To Be Frank …

Been playing with my new Sipura 3000 voip adaptor for the last few days …

Until today though, I could only get either VoIP outbound or PSTN outbound to work, what I’d wanted to do was get it configured so that if I dial normally – I get a regular PSTN call, but if I dial a prefix (9), I get a VoIP call …

(999< :@gw0>|112< :@gw0>|<9:>x.|[0-8]x.< :@gw0>)

Is the dial-plan that worked !

What it means is:
Route calls to 999 (or 112) to gw0 (the PSTN interface), ditto any other calls beginning with the numbers 0 through 8

Any call with an initial digit of 9 has the 9 dropped, and is routed over VoIP

Among other house-hacking projects, insulating and flooring the attic are currently in progress. This will become a home for my server, and the noisy parts of my computer kit (and will also leave us a little more space in the rest of the house !)

We looked at the options for insulating it, we peeked up after a few weeks in the house, and realised no-one had been up there since the place was re-wired in the 1970s. The insulation was ancient, and might as well not have been there. So, we decided to insulate on the slopes of the roof – to ensure the temp in the attic was reasonable all year-round.

Sheep wool insulation (www.sheepwoolinsulation.ie) seemed an obvious choice. It’s as good as, if not better than fibreglass, and doesn’t need all the protective gear. The guys in Rathdrum are really nice too – happy to talk (even though they’re overworked at the moment) and great to deal with, they even called me the day after the insulation was delivered to check that it had arrived okay !

So far the experience of installing it hasn’t been too bad – hardest part is the climbing around the attic … maybe we should have put the floor down first !!

Got myself a Canon EOS 350D there recently. I have to say – it’s a really nice camera !

Went mad on eBay within a week or so of getting it though (it’s a dangerous place when you’re looking for a few toys !) Ended up with three 35mm SLRs as well … One older Canon EOS 300, and two EOS 300Vs !! (One of the Vs was an accident I’ll admit – won an auction I’d thought I was losing due to the winner pulling out.) The 300V is quite a nice 35mm SLR, and makes a nice compliment to the 350D. They share the same lenses (well the 350D can take the new EF-S mounts too but that’s another story).

What really amazes me is that I got the three 35mm ones, for the price of the 300V body-only in some of the local shops. And they all included lenses ! Go figure !

Subscribed to “Amateur Photographer” a UK based photography mag, still haven’t got my first issue, but that’ll arrive soon enough !

Hell – I might even post a picture or three when I get around to doing something with ‘em !

It’s been ages since I posted anything here … mainly because I’m up the walls, literally !

Since we moved into the new house (we got number 10 – did I mention that !!) it’s been all go ! The electrics here were last done in or around 1975, so are a little antiquated … we were making do, until we got Sky+ installed (well worth the money !). The cowboy-installer threw cable up, over the roof (the dish is at the back) and down the front of the house, in through the wall at the front and around the living room! This wasn’t going to do.

So, in a fit of madness, I bought a reel of sat cable, and dug holes through the walls in the house and ran the cable internally. Then decided that network cables would make a nice compliment to the sat cables I was running, and sure, while I’m at it – let’s add a dozen or so extra sockets to the mix. End result being a lot of dust, plastering, hole digging (SDS drills with chisel bits are good !!), and general mayhem.

Getting towards end-game now though. The wiring is mostly done (only the power to the attic and the new bedroom sockets to go now !). Next job – attic flooring !