After an Apple Store Genius seminar, my wife and I were on our way home, taking 90-94 since it was the quickest route at that time of night (21:00-21:15). We were talking about this and that, and I kind-of just stop talking and start staring really hard before me, mouth agape, completely unable to believe what I was seeing. A red Dodge Charger with an out-of-state license plate that said “MUDKIPZ.” We were about to approach it and do something lurid or silly like waving our arms out the windows, screaming, but it took the next off-ramp, and we missed our chance.

Immediately following this, I saw an instance of Rule 34, clear as night, right before us: a stack of semi-tractors mounting one another. As an example of what I mean, please view this photo: http://s1.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/247169/Rule+34+Moving+Vehicles/. The example I saw, though, involved four semi trucks, not just two, so I think it might have jumped from X-rated to XXX-rated. Good thing the real-world doesn’t have filters or other censorship (yet), or I might not have been privileged to witness this fine reminder of how badly Internet culture had embedded itself in my subconscious.

Thank you, Internet, and more specifically 4Chan for ruining my brain. :D

Pic related:

One of the missing bits of functionality we lamented with X-Lite was the fact that the buttons on the headset module itself did not interact with X-Lite at all.

After some tiresome digging through the massive information-overload that is the modern Internet, we finally managed to dig out a possible solution: PerSonoCall (available on the Plantronics PerSonoCall CD that accompanied the Plantronics CS50 USB headset) or PerSono Suite (available from the Plantronics website) allows the headset to interact seamlessly with many popular VOIP clients. Even though X-Lite was not on the list of specifically-compatible VoIP software, we gave it a try. Lo and behold, it worked — on Windows XP. On my Windows 7 box, I was unable to get satisfactory results (READ: ANY ACTIVITY) from the buttons on the headset.

Well, today I had an epiphany: the CS50 sends the button state information over TCP on port 444. Windows 7 is more of a security freak than Windows XP. I should add a Windows Firewall exception for incoming and outgoing communication on TCP port 444 and see if that fixes the problem. There’s nothing to lose; if it doesn’t work, I just delete my custom Windows Firewall exceptions, and I’m back where I started.

So I did. It worked. PerSono Suite receives the button state information from my headset on port 444 and forwards the information to the standard headset input in X-Lite. The pickup/hangup button works. The mute button works. It’s perfect.

Take these steps in Windows 7 to alleviate the problem of communication between the Plantronics CS50 USB headset and your preferred VoIP client:

Plug in your Plantronics CS50 USB headset.

Under the Start menu, navigate to the Control Panel.
Locate the “Windows Firewall” panel.
Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall settings, choose “Advanced settings.”

Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, select “Inbound Rules.”
On the right side of the window, select “New Rule…”
For the Rule Type, choose “Port” and press “Next>.”
Verify that “TCP” and “Specific local ports” are marked.
In the blank text box next to Specific local ports, enter 444
Press “Next>.”
Verify “Allow the connection” is marked.
Press “Next>.”
Verify the “Domain,” “Private,” and “Public,” boxes are checked.
Press “Next>.”
Name your Inbound Rule.
Press “Finish.”

Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, select “Outbound Rules.”
On the right side of the window, select “New Rule…”
For the Rule Type, choose “Port” and press “Next>.”
Verify that “TCP” and “Specific local ports” are marked.
In the blank text box next to Specific local ports, enter 444
Press “Next>.”
Mark “Allow the connection.”
Press “Next>.”
Verify the “Domain,” “Private,” and “Public,” boxes are checked.
Press “Next>.”
Name your Outbound Rule.
Press “Finish.”

Close out of all control panel windows.

Install and configure PerSono Suite, available from the Plantronics website if you have not done so already: http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/support/softwaredownloads/personosuite.jsp

Install and configure your VoIP client of choice, if you have not done so already.

Congratulations, the buttons on your Plantronics CS50 USB headset should work with the functions in your VoIP client, provided it offers standard headset support, and allows for the use of a remote answer/hang-up button and a remote mute button.

If you have any questions, concerns, ideas, gripes, etc., feel free to leave a comment; though the most effective repository for them wold probably be the Plantronics or CounterPath forums, as there are several threads dealing with the issue.

This fix might work for Windows Vista, but as I skipped Vista entirely, I really can’t make any promises, and I shouldn’t be making suggestions either.

Best Regards,

Adrian

I waited for three-and-a-half hours.

It was okay, though, for I had a wholly enjoyable book, some music, and some people to watch.

The place? Wicker Park, outside 6 Corners, inside my car, in the driver’s seat. (Prepositions. I like them.)

The wholly enjoyable book? Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. (Douglas Adams. I can’t get enough of him).

The music? Various CDs of mixed music. Mixed by me. Not half-bad, if I may say so myself. (Electronic music. I can’t get enough of it.)

I arrived at 0105, to pick up my SO from her job at 6 Corners in Wicker Park. She was due to be finished, but the place was very busy, and there were these two drunk guys who had a ridiculous number of wings to eat, and still wanted more. (The number was something like 86 between the two of them, though I don’t know how much the “more” was.)

She arrived at around 0335.

We drove home. More appropriately, I drove home, because I was sitting in the driver’s seat.

We arrived home around 0400. After some time awake at home, and a brownie for each of us, we went to bed around 0430.

I awoke.

At a minute past 0900, I heaved myself out of bed, as though I weighed several pounds more than I actually do (I am wholly convinced that cushions of any kind are designed to make one weigh more than one actually does, though I am not sure of why).

I enter the bathroom and grab a pill. I enter the kitchen and grab some water (in a container, of course. I do not often take part in fundamentally futile activities). I deliver the pill and the glass of water to my SO. She sits up, takes them, does the appropriate things with them, hands me the glass, and goes back to sleep. I put the glass in the kitchen, return to the bedroom, and do the same (go back to sleep).

I awoke. Again.

At around ten past 1100, my SO tiptoed into the room — though how she got out of the room was beyond me at the time — and said “special delivery!” I roll over to face her and see what it is she was talking about, just in time to witness an elbow knock a brownie off a plate, and onto my blanketed chest. In fact, I believe it was my elbow that did the deed, but I’ve no way of being sure.

“Why do you always hit me with your elbows?” She said, slightly amused as I scrambled to restore the brownie to its former position of glory and graciously accept her gift of ‘it’s time for you to be awake now.’

It’s true, though. I do often hit her with my elbows, usually in a painful way. My elbows are always getting me into trouble. They are hard, they are pointy, and they like to hit things — usually my SO, and usually either in the face (in bed), somewhere else near the face (in bed), or her knees, elbows, or other parts of her extremities (in and out of bed).

I guess my elbows must be the heaviest part of my body, for they are always sticking out or moving when I attempt to translate my body through any space. They are, apparently, my primary means of locomotion. I thought my legs were in charge of that, but I am apparently wrong. I remarked, in reply to her question, “I have repulsor-beams in my elbows, and they help me move around.” In this way, I likened myself to a Starfleet ship with warp nacelles. My elbows are warp nacelles. They are my primary means of motion through three-dimensional space, therefore they must be warp nacelles, and I must be an analogue to a Starfleet ship.

I accepted her gift, and tried to get up a few times. I remarked “I’ll be up in a minute.” She left the room.

I rolled over. I placed the brownie in front of my face to help remind myself why I was trying to be awake. My plan was not quite but almost entirely unsuccessful. That is to say it was successful enough that after a few more minutes of squabbling, I managed to get up and come write this article.

I am now awake.

Aren’t you lucky?

I am a big fan of SparkFun’s work and products. I wish I lived in Colorado so I could attend their classes. I am prepared to go to battle for them, if necessary, to maintain the lines between what is acceptable use of the law and what is not.

The hacker/DIY/electronics engineering community has slowly become aware of the situation and the level of protest is high. In fact, the sole author of this blog accepted SparkFun’s invitation to write to SPARC by email.

Here is a copy of the original cease-and-desist letter from SPARC to SparkFun.

Here is a copy of the response I sent them.

I doubt anything much will come of this threat from SPARC, but if it should come to a lawsuit, I am prepared to be on the defensive to protect small companies from being abused by larger companies and their expansive legal departments. Cisco can do what it wants to Apple, no matter how much of a fanboy I may be, but this is crossing a line. Under no circumstances should this hacking of the legal system be allowed.

Original Source – SparkFun
Secondary Source – Hack-a-Day

Not that anyone is going to take stock in what I have to say, but I absolutely love my MDR-V700s. I’ve taken them literally everywhere with me. The protective bag that came with them died after maybe a month, but the headphones were not bothered by the months upon years (I’ve had and used the same pair often for over 4 years now) of being beaten up, banged around, and generally mistreated in my man-bag. They’ve had a laptop pressing on them, a Rubik’s Cube, grapefruit spoon, pens and pencils, forks, knives, and just about anything else I’ve ever kept in my bag rubbed against them, and they still work, and no part of them is broken. My only beef with them is the lack of an easily-replaceable cord…and I hate the curly-cord. A lot. Especially when it starts twisting the wrong way at random locations along the cord and I can’t get it to go back to the original twist direction. Nonetheless, they still work, they’re comfortable (if a little heavy), and the cord is thick enough that the couple of tiny nicks it has aren’t enough to get through all the insulation and actually expose the wire. I also really love the screw-on adapter that goes on the end. I have never lost it, thanks to the screw-on property Sony was so intelligent as to include. My headphones are just about the only Sony product I like enough to purchase. I’m glad I made the $120 investment (that’s how much they ran when I bought them 4-5 years ago.

I don’t exactly beat the crap out of my phones, but I hardly baby them, either. I’ve dropped them, sat on them, crushed them…you name it, it’s probably happened to them. They have character, and they still work as well as the first day I got them, even though my ears don’t.

So I’ve not tried any other phones, since I really don’t need to spend money to replace something that works just fine. The sound quality is good enough for me, and my only problems with them are the weight (but lighter means more fragile) and the curly cord (I want a straight cord).

Does anybody have any solutions or suggestions, by the way, to my tangled cord problem? Any opinions you’d like to express?

I’m no lawyer, and I’m not incredibly intimate with the rulings or dealings of the FCC (except the little sticker/engraving they make manufacturers put on every wireless device), but I hope this doesn’t spell trouble for Google’s newest product (one of my favourites, by the way — I will be extraordinarily upset if I get a small taste of something wonderful and it is suddenly taken away by The Law).

The FCC letter mentions the call-blocking feature of Google Voice, and seems to imply that it threatens the well-being of smaller rural telephone companies that are protected with a kind of exclusive-access-pass to local phones, enabling them to charge enough money to long-distance providers (and therefore likely their users, too) to stay in business in the cut-throat world that is the telecommunications industry. I don’t know much about the call-blocking they’re referring to, just that I can block telemarketers and private numbers, etc. if I so wish; and that Google offers its own competitive international calling plan.

The FCC also wants to know about Google’s invite-only system. They appear to need clarification on just what that means, even though they could pay somebody to find out by going to http://voice.google.com and actually reading something. Gods forbid.

One more thing; the FCC wants to know how Google Voice fits in with telecom laws. I say if companies like PosTrack (I wish them the best) can get big contracts installing hardware and software that does essentially the same thing (binding multiple phone numbers to one well-controlled central number with included voicemail and administrative features), then Google voice should be allowed to offer a similar hardware-independent cross-platform service for free. There’s healthy competition, so the issue at hand is NOT a monopoly — they’re simply ahead of the game a little bit.

If anybody reading this knows what more to make of this, please comment and let me know. I could use a good legal education — but please, be nice. :D

Original article courtesy of The Register. Thank you for pointing out this important issue to me. I will be watching and waiting with baited breath.

-Adrian

I normally would ignore this as another feeble attempt at corrupting our youth, but this game isn’t aimed at children the way several of PeTA’s previous marketing schemes were (in-your-face-your-mother-kills-cute-fluffy-aminals-style).

I’m actually quite amused by it. That is the reasoning behind me posting this wasteful slander on my blog. It’s not-so-wasteful. I really get a kick out of playing this game, and I know several people who would as well.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a vegetarian. I have been since Freshman Year in high school. I’m against the unethical treatment most factory farm animals receive (I almost stopped drinking milk after visiting a factory dairy…but two weeks went by and I couldn’t take soy milk anymore…and hemp/almond milk is just too expensive and the wrong texture to enjoy with cereal or use when making scrambled eggs or french toast), but I’m not going to force other people to see disgusting things they don’t want to see just to piss them off and make them hate me. That’s not a good way to get a point across. Besides, I’m totally all for the idea of eating meat if I kill it myself. I have no problem with meat (except red meats, which should be eaten very sparingly, and pork, which should not be eaten by humans — there’s a reason we’re referred to as long pig when we’re cannibalised), I just have a problem with the idea that by eating it I’m likely to be supporting torturous activities, as well as possible major greenhouse gas sources. Meat tastes better when it’s been treated nicely. There’s scientific proof, look it up.

So anyway…I played this game. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. That’s why I’m going to support PeTA by posting links to it here, because I want to share my amusement. I like to share things. If you read it here and play it, please post your scores in the comments section. I’m interested to see how you do. I don’t happen to remember my score, or I’d post it for comparison.

Also…what’s the point of making vegetarian food look/taste like meat? Isn’t the point of vegetarian food to get away from meat? Why not just make food with vegetables and ignore meat substitutes? Or make dishes meant to have meat in them…but without replacing the meat with something? Vegetables are good on their own, too. I guess fake meat is meant for those reluctant to give up meat, but who were forced to after watching PeTA videos? :P

Enjoy:

Here’s hoping PeTA doesn’t turn you into a vegetarian. :P

-Adrian

Furthermore, painted muffins don’t play chess, by any standard. The glottals stop harassing monkey ears daily. Absolutely brown! How can a keyboard hear turtles? Nobody fidgets.

Did you know almost eleventy-six grapes came from Moon Town? Neither did I. I just made that up.

How about an eye of brimstone cobbler? It’s very short. It’s my favourite kind of bicycle.

The reticule of happiness lusts for peace with the Hors D’oeuvres of Righteous Indignance. This is not pizza. It is archaeology which fans the flame of monkey brew. Eat more stoppers and his pants will rapidly blossom. Rubber knots are not impassible, merely improbably belligerent. Do not force the key to fly, it will rust on its own lawn.

I’ll have you know this apple is really a pear. No boundaries obscure my peanuts.

Jellybeans.