Yannblog

The personal website of Ian Littman

Archive for category General

My Bank Failed

Sep 3

Posted by Ian Littman in General | 2 Comments

Earlier this year I moved a sizeable amount of my cash (low five figures at the time) from Guaranty Bank to Broadway Bank. BankRate was looking slim for Guaranty at the time, and I didn’t want to be caught trying to collect FDIC insurance on my own. Looks like I made the right decision.

A couple of weeks ago Guaranty Bank failed. It wasn’t the only bank failure on that Friday (the 21st of August), but it was the largest. Guaranty’s demise was the second largest bank failure of the year, next to Colonial Bank in Alabama.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

1TB for under 6¢ per GB…again!

Aug 24

Posted by Ian Littman in General | 4 Comments

Previously on yanntx.info, I found the shocking deal of a $54.99 1TB hard disk. Well, that deal is gone however that same drive, coupled with a new Newegg promotion, is nearly as good…better for folks who want to buy more than a single drive.

The super deal this time: Windows Live…er…Bing Cash Back. It’s how I got my Vizio VS42LF TV for about $490 (after $198 in cash back, a 10% PayPal discount and a few bucks in credit card rewards) and it’s how you can nab magnetic storage for under 5¢ per GB. In order to get this discount, just go here (a Bing search for “newegg”) and click the link next to the Bing Cashback icon.

Now you’re locked into a session that will give you 10% cashback (via Bing; you’ll have to get a Bing cashback account there but it’s not a huge deal) on pretty much whatever you buy on Newegg. You can now mosey on over here and grab up to five drives at the net price (once the limit-five-per-household rebate and the up-to-sixty-days Bing cash back are in) of just $57.49 apiece, or roughly 5.75¢ per GB. Solid.

Just remember to claim your cash back, to mail in your rebate(s) before the end of September and to grab the drives either by the end of this month or before they sell out again, whichever comes first!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Re: The Case Against Apple

Aug 9

Posted by Ian Littman in General | No Comments

So Jason Calacanis wrote a newsletter/blog post yesterday about how Apple is becoming big, bad, evil, etc. He had some questions at the end. I emailed him my thoughts, but they probably won’t get published that way. So here they are, in reworked form.

Preliminary Notes

Verizon doesn’t use SIM cards. Neither does Sprint. While I think it’d be awesome to see a dual-radio network-agnostic iPhone (like the Blackberry Storm and some new HTC units) I don’t foresee that happening. As for a dual CDMA radio setup that would “bond” two networks together for fast downloads, not gonna happen. The engineering and billing logistics just don’t work out. The best that’ll realistically happen is either an LTE iPhone (I doubt it’ll come out for WiMAX unfortunately) or *possibly* an iPhone “world phone” with CDMA and GSM/HSPA a la the Blackberry Storm if Verizon gets the new exclusive.

Now that that’s off my, and Mike Rundle’s, chest…

Q: Do you think Apple would be more, or less, successful if they adopted a more open strategy (i.e. allowing other MP3 players in iTunes)?

A: At worst, they’d be just as successful. They might be forced to compete a little more on features, especially on the Mac side (where there’s no Windows Media Player and thus no simple way to sync music with a non-iTunes-supported player). However the influx of people using third-party devices on iTunes would make up for any people who might pick a $30 other-brand MP3 player over Apple’s own. Not like those people would buy an iPod in the first place…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

Mission Trip 2009

Jul 22

Posted by Ian Littman in General | No Comments

UPDATE: So far the soul count appeas to be eighteen from that trip. God == awesome.

So I did a lot more than configure wireless networks the week of July 5th. You know, like helping run sound for a Vacation Bible School program that brought twelve fifteen kids to Chirst (about half of the local people who attended). We also reached out to the adults in the community, with a hamburger supper, an ice cream social/worship night and even a bounce castle at the end of the week. The sponsor church for our dead-church-turned-church-plant even brought down a Sno Cone machine and a popcorn machine for the occasion (though you’re right in thinking the bounce castle was the bigger achievement).

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,

Big Spring, TX (aka I Get A Networking Green Belt)

Jul 9

Posted by Ian Littman in General, Tech | No Comments

So I’m here in Big Spring, TX on a mission trip at Gateway Baptist Church. I’m helping with sound and various other things. Lots of community events and a Vacation Bible School program are how my home church is ministering to the populace. So far, life’s good; despite hot sleeping quarters for the guys I think we’ve God through us has had a huge impact here this week. So far twelve kids have come to Christ; there will probably be more salvations before the week’s up. That’s really cool. I’ll link to a slideshow once I’m done here on Twitter (I’m leaving Saturday morning for Colorado).

So if you’re a techie and am wondering what the “Networking Green Belt” part of the post is, bear with me. First let me lay out the internet situation in Big Sprint: Alltel EvDO, Basin 2Way as a WISP, Suddenlink for cable, one or two numbers for dialup. Sprint (my typical cellular carrier) is 1xRTT-only here, as is Verizon for the moment (but they’ll be EvDO soon once they integrate Alltel’s network). Not sure yet abut Basin 2Way’s services and pricing, though I’ll bet it’s only economical for folks who can’t get cable. For cable, Suddenlink is the provider; I’ve detailed their pricing plans and traceroutes here, here and here. Please disregard the extraneous discussion about DOCSIS modulations. Dialup is one of two phone numbers to my knowledge, one for AOL and one for everyone else. This is one of the few areas where TOAST.net has no local numbers, depiste their aggregation of dozens of dialup access number providers. The numbers here are owned by SBC/AT&T, but not WorldNet. Fun stuff.

So back to my networking green belt.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MagicJack without the MagicJack

Apr 18

Posted by Ian Littman in General | 7 Comments

So I got a MagicJack awhile back.It worked as advertised…until it broke. Fortunately I had grabbed the login etc. information from the MagicJack software before this happened, so I could plug it into a softphone (MagicJack uses the industry-standard SIP system for their network). Which I’ve done.

If you want to grab your MagicJack login info, assuming you have the device, this site had more info.

Once you have that info, there are a few softphones that you can try. I would have loved to get the thing working on mycell phone (hey, it’s Windows Mobile, it should be able to handle it) but the SJPhone software didn’t work for long, and I don’t want to use the speakerphone to make and receive calls. Probably just a configuration issue but anyhow…

The first client I tried was Telephone. It’s ultra-minimalist and Mac-only but it works well. To set up the MagicJack account, I used ProxyUserName@talk4free.com (E720213456001@talk4free.com in my case) for the SIP address, proxy1.denver.talk4free.com as the proxy server (denver can be replaced with any number of US cities…more on this in a minute). User Name is the same as ProxyUserName and Password is ProxyUserPassword. On the advanced tab, check the Connect using proxy box and put your proxy server in there. The port is 5070.

The other client I tried, which is “heavier” and more cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac) was QuteCom. There, the login/username is the ProxyUserName, the Password is ProxyUserPassword, the SIP Domain/Realm is talk4free.com, the Server and Proxy are respectively the IP and the name of the proxy you’re using, and the port for the Proxy is 5070.

So about the proxy deal, choose yours carefully. Check out this list, then traceroute to all of ‘em. The one in your city, or near it, may not have the lowest latency. For example, Denver’s proxy rings up at around 70ms, whereas the one in LA, where Comcast traffic hops off to XO, is a mere 40. If you’re wondering who XO is, it’s a second-rate internet backbone that MagicJack for whatever reason is connected to for their servers. On the other hand, Qwest gets the lowest latency to Dallas, weighing in at about 65ms. Decent considering that 45ms of that is between me and the Qwest DSLAM. Moral of the story: if you’re on Comcast and are in the western half of the US, use LA as your proxy. If you’re on Qwest, try Dallas.

If you have any more questions about MagicJack, I might be able to answer them. You never know unless you comment…

Yay ASCII Art!

Apr 17

Posted by Ian Littman in General | No Comments

==============================~=~...........................===~::::::::::~~~~~~
==============================~~.............,..............===~::::::::~:~~~~~~
==============================:.........,,..,...............===~::::::::~~~~~~~~
=============================.............,.,...............===~::::::::::~~~~~~
===========================~..........,,,,,.,..,,,........,.=~~::::::::::~:~~~~~
=========================:...............,...,:,...,.......,~~:::::::::::~:~~~~~
=========================:,,,.....................,,.,,..,..,~::::::::::::~~~~~~
~========================,.,,...........,..........,.........:~::::::::::::~~~~~
~=~======================,...........,,.......................::::::::::::::~~~~
~=~=~====================:.........,,,,,,.,.............,.....~:::::::::::::~~~~
~~~~~~=~=================,.......,.,::::::,,,,:,....,::::,...,~::::::::::::::~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+=+~===~~:~,......,,,:=++++++~:~=++==::~~~~,..~~=:::::::::::::~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~??????????????+......,~=++?????????????++=~~~~,..~~~:::::::::::::::~~
~~~~~~~~~~~???????????????......:~=+++????????????+++++=~:.,~~=:::::::::::::::~:
~~~~~~~~~~~???????????????~....,~=++++++++++????++++=++==~.,~~~::::::::::::::::~
~~~~~~~~~~~??????????????=+:..,~==+=~=~==+++++====~~:,,,,~.:~~~:::::::::::::::::
~~~~~~~~~~~+?????????????:,=..~~:::::,,.,,::====~:,:::::~:,:~~~::::,::::::::::::
~~~~~~~~~~~++++++????????==~,.~~::,,,,,,,,,:~===~,,...,::~,:~~~::,::::::::::::::
~~~~~~~~~~~=+++++??+?????+=:,.~~~:,.......,,~?++:,,:::::~~::~~~:,,,,::::::::::::
~~~~~~~~~~::++++++++++???+++=,~====~::::::~~=?I+~:::::~===~~~~~:,,,,,:,:::::::::
~~~~~~~~~~::+++++++++++++++++::~=++??+=+++++=?I+=++++++++=,~~~~,,,,,,,,:::::::::
.....~~~~:::+++++++++++++++~~:::=++??+++++++++?+==+++++++=.~~~~,,,,,,,::::::::::
.:....:~~:::+++++++++++++++..,.:~=++++++=====+I+===++++==,.~~~:,,,,,,,,,::::::::
............+++++++++++++++.,,:::~=++?+++===++I?+=~=====~..~~~:,,,,,,,,,,:::::::
............+++++++++++++++::,:::~~=+++====+++?+++==++==~..:~~:,,,,,,,,,::::::::
............=++++++++++++++::,:::~~====++~~~~==+=~~=+=~~...:~::,,,,,,,,,,,::::::
............==+++++++++++++:::::,::~==++++~:::~~::~===~~...::::,,,,,,,,,,,::::::
............~===+=+==++++++:,:::::::~~=++==~~~~~~~==~=~....:::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,::::
............,==============,,,,:~,:::~========~~~=~~:~:....:::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:::
.............============,..:~~:~::::::,,,,::::::,,,::,,::,:::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:,::
.............========,.....?==~:~~:,:::~~::~~~:~:::~~:,...,,,,,:,,,,,,,,,,,,::::
.............===~,........?++=~:~~~:,::::~:::::::::::~~~~.....,,,:::,,,,,,,,,,::
..........................?++=~~~~~~:,:~~~=~~::::~~::~~~:........,,,:,,,,,,,,,::
...........................?==~~~~~~~::,:~==+===~~:::~~~=............,,,,,,,,,:,
...........................++=~~~~~~~:::::,,~~~~:~:::~~~~..............,,,,,,,,,
............................?+=~~~~~~~:::::~:~~~~::~~~~~.................:,,,,,:
.............................:+=~~~~~~~:::::~:::::~~~~:...................,:,,,,
...............................==~~~~~~~::::::::~~~~:,.....................:::,,

http://www.glassgiant.com/ascii/ rocks!