how to drive it all.

    It is a IP PBX with SIP and IAX interfaces, rather than a SIP router. It wants to relay all the voice traffic as well as the signalling. This probably has a performance overhead, but does make gatewaying easier.

    I think the best setup guide is the "Asterisk@Home Without Tears - The Dumb-Me Guide" which is discussed at Whirlpool Forums - Voice over IP - Asterisk - Kickstart for Asterisk newbie.

    [ /voip | # ]

    Tue, 07 Feb 2006

    XORP

    XORP is the eXtensible Open Router Platform.

    XORP already supports IPv4 and IPv6, together with BGP4+ and RIP for unicast routing, PIM-SM and IGMPv2 for multicast, and limited SNMP support.

    Similar to Zebra, but no OSPF.

    Uses verbose nested thing { label : value } configuration language, e.g. config.boot.sample.txt

    Update 07 Feb 2006
    Now does OSPF. Version 1.1 has a (BSD) Live CD.

    Being used for IP Multicast, for instance see this xorp-users thread.

    [ /networks | # ]

    Wed, 30 Nov 2005

    Network Speed Test

    The forums on Whirlpool point to several network speed test sites.

    Visualware MySpeed Server is a Java client that interacts with a special server. It is installed at various sites such as InternetFrog.com, Bigpond (expired), Optus (expired), and Me (renewed). It reports Upload and Download speed test measurements, bandwidth consistency (QOS), Max Pause and Round Trip Time (RTT).

    Oz Broadband Speed Test is a simpler scheme that just times how long it takes to download a large image from a server. No special software on the server, and Javascript on the client. Only reports Download speed.

    Test run on 30/11/2005 @ 9:52 A.M.

    Mirror: Optus
    Test type: Cable

    Your connection speed:

    kbps: 3278.9
    KB/s: 409.8625
    Mbps: 3.20205078125

    [ /networks | # ]

    Mon, 28 Nov 2005

    OpenWrt 2

    I accidentally did an in-place whiterussian rc3 to rc4 upgrade:

    root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg update
    Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/Packages
    Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/lists/whiterussian
    Downloading
    http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/non-free/Packages
    Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/lists/non-free
    Successfully terminated.
    root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg upgrade
    Upgrading base-files on root from 2 to 5...
    Upgrading base-files-brcm on root from 1 to 2...
    Upgrading busybox on root from 1.00-2 to 1.00-3...
    Upgrading dropbear on root from 0.45-3 to 0.45-4...
    Upgrading iptables on root from 1.3.1-1 to 1.3.3-1...
    Upgrading libgcc on root from 3.4.4-2 to 3.4.4-5...
    Upgrading mtd on root from 2 to 3...
    Upgrading ntpclient on root from 2003_194-1 to 2003_194-2...
    Upgrading ppp on root from 2.4.3-6 to 2.4.3-7...
    Upgrading ppp-mod-pppoe on root from 2.4.3-6 to 2.4.3-7...
    Upgrading uclibc on root from 0.9.27-2 to 0.9.27-5...
    Upgrading wificonf on root from 4 to 5...
    ...
    Package base-files wants to install file /sbin/hotplug
            But that file is already provided by package hotplug
    ...
    root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg remove hotplug
    Removing package hotplug from root...
    Successfully terminated.
    root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg upgrade
    Upgrading base-files on root from 2 to 5...
    Downloading
    http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/base-files_5_mipsel.ipk
    ipkg: /rom/note: Read-only file system
    Configuring base-files
    Successfully terminated.
    root@OpenWrt:/# 

    Upgrading cleared the root password, so telnet was re-enabled. Also setup ntp:

    root@OpenWrt:/# date
    Sat Jan  1 01:39:02 UTC 2000
    root@OpenWrt:/# echo "EST-10EDT-11,M10.5.0/02:00:00,M3.5.0/03:00:00" > /etc/TZ
    root@OpenWrt:/# nvram set ntp_server=130.194.1.99
    root@OpenWrt:/# /usr/sbin/ntpclient -c 1 -s -h  130.194.1.99
    36524 06338.242   23756.0     31.0  186186381427418.5  53848.3         0
    root@OpenWrt:/# date
    Fri Nov 25 11:12:05 EDT 2005

    Now have:

    root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg list_installed
    base-files - 5 - OpenWrt filesystem structure and scripts
    base-files-brcm - 2 - Board/architecture specific files
    bridge - 1.0.6-1 - Ethernet bridging tools
    busybox - 1.00-3 - Core utilities for embedded Linux systems
    dnsmasq - 2.22-2 - A lightweight DNS and DHCP server
    dropbear - 0.45-4 - a small SSH 2 server/client designed for small
     memory environments.
    ip - 2.6.11-050330-1 - iproute2 routing control utility
    ipkg - 0.99.149-2 - lightweight package management system
    iptables - 1.3.3-1 - The netfilter firewalling software for IPv4
    kernel - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - 
    kmod-brcm-et - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Proprietary driver for Broadcom Ethernet
     chipsets
    kmod-brcm-wl - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Proprietary driver for Broadcom Wireless
     chipsets
    kmod-diag - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Driver for Router LEDs and Buttons
    kmod-ppp - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - PPP support
    kmod-pppoe - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - PPP over Ethernet support
    kmod-sched - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Kernel schedulers for IP traffic
    kmod-wlcompat - 2.4.30-brcm-3 - Compatibility module for using the
     Wireless Extension with broadcom's wl
    libgcc - 3.4.4-5 - GCC support library
    libosip2 - 2.2.0-1 - GNU oSIP library, a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
    implementation
    libpcap - 0.8.3-1 - a low-level packet capture library
    libpthread - 0.9.27-1 - POSIX threads library
    mtd - 3 - Tool for modifying the flash chip
    ntpclient - 2003_194-2 - NTP client for setting system time from NTP servers.
    nvram - 1 - NVRAM utility and libraries for Broadcom hardware
    ppp - 2.4.3-7 - a PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) daemon (with MPPE/MPPC
     support)
    ppp-mod-pppoe - 2.4.3-7 - a PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) plugin for PPP
    siproxd - 0.5.11-2 - a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) proxy
    tc - 2.6.11-050330-1 - iproute2 traffic control utility
    tcpdump - 3.8.3-1 - A tool for network monitoring and data acquisition.
    uclibc - 0.9.27-5 - Standard C library for embedded Linux systems
    wificonf - 5 - Replacement utility for wlconf
    wireless-tools - 28.pre7-1 - Tools for setting up WiFi cards using the
     Wireless Extension
    zlib - 1.2.2-2 - an implementation of the deflate compression method (library)

    [ /linux | # ]

    Fri, 25 Nov 2005

    OpenWrt

    "OpenWrt is a Linux distribution for wireless routers. Instead of trying to cram every possible feature into one firmware, OpenWrt provides only a minimal firmware with support for add-on packages."

    Time to upgrade to White Russian rc4.

    Since the Linksys WRT54G that I am upgrading, is also my only path to the Internet (and OpenWrt documentation), I could be in a Catch-22 if things go wrong.

    Took a copy of their Web site using:
    wget -m -k -K -E http://wiki.openwrt.org/
    gave 4 MB, plus 4 MB of converted-link files.

    Re-running this command, which uses HEAD rather than GET, fails with "403 FORBIDDEN", presumably since it is a Wiki.

    Also nvram show | sort gives 457 lines. There must be some unnecessary or harmful cruft in there, but I'm loath to delete it all ...

    [ /linux | # ]

    Wed, 23 Nov 2005

    Claymation

    Article in Melbourne Weelky Magazine recommendation claymation for kids.

    http://www.animateclay.com http://library.thinkquest.org/22316/home.html http://www.jlf.com/clay_anm.html http://www.sfsu.edu/~teachers/workshops/clayanimation/stepone.html

    [ /misc | # ]

    Tue, 22 Nov 2005

    Rename photo files

    I needed to re-arrange my collection of photo files. To standardise the file naming, I used the Linux rename utility, part of util-linux.

    find | grep AUT | xargs rename AUT aut
    find | grep DSC | xargs rename DSC dsc 
    find | grep IMG | xargs rename IMG img
    find | grep JPG | xargs rename JPG jpg
    find | grep Mov | xargs rename Mov mov
    find | grep MOV | xargs rename MOV mov
    find | grep THM | xargs rename THM thm
    find | grep TIM | xargs rename TIM tim

    To split files up by date, I hacked up some Perl, pushdir.pl that looked at the EXIF data (if any) for the creation time or used the mtime of the file, and moved the file to a directory yyyy-mm-dd, creating it if nexessary.

    Rotating the image in a file changes the mtime of a file, but not its EXIF timestamp. Copying a file from a camera or memory card may or may not preserve the file creation time, or create funny capitalisation.

    [ /media | # ]

    Sun, 20 Nov 2005

    Optus Cable QoS - 2

    From 17th Nov 2005, the upload speed on Optus Cable has changed from 128 kbit/s to 256 kbit/s.

    This should make VoIP, videoconferencing etc much better.

    [ /networks | # ]

    Tue, 15 Nov 2005

    Optus Cable QoS - 1

    Optus Cable is asymmetric with downloads at 4-5 Mbit/s and uploads limited to 128 kbit/s. This asymmetry has strange effects on protocols which assume symmetric bandwidth.

    As a baseline, here are some results while uploading a directory full of digital photos. [ 121 pictures, 190 MB at about 1 MB per minute. ]

    [johnm@tower in]$ ping 130.194.1.1 -c 100
    100 packets transmitted, 99 received, 1% packet loss, time 99390ms
    rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 208.082/620.189/855.658/141.705 ms, pipe 2
    
    J6$ mul ping /nu=100 johnm.dyndns.org
    100 packets transmitted, 89 packets received, 11% packet loss
    round-trip (ms)  min/avg/max = 176/564/843
    
    [root@ns0a tftp]# ping -c 100 -q johnm.dyndns.org
    100 packets transmitted, 95 packets received, 5% packet loss
    round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 400.331/644.053/871.804/131.181 ms
    

    Pinging from home PC to work seems more relyable than pinging from work to home router. The long-term smokeping stats show about a 0.5% work to home router ping loss with no other traffic.

    [ /networks | # ]

    Tue, 23 Aug 2005

    Enterprise QoS Solution Reference Network Design Guide

    See the fine list of Solution Reference Network Designs at http://www.cisco.com/go/srnd/ There is a new, Version 3.1, June 2005, Enterprise QoS SRND.

    This weighty tome (284 pages) has been updated to include e.g.

    Scavenger-class QoS DoS/Worm Mitigation Strategy
    AutoQoS VoIP (Campus)

    Chapter 1 Overview

    Chapter 2 lists for different switch models and different edge trust types -- what commands to enter, why, and verification commands. e.g.

    Catalyst 2970/3560/3750 Conditionally-Trusted IP Phone + PC with Scavenger-Class QoS (Advanced) Model
    -- goes the whole hog allowing 5 Mbit/s of mission-critical SAP traffic.

    Chapter 3 is WAN Aggregator QoS Design

    Well worth a read !!

    [ /networks | # ]

    Mon, 22 Aug 2005

    SER - SIP Express Router 2

    Files available via FTP. Latest README is for version 0.9.3, however, I'm using last-available Red Hat RPMs for version 0.8.12.

    AARNet Tutorial on SIP and SIP SER server has links to useful configs.

    Installed ser-0.8.12-0.i386.rpm, ser-mysql-0.8.12-0.i386.rpm, mysqlclient10-3.23.58-6.i386.rpm, along with php-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-gd-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-mbstring-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-mysql-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-pear-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm and phpMyAdmin to manage MySQL.

    I read Getting Started with MySQL, 2.9.2. Unix Post-Installation Procedures, and 2.9.3. Securing the Initial MySQL Accounts.

    Opinions about MySQL root password differ -- see Step by Step Installation of SER on RedHad Fedora Core 1 v. phpMyAdmin error messages, and SIP.edu Cookbook - Configuring SER recommends using the PW environment variable to avoid being prompted all the time.

    Set domain in dhcpd.conf, set line1_* and line2_* in SIPmacaddress.cnf, and added accounts using serctl. Phone now registers to SER.

    Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
     cseq=101 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
     uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
     to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:1002@10.1.1.222:5060>>
    Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
     cseq=101 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
     uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
     to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:phone2@10.1.1.222:5060>>
    Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
     cseq=102 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
     uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
     to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:1002@10.1.1.222:5060>>
    Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
     cseq=102 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
     uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
     to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:phone2@10.1.1.222:5060>>

    [ /voip | # ]

    Cisco IP Phone 7960

     
    Original 
    App Load ID: P00303010411
    Boot Load ID:
    Version: 3.1(4.11)

    Very old SCCP image -- current is 7.x

    Tries to fetch:
    OS79XX.TXT
    SEP003094C2B25D.cnf.xml
    XMLDefault.cnf.xml

    Converting a Cisco 7940/7960 CallManager Phone to a SIP Phone and the Reverse Process

    Cisco 7940 and 7960 IP Phones Firmware Upgrade Matrix

    Upgraded to SIP ver 6.3 by putting P0S3-06-3-00 in OS79XX.TXT and "image_version: P0S3-06-3-00" in SIPDefault.cnf.

    Maybe try version 7.5 later ...

    Cisco IP Phone 7960/7940 User Guide for SIP

    SIP on 7960/7940 manuals

    Cisco SIP IP Administrator Guide, Version 7.5

    SIP IP Telephone 7940/7960 Software

    See also Appendix D - Configurable Parameters for the SIP IP Phone (Versions 6.x and 7.x) for definition of fields in SIPDefault.cnf -- linked to by AARNet tutorial Configs for Cisco 7960 with SER.

    Using the Cisco SIP IP Phone

    SIP - Session Initiation Protocol

    Cisco IP Phone Administrator Guides for SIP

    [ /voip | # ]

    Mon, 15 Aug 2005

    FWD 1800 gateway in OZ available

    SJphone FWD

    "sandman" wrote:

    We've made available a **FREE** 1800 number FWD gateway to see if people would find it usefull. A few technical matters to make note of
    1) No warranties implied, its experimental
    2) The gateway is registered as an account on FWD
    3) Your CLID will show up at the remote end
    4) We do not know what call depth is possible at the FWD end on a single account
    5) If your calling an OZ FWD number, if that person is registered as an IAX user, there should be **NO** latency
    6) PREFIX to use infront of FWD number is 393 ie: 393xxxxxx where xxxxxx is the FWD number u need to call.
    7) Call 1800262218
    Enjoy please and provide feedback. I have no idea how its going to go and this is experimental. If its well received, we may make it available long term...
    CIao

    It works!! I phoned my laptop from my work phone. SJphone console says:

       Incoming Call
    Incoming call from 0399054774
     from 69.90.155.70 : 5060
    SIP session using Asterisk

    65.39.205.121 and 69.90.155.70 both belong to Peer1 Internet Bandwidth Inc. and are reached through NewYork.savvis.net.

    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/index.cfm?a=wiki&tag=voip_1800gateway http://account.freeworlddialup.com/index_new.php?section_id=97 http://www.freeworlddialup.com/content/view/full/333/

    325 faktortel 335 fire 373 free 393 fwd

    [ /voip | # ]

    Sun, 14 Aug 2005

    SJphone

    SJphone GUI

    Our flagship product is SJphone which is the best standard-based softphone for MS Windows, PocketPC, Linux, Mac OS X, web-applications etc.
    It supports both SIP and H.323 standards, many features and comes with Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) profiles, e.g. Linux/MAC OS Free World Dialup Profile, and a guide for creating your own profiles.

    Downloads, support documents

    I found this application to be quite techie-friendly with "Info" pane, Options -> Support -> Bug Reporting -> Start Recording / Submit, forums where developer replies etc etc. Not a pretty application, though there is some mention of "skins".

    I "Registered", but I'm not sure if that enables any more functionality. Provided CODECs: GSM 6.10, iLBC 30ms and 20ms, Speex 15.2k and 15.2k 40ms and 8.0k 40ms, G.711 A-Law and u-Law. The purchased Windows SJphone Plus version comes with G.729.

    Codec info page and Voice Over IP - Per Call Bandwidth Consumption.

    [ /voip | # ]

    Pioneer DVR-109

    DVR-109 picture

    I bought a black one of these for A$73. Should read and write all single and dual-layer media types.

    Downloads here including version 1.57 firmware

    [ /hardware | # ]

    Fri, 05 Aug 2005

    BitTorrent

    Tim pointed me to an excellent article on Wikipedia describing BitTorrent. See also their page on Peer-to-peer in general.

    Somewhere else (???) described BitTorrent as being different from other peer-to-peer applications because there is no inbuilt method for publishing, or searching for metadata. Publishing (announcing to the world that you have some files with particular names / descriptions / sizes / checksums ) and searching (the world being able to find the file you want and how to get it) are done using other tools such as Web servers, e-mail, or even embeded into games.

    In some file-sharing schemes, a large number of users get together and share a number of files that is 10s, 100s or 1000s of the number of users. In contrast, with BitTorrent, a number (between 2 and 100,000) of users obtain the .torrent metadata for a single file (or indivisible bundle of files), and then get together in a specially-purposed swarm to spread just that file to all of them.

    Comparing BitTorrent to normal Web operations, I think BitTorrent is most like a dynamic distributed caching proxy server cloud. You can't tell whether a file came from the original site, or from a proxy -- a local proxy, your ISP's proxy, a parent or peer of proxy the proxy you thought you were using, a front-end reverse proxy, a load balancer, ... Normal Web proxy networks are general purpose and need to be statically configured. BitTorrent proxy clouds are single file, highly dynamic and self-organising (with hints from the tracker).

    A BitTorrent proxy cloud operates differently in that a client will up/download parts of the a file (and cryptographically check those parts), rather than a Web proxy which likes to deal in whole files (and blindly trusts the received content).

    Brian Dessent writes

    It takes a great deal of bandwidth and server resources to distribute files that are large or very popular, or both. The concept of mirrors partially addresses this shortcoming by distributing the load across multiple servers. But it requires a lot of coordination and effort to set up an efficient network of mirrors, and it's usually only feasible for the busiest of sites. ...
    BitTorrent is closest to Usenet, in my opinion. It is best suited to newer files, of which a number of people have interest in.

    PS. Microsoft are working on something similar called Avalanche

    The code-named research project "Avalanche" studies how to enable a cost effective, internet scalable and very fast file distribution solution (e.g. for TV on-demand, patches, software distribution). Such an approach leverages desktop PCs to aid in the distribution process, relieving congested servers and network links from most of the traffic.

    Will peer-to-peer be banned if Microsoft provide it and want you to use it? (Windows File and Print is peer-to-peer already.)

    [ /software | # ]

    InternetNZ unveils software for Enum

    ENUM PUA Prototype Software Release

    InternetNZ Announces the release of ENUM Personal User Agent Prototype software under Open Source BSD Licence.

    "Personal User Agents (PUA) are software programs which act like firewalls; automatically filtering requests for ENUM contact information and deciding what information to release and how incoming calls will be directed based on rules that look at the inbound identity of the caller. This protects the consumer from address harvesting or privacy breaches.

    http://www.internetnz.net.nz/public/enum/pua/README.txt

    ... Installation The system integrates with Asterisk - the Open Source PBX! (www.asterisk.org). ...

    My guess is that to filter requests for ENUM contact information and to control routing of calls, the information must be stored locally, and not publised in the DNS (apart from some generic "send everything to the gateway box" info).

    [ /networks | # ]

    Memo to mainstream media: You don't get to blog

    The DNA of blogging is a complicated matter that touches on being outside voices and taking personal control of the media. But at minimum the DNA of blogging has to do with distributing the conversation. Contrary to that, the DNA of mainstream media to date is all about dominating the conversation.
    ... in the pure sense a big part of blogging involves the voices of people who don't have a publishing/broadcasting aparatus at their disposal and don't have the institutional restraints of a media company.

    [ /misc | # ]

    What Business Can Learn from Open Source

    Another interesting Paul Graham essay, about blogging, "amateurs" + aggregators v. "professionals" + channels, startup investor-founder relationships v. paternalistic employer-employee relationships.

    So these, I think, are the three big lessons open source and blogging have to teach business: (1) that people work harder on stuff they like, (2) that the standard office environment is very unproductive, and (3) that bottom-up often works better than top-down.

    [ /misc | # ]

    Wed, 03 Aug 2005

    Vizufon

    US$399.99 Broadband Internet video phone using high speed Internet connection.

    Specifications:

    [ /voip | # ]

    Tue, 02 Aug 2005

    iPodder

    "The cross-platform podcast receiver"

    If you want to listen to internet audio programs (podcasts) but can't when they are scheduled, this program is for you.
    It allows users to select and download shows and music and to play whenever they want on their iPods, portable digital media players, or computers automatically, after specifying which music or shows they want to listen to.

    See definition of Podcasting at Wikipedia, along with RSS 2.0, ATOM etc links. Also see Payloads for RSS where it all started.

    Downloaded iPodder-linux-2.1.tar.bz2 from here,

    Installing iPodder into Fedora Core 3 Mini-HOWTO

    Installed. it. It put files into /opt/iPodder and a symlink into /usr/bin -- hardly my favorite places. It also needs a

    # chmod +r /opt/iPodder/ipodder/players.py

    [ /software | # ]

    Mon, 01 Aug 2005

    PhoneGnome

    They sell something that looks like a Sipura SPA-3000, which contacts their server to see whether it can route calls over VoIP, or falls back to using the PSTN.

    It all starts off looking great:

    1. PhoneGnome is a "thing". It is a revolutionary concept. FREE calling is a feature built into a piece of hardware that you purchase and own. There is no signup, no "account", and no monthly fees. ...
    4. Give your current phone service a kick with advanced capabilities you can't even get from the phone company, like voicemail-to-email, online phone book with click-to-dial, and more, all included FREE with your one-time purchase of PhoneGnome ...
    7. No obligations, No risk, full-moneyback guarantee.

    However, when you get down to the PhoneGnome License Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement

    Use of the PhoneGnome Services ...
    (d) You may not reverse engineer, distribute, publish, display, modify or in any way exploit the configuration parameters which we provide as a means to access the PhoneGnome Services.
    (e) You may not use the PhoneGnome Services for telemarketing, broadcast fax, or to deliver unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional materials or solicitations.
    (f) You acknowledge that the PhoneGnome and any embedded software or firmware is exclusively for use with the PhoneGnome Services.
    (g) You agree not to perform a factory reset of the PhoneGnome hardware.
    (h) You may not use the PhoneGnome Services with or connect the hardware component of the PhoneGnome Servcie to a PBX or automated dialer.

    It doesn't look like a "thing" that I could configure to use with a home Asterix PBX setup for example.

    Also check out the Privacy Policy where they get to record and analyse your PSTN as well as VoIP call information.

    [ /voip | # ]

    Wed, 27 Jul 2005

    Mail Filtering

    Or, how to block a few million spams per day without breaking a sweat.

    Includes Sendmail Config, Blackmilter, Graymilter, Spfmilter, ClamAV, Procmail, and Bayesian filters.

    The Hall of Shame lists DNS-RBL and AOL:

    You can see their full list of AOL's email errors here: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/. It makes amusing reading. I guess they think they are big enough that they can just define their own internet standards, and everyone else will adapt to them. Well, no thanks.

    [ /monash | # ]

    Voicetronix

    Computer Telephony hardware vendor with Open Source drivers. Located in Adelaide / Sydney.

    Products include OpenLine4 (4-port FXO), OpenLog4 (4-port logging), OpenSwitch6/12 (FXO or FXS), and OpenPRI (E1).

    Their Open Source softwaree includes drivers, OpenPBX, OpenH323 PSTNGW, CT (computer telephony) Server, Logger, and Unified Messaging Server.

    Once past the survey you can download interesting-looking things.

    Unfortunately, their hardware seems too expensive for home experimentation, e.g. OpenSwitch6 885 Euro, or OpenLine4 550 Euro.

    [ /voip | # ]

    Sun, 24 Jul 2005

    Understanding SIP

    Mark A. Miller wrote a series of articles, published on www.voipplanet.com

    Each article is brief and easy to read, but gives a good overview, and pointers for where to look for more details.

    More backgrounder articles, archives.

    [ /voip | # ]

    Fri, 22 Jul 2005

    The War of the Worlds

    The new movie War of the Worlds (2005) triggered my memory of the "Martian invasion of Earth" radio broadcast.

    As expected, Wikipedia had a The War of the Worlds overview and article on the radio play.

    The Internet Archive has a newsreel Attack By Mars Panics Thousands with Orson Welles trying to explain away the mass hysteria.

    I think this article explains why the radio play had such a big impact. Lots of other good stuff here too.

    The The Mercury Theatre on the Air site has a MP3 of the broadcast and a torrent of all their shows. "If possible, please download this instead".

    I found the broadcast to be pretty scary. We hear reporters describing the machines atacking, then silence, and later we learn everyone was killed ...

    [ /media | # ]

    Thu, 21 Jul 2005

    Linksys NSLU-2 (Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives)

    NSLU-2 picture

    A low-cost embedded Linux device that turns any USB hard drive into a NAS (network-attached storage) device.

    It gets rave reviews and was hacked by Jim Buzbee to add NFS server, add iTunes server (mt-daapd), customise startup, and finally moved to Unslung.

    Can obtain replacement firmware from NSLU2 Linux Unslung (stable) or OpenSlug (devel).

    Then you can run other things on it like media streaming, Asterisk - as home PBX, etc, etc.

    With an auto-spindown laptop drive or USB stick, a setup is very small, quiet, and uses a tiny amount of power.

    It is now possible as per Slashdot to Install Debian Sarge.

    You can also de-underclock it.

    shopbot.com.au shows it is available from oztechnologies.com.au for $149.60 + $12.00 shipping.

    [ /hardware | # ]

    Australian ENUM Trial

    ENUM is using the DNS to store data (indexed by reversed dotted-digit E.164 telephone-like numbers) that contains a collection of contact information.

    The DNS resource records contain regular expression based rewrite rules that rewrite, then redirect or answer the query.

    See RFC 3761 "The E.164 to Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Application (ENUM)" and RFC 2915 "The Naming Authority Pointer (NAPTR) DNS Resource Record". Example:

       $ORIGIN 3.8.0.0.6.9.2.3.6.1.4.4.e164.arpa.
         ;; order pref flags service regexp         replacement
          NAPTR 10 100 "u" "E2U+sip" "!^.*$!sip:info@example.com!" .
          NAPTR 10 101 "u" "E2U+h323" "!^.*$!h323:info@example.com!" .
          NAPTR 10 102 "u" "E2U+msg" "!^.*$!mailto:info@example.com!" .
      
       This describes that the domain 3.8.0.0.6.9.2.3.6.1.4.4.e164.arpa. is
       preferably contacted by SIP, secondly via H.323 for voice, and
       thirdly by SMTP for messaging.  

    AARNet now run a ENUM Registrar Trial Service and are taking registrations in +615900xxxxx (a non-telphone number range).

    I now have an ENUM, +61 590 000 007.

      $ dig NAPTR 7.0.0.0.0.0.0.9.5.1.6.e164.arpa
         ;; order pref flags service regexp                       replacement
         NAPTR 1 10 "u" "E2U+msg" "\"!^.*$!mailto:John.Mann_its.monash.edu.au!\"" .

    I don't know of anything that uses this information yet.

    [ /networks | # ]

    Mon, 18 Jul 2005

    The Goon Show

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/comedy/progpages/goons.shtml

    US Goon Show Archive www.goon.org

    http://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/
    The Goon Show Depository, an exhaustive information resource on BBC Radio's The Goon Show. The site also contains links to recordings of The Goons and various other classic BBC comedy shows.

    http://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/cds/index.html
    170+ Goon Shows transcribed into 32kb/22hz Mono MP3 format. Plus many other Goon-related recordings, and other British commedians.

    http://www.goonshow.org.uk/

    Update 18-Jul-2005

    Also stocked at shop.abc.net.au including The Goons - Last Goon Show of All on DVD

    [ /media | # ]

    Cisco pwr675

    Ross Khan (at Monash South Africa ) reports

    ATS doesn't address the issue of the lack of redundancy of the PSUs within the various pieces of equipment in the rack. Cisco offers a solution for externally powering switches, using the PWR675(?) external power supply, which can power up to 6 Cisco switches.
    When we did our new Core switch based on 2x Cisco 3750s, we acquired a PWR675 unit for each 3750 (using one powr port each) and then connected the switch's internal power supply to SupplyA and the external PWR675 input to SupplyB.
    This works really well under normal conditions, however there are 2 drawbacks:
    1. - When power is restored, the switch doesn't switch back to the internal supply
    2. - When running on the external supply and with power restored to the switch's internal supply, the switch is prone to random reboots (this observed behaviour is documented in the manual).
    In spite of these caveats, the presence of the PWR675 unit does improve the availability of the 3750 based cluster vs. the cluster running from only internal power supplies...
    It has to be said that Cisco don't recommend that the PWR675 be used in this configuration - we'll have to revisit this in the not-too-distant future...
    :-)

    Cisco might recommend 1 PWR675 to backup a stack of 2 switches.

    But I can'ty see why 1 PWR675 per switch dould be un-recommended. It gives power feed resilience, as well as power-supply resilience.

    [ /monash | # ]

    Fri, 15 Jul 2005

    Substantial Non-infringing Use in Peer-to-Peer applications

    SNIU

    This page exists to document instances of substantial, non-infringing use (hereafter SNIU) in peer-to-peer (hereafter P2P) networks.

    LegalTorrents is a collection of Creative Commons-licensed, legally downloadable, freely distributable creator-approved files ...

    Updated 15 July 2005 No longer at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~arib/SNIU/

    [ /media | # ]

    00-E0-06-09-55-66

    A student couldn't self register their PC in addhost because their Ethernet MAC address was already registered to a computer in South Africa.

    Googling turned up 433 hits.

    It appears the problems occurs with ASUS P4S533-VM motherboards and the Windows XP default driver. The solution is to use the driver from the CD, or download site.

    ntou.edu.tw scan.co.uk asus.com.cn (translated)

    [ /hardware | # ]