Google's data only sim and march to become a dominant global carrier

A couple of years ago I have researched into using Google Voice for a free landline. It worked but finally I gave up due to voice quality. It wasn't about narrowband voice vs wideband. It's like the phone app is trying to be an IP phone (VOIP landline) when it's actually a mobile phone. And the echo is terrible when calling copper networks. In addition, the need for everybody in the house to operate a bluetooth handset (that looks like a plain old telephone handset) killed it.

I invested in IP phones (SIP, VOIP protocal) both wired and wireless. The cost is low and dropping. Now Callcentric drops to $3.9 per month includes much more minutes than I use and 911.

Google killed GV open protocol and hence the free landline business. But actually not. They work with the device manufacturers to keep it going. But there's no point for new users. About the same time, Google launched Hangout Dialer.

So HO became a totally free VOIP solution. It goes over Wifi and your ISP that you already paid for. It also comes out of your 4G data if Wifi is not available. Strictly speaking, it's unlimited domestic and then some, like Canada, and cost very little internationally.

And you don't worry about voice quality. It's a phone app and Google is responsible to make it compatible with all types of networks. And with the voice over LTE standard, all the phones and all the carriers are capable of HD voice quality.

You can then have a spare smart phone and replace your landline for free, if you still need a home phone or talking into a phone for that matter.

While people were worrying if GV starts charging, Google killed the IP phone and landline business in one stroke. New entry level smart phones are cheap and should support wifi calling, voLTE and hence HD voice. Business used to go for high volume VOIP provider but now GV has unlimited domestic. There's little point to use the SIP protocol and IP phones.

I wonder why there's still no Hangout phones like skype phones to replace landlines? Maybe it's a gentlemen's agreement like not to port landland to GV. Google doesn't want it and doesn't need it. The smartphones now are much better. And everybody uses smartphones and apps. And if you need to talk a lot, invest in a business grade bluetooth headset.

At the end, Google don't even need phone numbers. Just use your Google ID can call anybody else in the world for free using Hangout or their other apps.

Not long after Hangout dialer, replacing landlines and giving you multiple lines on your 4G phone, Google became a proper global carrier with Project Fi. It's not the cheapest but they made 4G affordable for everybody. If you don't use any data you don't pay for it. Most people will save unless for the heavy data users consistantly every month.

Soon after Project Fi becomes available for everybody, Google launched another checkmate like move with data only sim, launched without much fanfare.

Most people wouldn't look at it, unless you need tablets on the go and tethering from the phone is not convenient. But you can use it on any smartphone, unlocked or locked to T-mo, or possibly the other Project Fi carriers. Personally I tried it on an entry level T-mo phone and everything works for Hangout; the voice is good too.

Now you have a family, even tribe, plan for free, using HO. You don't pay anything if you don't use it, or if you use it only on wifi. If you use it on data, it's only 1 c per minute calling, an unverified rough estimate. TXT uses much less data. There's no privacy issue. Everybody has their own phone and their own google account and their own google voice number.

Now if you add a data sim to your "home landline", you can even take it with you anywhere. And if your wifi or ISP or both go down, you still have your 4G network as backup. Now your ISP network and the 4G network is requried to be highly reliable. You got the reliabiltiy of both network. And Fi may even use multiple 4G networks. And not just 4G, Fi use 3G/2G data too, but ususally the towers are the same unless they are very old.

I would say Google isn't aiming at competing with ISP or wireless carrier directly. As I have said above, at the end everything is ethernet, and you are only your google email address, or something that appear to be more neutral (but dominated by Google). To compete in that space, they already have a head start, Allo. Other Google produces already use a lot of AI on the cloud. Voice input use a lot of it to recognize phrase and lookup your phonebook. Keep does character recognition without telling you.

Anything else is to ensure Google getting there. Google fibre is one. They have the money and muscle to build a global fibre network. It doesn't matter who builds it. They are not after that money. They just want it build and they will make good use of it for profit. They don't need it if there is net neutrality. If not, they have their own network, though tiny at the moment, but nobody got anything big.

The same for wireless. If other carriers don't let Google use 4G their way, Google may build their own 4G network. They don't care about anything but 4G or up.

Acer Chromebook 15 external drive encryption & other solved problems

I have two important things that I cannot do on ChromeOS so I have to install Ubuntu via Chrubuntu - openvpn and encryption. Chrubuntu isn't going to be supported since C720. Crouton is basically ChromeOS kernel allowing you to install Ubuntu software, so it didn't work just like Chromos. Now solutions to both are available and I can move on to the cloud.

The easier is encryption of external drive. Last time I tried ecryptfs on chromeos it didn't work. I have only seen questions and no body say they worked it out. Until I found that one guy did the same as I did but it worked. I don't know which model he used. So I did it and it worked. Of course you need to be in developer mode so you get the proper linux shell.

So it's the same as in Ubuntu or any linux I suppose:
#mount -t ecryptfs .encryptedfolder decryptedfolder
I like to separate the encrypted files and hide this folder. Use all the default parameters and it will be fine, or just remember what parameters you used when you encrypt. For the first time mount, ecryptfs will warn that you may be mistyping, and offer to save something so it can check next time. You have to say no to work. The directory to write to doesn't exist in ChromeOS or the permission isn't right. If you say yes it is an error and the mount will fail. That's it. I saw all my old encrypted files in the usb drive. If I get hold of my old developer mode C720 I will try it again.

Now for the VPN. You have to find a provider that supports the subset of openvpn that chromos demands. I settled for L2TP. It's could be as secure as openvpn, but somewhat slower. But the problem is, you have to login first and then start the vpn. So somebody monitoring you on your ISP knows your email address. Maybe the login credentials are encrypted, but Google have your clear IP anyway to connect to your email ID.

SSH on chromos works and you can use it as a proxy before you login Google. But I can't find ssh providers. My vpn provider once supports ssh but now they advise against it. So I ran openvpn on my dd-wrt router. Login to Google. Stop the router vpn. And start the L2TP. You don't want to run openvpn on the router because the processor is not as powerful and that all traffic is encrypted. Ideally one SSID should be the vpn channel while the others are clear. Nothing works from the net, or I don't understand a bit. Establishing a VPN with PrivateInternetAccess is already an achievement. It will be a story for another day.

I would have settled for hiding some less important files. With a simple option on the file manager, the hidden files can easily be seen. Windows does not honor the dot, neither does the TV. So I turned on the hidden flag of the usb drive partition. All OS works except for Chromos! It is Linux but ignores the hidden flag. So I create 10 hidden folders and with 10 hidden folders inside each, and so on. I just need a link to the folder where the real things are. In linux you just need a symbolic link inside your private directory pointing to the folder in the external drive. It's the same in Chromos except that the Files manager don't show links!!! I thought of using the Chrome browser with the file:/// protocol. It's perfect. But the browser only knows how to handle file types that it knows. For X265 vidoes, the video player doesn't do anything. You can use the x265 player from chrome store, but you have to type a deliberately difficult path name every time.

Though the vpn steps sound complicated, but being linux, you can script it. Chromeos even comes with the iconic vi editor! Without logging in or entering guest mode, you can ctrl-shift-right-arrow to get to shell. Then run the script:
#ssh root@192.168.1.1 'sh /tmp/openvpn/start'
The start script is my custom persistent script on dd-wrt. There is also a stop script.

I think the C740 at 11" doesn't sell. The same C720 with a maybe 20% faster CPU? I could have got a new C720 for $150 at black Friday last year. The new very cheap chromebooks aren't options. The C720 is one of a kind with super performance for that price. Newer chromebooks in the same class have worse processor, worse screen and non SSD storage. The reason to buy the chromebook 15 is the full 1080p and better IPS screen. The processor is somewhat faster just to be sure. Also 2GB memory and 16 GB never cause problem for me, but double that for about $100 is a no brainer, now that I'll be moving to the cloud and replacing my desktop.

The iCore option for C720 and others is expensive. I looked at bench marks in the past because I do video recoding from time to time. You can hire a fast machine at Amazon just to do that but it takes time and money to move the video back and forth. Now I don't do recoding anymore and myself is the benchmark. The C720 meets all my needs and I don't need anything faster. And I won't go for anything slower.

One thing that surprise me is H.265 codec. You can play mkv files on chromebook with that codec using the X265 app. But ... ! The app says the processor is not fast enough for real time! What? I just paid some $300! It seems fast enough but I can see "artifacts" clearly on the screen, like a patch of bad or blurred skin. It's only 720p ! Of course H.264 mp4 1080p videos are playing perfectly on all my chromebooks. So I don't expect that at all with a faster cpu. But the cpu should be able to handle that. Just that the app is not exactly native to chrome, not sufficiently optimized and the sound coding AC3 is the weaker link. Fortunately there's few x265 videos around.

The other video thing is that nothing on chromeos plays wmv. People suggested to run Android app on chrome. Some say it works but not anymore for me.

Have you noticed that Google is killing Linux & Firefox deliberately or otherwise. Chromebook is good because there is never a Linux portable at a reasonable price. It's a low volume custom business. Ubuntu One and Firefox sync can't compete with Google. Ubuntu One had to shut down. Firefox sync for me didn't work all of a sudden, only to find out a lot later that they are claiming to have redesigned it. I never bothered trying it.

Ubuuntu itself is breaking up. There have been constant updates for the same things over and over. I think they are struggling. But ibus still doesn't work for me. Basically I can't type if I am not using English. In a way you can regard the killer app for google is the google input if you need any language other than English and similar European languages. At the least, I am not aware of any spell checker that keeps your custom dictionary in the cloud. Google doesn't do that as such, but in the form of intelligent input.

The newer versions of Ubuntu and Firefox are grinding to a halt in my older desktop (with an excellent monitor). Before that using Chrome browser is a bit of a hassle. But not anymore. Chrome is actually faster and crash less in Ubuntu. Maybe I have too many extensions on Firefox but don't think it's the main cause. I think they are making the software fat with features to compete, bring down performance on older machines in the process.

In defense of the traditional side mirror adjustment

I wrote the last post as a supporter of the newer side mirror adjustment. I've been doing it for while, but only partially. I didn't see much of my own car's back, and the traditional blindspot is reduced. I was doing OK until I discovered ultra mini cars!

Since I research into the newer blindspot elimination method, I was so sure, and therefore written the last post.

After going all the way, here's the problem I have, mostly wasn't mentioned by the single guy who opposed the newer method.

For the old method, the rear mirror gives you a broad view of the situation. The centre view of the mirror is enough. For the new method, the extreme sides of the mirror is very important, that's where you see the cars right behind you before they appear at the side mirrors. The problem is, in most cars the rear mirror is partially blocked by seat rests. It is worse at night as cars become light spots at the four corners.

In the old method, you do not need the rear mirror to change lanes (though you have to check it first). In the new method, you should. If you see nothing in the side mirror, a car may still be moving fast into view. That is killing your neck and use much more time. Imagine that I have a mile to cut through 8 lanes at an 80 mph traffic congestion.

In the practical world, depending on which country you drive, half of the drivers don't see your signalling to change lane soon enough, 10% will let you through, while 40% will try to block you. Now you need very much to see the cars you are trying to pass. You have to continuously watch their reaction to your signals. They may accelerate, slow down to give you sufficient space, or doing anything else as if you never signalled. In the new method, the best case is that you don't see anything on the side mirrors, and checking on that direction that there's nothing on your blind spot. It's uncomfortable, like not watching your enemies.

In tight spaces, it's more comfortable to have a reference to your car to judge if you have sufficient space to pass, and you can see the other car as you are passing. The new method don't give you that, you see nothing.

Because of these reasons, I'm going back to the traditional method, looking for other ways to eliminate blind spot to make changing lane a pleasure. The problem of blind spot mirrors is that, you don't want to glue something on your mirror of your brand new spot car!

Blind spot elimination side mirror adjustment

There is a newer side mirror adjustment to eliminate blind spot for a decade now. There is one guy who is very vocal against it. I'm sure if he is still that much against it or he just don't want to withdraw the articles he submitted to the internet.

I have this renewed interest because ... I'm horrified about the smallness of the new cars! Those two seaters shorter than a Mini! Horrible! And often those drivers have insufficient confidence who use others as a speedometer, by following you synchronously for miles at your traditional blind spot!

First, that guy assume that if you flip left and right, there is all that is to it. No. I have to go home daily on a 8 lane freeway / motorway after dust, in a traffic jam moving at over 80 miles per hour. I have to cut from the outermost lane 8 (carpool) to exit the freeway in about a mile. And many of the other "cars" are humv sized SUV's with bright LED's glaring into your side mirror. And they don't signal if they don't see the need to. When they signal, it means move over, I'm coming.

I drove on several continents and I experienced all the international aggressive, incompetent driving styles on my way home.

That guy is not comparing apple to apple, and piles up all the reasons he can think of to support himself. This is obvious when he's talking about backup! WTF! Now if somebody created an accident on the freeway, it's not just a bump on the door, but a pile up of biblical proportions at 80 MPH. Honestly, I didn't do parallel parking and not even reverse parking for so long that I think I will fail any test. If you really need the side mirror for perfect parking, fine, but who cares. The car is mostly stationary and you have all the time to look around 360 without the side mirror. If you hit anything, it will be just a scratch.

I don't think he got the geometry right. I was looking for more scientific and geometric explanations so as to set the side mirrors perfectly. But youtube users seemed to have done a better job. Anyway, the new blind spot is a narrow triangle with your side back door on one side and extruding to the other lane. In theory, a short motorbike can hide in that zone. But practically, being in that zone at high speed is a dead wish - extreme tail gating - and it doesn't depend on how your side mirrors are adjusted. If you want to pass right at the lane marking line, you would not stay on the dead zone and suddenly accelerate. 

If he wants to talk about human nature, I tell you what, my wife never use the side mirrors! And it's not just her. When driving tests are easy, the side effect is that you can pretend to check the blind spot without understanding what to look for. If you look over your shoulder without seeing anything the examiner will give you a tick.

I can assure you that many drivers turn their heads to make sure that they don't create an accident during lane change. That's not bad when there's plenty of space ahead. But the problem is that people don't signal when they see the lane is free to take. So when you do everything that's right, and in the middle of changing over, you will find that somebody in front of you is also moving over to the same lane from the other side, without signalling.

The traditional way isn't fool proof if you do everything right. There is the pillar blind spot between the rear and front side windows. Practically, you can only see clearly cars that pass your side rear door. Small cars can still hide in the blind spot without being detected.

The guy talked about different cars, trucks, vans. This is rubbish. I don't even see if the traditional way claims to be one size fit all. I can't say about trucks, but it is your responsibility to see if it works for your vehicle.

Yes, there are cheap blind spot elimination mirrors as add-ons. But the problem is, if you don't know how to set the side mirrors in any methodology, you are not going to be able to set these aids correctly, or even buy the right mirrors.

My wife will never let me see how she drives, to avoid me telling her what is the correct, safe way. She never adjust the side mirrors - she don't know how to and she don't use them anyway. You may wonder what her driving instructor taught her. I think if your student is a total failure, you may want to teach her something that she feels her money spent is worthwhile. She talked about how to claim the lane for herself out maneuvering other drivers, when she don't even know how to use the mirrors, admen.

Some people obviously don't really understanding the newer adjustments or they didn't even try. Basically, for the traditional method, looking over the shoulder is vague. How far back an angle you need? The newer method didn't claim that you don't need to look. A comfortable side glance over the shoulders guarantee that you won't miss anything. It makes the obvious more obvious. Hopefully my wife will notice something there even if she doesn't adjust the mirrors herself.

You can't change lanes using the side-mirror alone. But that's not wrong on the method itself, it's transitional.

I saw a cyclist who is very much against it because they are often hit by car doors. I would say it's a already problem with the old method. For the newer method, if you bother to look, and you can't see your side door, you will find a way like turning your head when the car is stationary. I don't see how you will want to over take a parked car along the curb. Any passenger may hit you. For the driver side doors, I always make sure they are not opened to the on coming traffic. Cars and cyclists are not any different. If you don't open the door all of a sudden, you should be able to catch anything moving with any proper adjustments.

That comes to the point of awareness all the time. The fact is, people often drive 4 hours or more at weekends, and over 7 hours on vacation. It's a good point but you can't expect everybody to do it all the time. And also the drivers who follow you at the blind spot so if the cops are catching speeders, they will not be the first.

As for motorists who can sneak around your car close at high speed, they already have a solution. 10 out of 10 have a exhaust louder than a siren. You just can't miss them.

Parental control using DD-WRT

As I have told you last time, I switched back to DD-WRT. The reason is that it is easier to go back to, and you can flash other 3rd-party from there.

Before I went to another firmware, I thought over it carefully because ... DD-WRT just doesn't work for MAC filtering. I went back to the stock firmware but the IP phone went dead! I'm not going to waste my time.

Also I have a rather complicated (and cheap) setup, with a client bridge to increase range, a powerline network to penetrate the walls into the garage, and a 2nd old router to serve the corner rooms and use twice the bandwidth!

If I flash another firmware the IP phone may not work again so I linger on DD-WRT a bit. The main problem is that the officially recommended version for my router isn't recommended by the community. This is well known but I don't know. How can I know? This is horrible. There's no update all these years. Of course there's no motivation for the few guys in charge to update things several years old.

I flashed the community recommended version and the MAC worked. Then I looked a bit more if I can do parental control effectively. The stock firmware and all the others like Tomato have easier to use GUI I suppose. DD-WRT is basically a complicated list of things it can do.

But how do I know what to do? I only knows what I want - parental control. There are a lot of tutorials on the DD-WRT site but I guess no parental control. That's the problem. Parental control is actually complicated and open ended, so you have to know exactly what you want in order to have a chance of finding the tutorials you need.

First, everybody have a few devices. I thought of adding host names to MAC's before starting to manage them. But it can't be done, so I didn't even try to control anything for a long time. The stock firmware gave me the idea - to add hostname you need to do static IP address. In DD-WRT, I never got the idea of linking static IP to adding host name to MAC's.

I have a few static IP's but all are setup on the host side. It's rather different on the router side. Basically it can be still automatic (DHCP) but you can assign a static IP to any host MAC and label the host your way. You can mix the static and dynamic IP ranges. So if you just change the dynamic assigned IP to a static one, you got your host labelled. But this is not under the initial DHCP setup but under Services - DHCP Server - Static Leases. This should be under newbie tutorial otherwise how do I know? Depending on your browser, you just need to cut and paste around the MAC. It is easy to guess the few unknown IP's remaining by eliminating once host at a time. Before that, the fastest way seems to be looking at the MAC at the host, and type the full digits into the access control box. Terrible.

Now since you have static IP, so it is just easier to use static IP access control rather than the MAC.

Now parental control starts but never easy. You want kids to use OpenDNS and such, while parents have no limitations. But Google made it very simple to change DNS on Chromebooks. You can ban other servers but then it's very inconvenient when you want superuser global access on that machine, to download and install something for example. Also if kids know how to change DNS then they might know how to change IP's etc.

The basic need is to have one SSID for restricted access and another for non-restricted access. I saw this need time and time again but it's not a simple switch in DD-WRT. May be it should be.

Also, if kids suddenly finds that they suddenly need a banned website for homework, there should be a simple way to grant temporary access all by themselves over the phone, without needing someone to login to the router and run some commands. OpenDNS used to take forever for the rules to update. Now it says a few minutes but I doubt that. Immediate is better.

Interestingly, my stock firmware has one SSID and one extra for guest. DD-WRT can have as many virtual access point (SSID's) as you want.

Unfortunately for multiple SSID to work with different DNS, you need the terrible horrible iptable commands. They seldom work, particularly if the poster says "something like this".

The tutorial that works is called "Multiple WLAN" in the DD-WRT tutorials. Each SSID is a WLAN (or sort of), and if you don't install multiple of them, all the SSID's will be bundled on the same WLAN with the same DNS of course.

For DD-WRT, the interface vlan1 represents all the LAN sockets at the back of the router. (For older routers it may be called vlan0.) The eth1 interface is the physical access point (phyiscal SSID). Each additional virtual access point (additional SSID's) is given interfaces wl0.1, wl0.2, etc.

By default everything should be on the same network so vlan1 and eth1 are bridged into br0 interface. You can see this on Setup>Networking. So iptables won't work on individual interfaces since perhaps they are already bridged. Only the bridged interfaces will work. And when you separate the WLAN's (or the SSID's), the only easy way I see is using the DD-WRT GUI building new bridges. So everything will be bridged and there's no reason not to work on the bridged interfaces only.

The instructions for adding bridges are good and working. So I'll will skip and talk about the things you may need to do differently.  By default you have

192.168.1.1 (network)      br0 (bridged ) = vlan1 (ethernet connections ) + eth1 (wifi)

If you add more VAPs (SSIDs), it will be
192.168.1.1    br0 = vlan1 + eth1 + wl0.1 + wl0.2 + ...

For me all the shits already setup, with static IP's and such, went through wifi eth1. (Powerline adaptors, client bridge and repeater.) So for me it's easier to separate the only LAN connection, the PC. So the 1st bridge I created is:

192.168.2.1  br1 = vlan1
You can only take out one interface at a time unless perhaps using the commands. All the other interfaces will be left on br0.

I need one wifi VAP for adults, so
192.168.3.1 br2 = wl0.1

You may need another VAP for guests with different settings.

The iptable commands for forcing DNS works. You just need to pick the DNS address and bridge number. By default, hosts in different bridges (WLAN) cannot access each other. So I need to set br1 (my PC) to be able to access br0 (my router and all the shits). The iptable commands work, but cannot penetrate deep into the subnet br0 when I have client bridges, repeaters, and such.

Now when I need to give somebody unrestricted access, I can give them the password for a VAP without OpenDNS. I can take it back by simply changing the password, the SSID or deleting it.

Now for more parental control, I can restrict the host IP's with a time table, say no messaging on the phone after light out.

One more thing I wanted to do is to setup VPN on just one VAP. So I can switch VAP to get VPN instead of connecting and disconnecting the VPN server, that takes time. However, I find out that OpenVPN will be slow on the router just because the clock rate is a lot lower on the router. So it's not worth it.

But I wanted to protect my IP on the guest VAP. I can use a simple VPN as a proxy or full openvpn because speed is not important. Openvpn is always a little tricky. The servers may want to do it one way but the clients may do it differently. For example chromebook is seldom supported. Servers in the world are fairly standard but clients behave differently - Linux clients and Window clients are slightly but critically different on at least one point. It took me a while to figure out that servers push some options on clients but only works for Window clients.

DD-WRT is differently tricky so the instructions never works. Basically if the config files for Linux works it should work for DD-WRT. However, since you cannot store or edit the config files at will so you need DD-WRT to help write the config files. But DD-WRT's help is not direct edit at all. You can't add more options (in my newer version) or delete options that DD-WRT force you to. For example most servers use (and DD-WRT setup) key files to login but some use username and password. So everybody goes their own half way but do not meet up. It's a hindrance. If OPENVPN works with the right options, then there is the dreadful iptables that may or may not work.

DD-WRT overrated

DD-WRT was so overrated that when I replaced my broken wifi router I flashed with DD-WRT and hope to use the extra features one day. But just when I needed the features, they don't work or won't work out for me. I have been using DD for nothing.

DD may once been useful. The firmware is basically written by the chipset makers. A few manufacturers can save a lot without hiring firmware engineers by using DD-WRT. Range extenders and repeaters once cost more than a router. Now everybody can get a cheap personal one and set all they like. Depending on your hourly rate, it doesn't worth to tweak DD-WRT. Just buy the feature off the shelf. For the same reason, it isn't worthwhile to find good uses for old routers by putting DD in it.

Once manufacturers started to add non-router features into routers, because it's a low power, always-on internet device. This is not any more. People don't need file servers that much because of the cloud, like Dropbox and Google Drive. Also a router can't do encryption on the fly. Print server is absolutely obsolete because of Google Cloud Print. Once you can put a private digital telephone exchange into it. The only good reason is that you can have a free phone with Google Voice. Now that's gone. If you need a private exchange you better buy a different box and save yourself a lot of trouble. Also with Android stick computers, set top box, and internet ready low power device like Raspberry, it's hardly needed to get into the router for anything.

There are major disadvantages of DD. First, it can't catch up with chipset makers. There are only a few contributors to DD and they don't work together. A cost reduced new version of a well known router can use a totally different chipset and the DD guys need to take months to support it, if ever.

I never know the intended users of DD. It's absolutely not for home users though you may find something useful in it. Home users don' t need that much feature and they need easy UI to do it. System admins can't use it that much because if they make use of the wide array of features, finding support of it is a nightmare.

To be specific, if you use OpenDNS for parental control, you need to set the DNS servers and then add a command elsewhere. So I never have control until I just happened to discover that I can access to any URL I wanted on my kids computer.

Even a couple of years ago parental control on stock firmware became easy to use. You can find the MAC from current connections, give it a name and then set restrictions. You never need to look at the MAC on the device, nor type the MAC. And it easy to change since you can recognize the name instead of the MAC. The so called "simpler" DD-WRT alternatives such as Tomato all have that. As a home router you must have parental control and must make sure that average parents know how to set it with ease.

Version control of DD is a nightmare. No body cares what the features are. They only care about their router model. Instead of listing by models, they list by build. You can't just buy a router and look up the version for it. Each router have a recommended firmware version for it but it's so outdated that the recommendation is not recommended.

For the same reason, each version/build have a feature matrix like 10x10. The only reason for that is because the memory size of routers are limited and vary greatly across manufacturers. So for the smaller size routers you have about 10 versions to pick depending what feature you want. Again if you list the versions suitable for a specific router life will be easier.

The recommended version for your router isn't recommended, that is not the worse. The worse is that it doesn't work. I set up a MAC filter restriction and it doesn't do anything. So I doubt if it actually block all the protocols it claimed, or anything it claimed.

For my story, I flashed DD to the new and old router. All is good because I don't need much. At the time I think I may add a PBX, file server and BT down loader. Also print server. Then I find out that actually the huge firmware that I flashed still can't do the job. I need optional extras. The situation is far far worse than DD-WRT itself. There's is the right way, and the right way take two. And then you need older USB drives formatted exclusively for Linux. Nothing make sense for me so I didn't do anything. Just brought an overpriced older router for nothing.

But then it work well and so I though I can get extra old router for a few dollars and use up all the bandwidth and channels around my spacious house and yard with few neighbours. But then the same old router I brought has a different chipset than the one I have, and it has so small memory that DD-WRT can't even load on it. Nothing else can flash into it, except for a pure command interface.

Finally I need to setup parental control, then I found out that the official recommended build doesn't work. Some say that MAC isn't reliable and some say that any other build should work. So after careful research, I decided to go with an improved version of the stock router firmware.

It's easy to flash. The UI is so much nicer, and the parental control is so much easier without typing the MAC. The problem is, my IP phone can't stay register for long, meaning that I have no phone. My phone is connected to a wireless bridge, and there are a lot of other things connected to it too.

So I don't trust any improvements by outsiders. I revered to the stock firmware and it's easy. But then the same situation happens. "Features" on the stock firmware got copied to the "improved" version.

Then I decided to try Tomato. They are actually not simpler, but feature rich command line openwrt plus UI from the stock firmware. Then I found out that you have to use Windows utility to flash it. Then I found out that it's easier to flash DD-WRT first and "upgrade" flash again to Tomato.

Then I decided to give DD-WRT another try and find out the actually recommended build. The flashing procedure don't work seamlessly. After almost bricking the thing, I succeed in having DD again, thought a slightly later version. The phone works again.

The MAC restriction works but then those connections coming across the bridge doesn't. Because the router don't see the original MAC. I can set the MAC restriction on the endpoint, the wireless access point that is just an old router. But this router can't give out IP's so it doesn't work for the MAC too. Hard luck.

I can try something else like openwrt with other UI's. But I think they will be the same for the MAC filter and my phone may not work again.

Now I have to rethink it again. The main thing is that repeaters can half the bandwidth and it doesn't work well across multiple walls. Dual band may be easier to partition but higher frequency band have less range. Increase the power or a larger antenna is out of the question because of health concerns. Power is measured in log scale. You have to double the power to have some effect and 10 times is noticeable. Also, sometimes reducing the power works better because of multi path interference indoors. Those powerline extenders is good for penetrating walls but they are less stable unless you never use those electrical sockets.

Ubuntu 14.04 on C720 Chromebook

I'm so ahead of time. Now almost all student have a google account in the cloud and they are all using chrome. And it make no sense to buy anything else other than a chromebook. For a while the C720 falls to $150, amazing! What are you going to do with a pad if you are to type an essay?

The C720 Chromebook is the 1st netbook that worked 100% (well, almost, after patches) for Linux, that doesn't rip you off.

To install full Ubuntu on C720, follow the instructions for installing Chrubuntu. It doesn't matter if it's not most up to date. It's like full Ubuntu so you can update from the official Ubuntu depositories. This is dual boot with ChromeOS so leave a few gigabytes for it. It's worth it.

When you see the warning screen, Ctrl-L to boot into Ubuntu. It takes a while to boot probably because of some IO errors. The screen will probably be blank most of the time.  Also, the touchpad isn't likely to work.

I would use the terminal, Ctrl-Alt-T, to update Ubuntu first. I'll upgrade it to 14.04 or higher via commands. I've been using 12 and 13 with no problems. But you are to upgrade the kernel so use the latest version if possible.

Next upgrade the kernel to 3.17 and follow the few command line instructions from the man, the Linux inventor. The command "uname -a" should give you the kernel version. 14.04 use an earlier version than 3.17. Reboot and the touch pad should now work.

Now google and follow the Mike Lin fix for the suspend mode (05_sound file). I think the problem arise from I/O so the patch corrects a few things. For one the chromebook boot better or even normally.

Then set the warning screen to 2 secs without beeping. So kids can still use Chrome OS by default.

http://johnlewis.ie/neutering-the-developer-mode-screen-on-your-chromebook/

Now I'm keeping Chrome OS because things like scrapbook and zetoro are not in the cloud without paying. Dropbox is the obvious solution. But I might be able to do everything in Google Drive for free, and hopefully cheaper than dropbox when the time comes when I have to pay. If I need disk space it will be for media and an external drive is what I need anyway. VPN works decently with a visual feedback when it's connected. It's just not openvpn yet.

I need Ubuntu for encrypting external drive. It's a pity as both OS use the same software. There's just no apps for it in Chrome.

Ruby versus Python - a programmer's choice

If you regard or call yourself a "programmer", the obvious choice is Ruby. If you spent an hour looking at both languages totally new to you, and you cannot tell which is better, I can assure you that Ruby got there first at two of the biggest things now, Ruby on Rail, and Chef/Puppet. Python is just playing catch up and doesn't seem to catch on. Would you ask yourself why?

The most important thing is programmer productivity. An early airline reservation system shared their experience that they are the early developers, with how many mega lines of Lisp code written by few programmers. Provided these guys are not static, there's no way other developers can catch up. If you are one many year ahead, others will always lag you by one year. If they throw in 12 man for one month, there will certainly be a disaster. When your product get to maturity, there's just no need for another similar product.

Many of the arguments and comparisons are irrelevant to "programmers". Ruby code can make your eyes bleed more. I agree but bad programming practice is a personal choice. Ruby is as object oriented and as functional as anybody else. There's no inherently obstacle to readability and maintainability. Perl is still alive and so are it's generation of system admins. If they want to write Ruby in Perl style that is a personal choice.

Most of the time veteran programmers and contractors deliberately make their code impossible to maintain by others so as to secure their job and status. This is hard to avoid but management would prefer something with more inherent restrictions. The majority of companies are not startups that need productivity and creativity.

Python has a lot more mature libraries. It's because Python was supposed to be a better Shell in it's early days. If you can't rewrite those things you need in Ruby you have no choice. If you have to learn you can always learn Ruby on the side or later.

I read about that most libraries in the scientific community are written in Python. That's true and I regard myself in the scientific/engineering community, but screw them. Many will be happy to use Fortran if Microsoft still let them. Since nobody let them they move on to Matlab.

Trust me, I had the privilege to help a professor who dug up a ancient dialect of Fortran program to interpret the moon's surface data using dot matrix printer. I knew too much Fortran than I would like to admit because I had failed to convert a few critical "routine", but utterly incomprehensible, to C or preferably C++. I managed to fix the dialect and get the programming running in a single lab lesson, which is a miracle to me. I even get to view a little of the moon's surface on a dot matrix printer!

I had little idea why that somebody in that community can write huge incomprehensible and eye bleeding programs. That's just me, from my viewpoint. They seems to enjoy it. But if you talk with them about objects, class, functions (as in functional program), they would walk away. Some C programmers challenge every C++ thing I made creeping into their system even though the compiler have no problem with it and they don't need to know. Most of them are commented out test code anyway.

Professors are wary that students run into bad program practice if the language lets them. Students are wary if the language is good enough. Nobody uses Pascal. There's no harm to teach or learn it, but ..., nobody ever uses Pascal. If you are a professor, you should be able to turn the disadvantage of an imperfect language into an advantage, of teaching. If you are a student that worry about learning bad programming practices, you should not learn anything on your own.

Many people worry about feature rich languages. If they come across something that they don't know, they will freak out. They cannot say they are competent in that language. A programmer will have no problem if you yourself are the only one that you answer for.

Every time you want something for yourself, somebody else will shoot you down one way or another. What about the runtime efficiency? Java didn't apologize for it and got compilers for it. Now Java became the "efficient" language to write compilers for others like Ruby.

C++ is the first language available on most computers that allows painless writing and using of "libraries" on anything. MS screwed it up. They are more happy to sell you visual basics and they charge you dearly for whatever language you use. Unix screwed it up. Even the compilers have no problem with it, the graphical system community soldiered on C way much longer.

Java is very limited as a general purpose language as compared to C++. For one there's no operator definition when the Math (not Mathlab) community uses it since ancient times. Not to mention the lack of overloading.

Nowadays you should enjoy the chance to open up any browser on any computer to learn and use a pretty object oriented language - Javascript, totally free. Ruby is even better outside the browser with all types of system, graphical and web related things.

The 2048 game should be renamed to 4096

Yes, it was quite addictive and a good way to spend time waiting. But soon, after a day or two, I won - getting a 2048 square . I tested my strategy and soon it was obvious that it's pretty easy if you have the right simple strategy. A day or two more I got 4096 and my personal high score to date is 45184.

I don't think I'll be addicted to it anymore because it's too easy.  And once you get to 4096, there's not a lot of difference to get to 8192. But I'm not too interested to find out, unless there's a new SAVE feature so I don't need to start fresh every time from 2.

The strategy is simply to keep the largest square at the corner, with decreasing value outwards.  For example, at the bottom of the board, you should have:

128 64 32 16

You don't want to move the corner 128 to the right or up. If you keep the 4 squares occupied all the time, the bottom row  can't shift right. And you never need to shift the row up if they are the largest numbers.

You keep the largest squares at bottom and at left when you grow the numbers.  And always target the smallest square 1st at bottom. In this case if you get another 16 over the 16 at right bottom, you immediately carry on to get 256 at the left corner.

Things are seldom ideal. But still you target the smallest at bottom and they will be improved.

Also you never put a bigger number on top of a smaller number. They will happen from time to time but this is the 1st you have to deal with.

That's about it.

XP going strong

Windows 3 starts to be useful, when you can start ditching DOS. Widows 95 is the 1st usable GUI OS. People keep reminding people that OS is just for loading applications. I'm 8/10 in that camp. For this reason I resisted upgrade until Windows XP. I built my own PC mostly so I have to pay extra for the OS if I want to upgrade it too.

I upgraded to XP for several reasons. It came out about 2001 so my 6 year old OS seems to be ancient at the time. XP merged the corporate/business NT line and the home user line 9x into one. It's a lot more usable, reliable and powerful, than W95 that is. I pay the OEM price for just the software so it's not a big deal. I said at the time just the bundled windows movie maker worth the price, providing a usable movie editor. My comment answers somebody asking should I upgrade. If you have doubts and have to ask, you don't need to.

And then it's same old same old. I was happy with XP. Even when I got the netbook with Windows 7, it's full of bulk ware and very slow. I saw no need to upgrade.

In 2011, I decided to move on to Ubuntu all the way. I played with Linux/Ubuntu for a couple of years via dual boot. Before that, I couldn't do without XP for proxies, VPN, encryption and such. Soon after I'm 100% Ubuntu with upgrades per 6 month. I need to go to XP very rarely. One XP only app is car diagnosis with adaptor, and the other is a cheap Fax modem just in case I need to send legally recognized documents fast. I still need them but they are compatible to W7 I think.

The problem of Ubuntu is that they are going the way of Macs, while the others are not that well supported without a profitable company behind it.

I brought Chromebook for my wife and kids so I don't need to do backup. (I never do much anyway.) I ended up using a lot myself. It's a lot faster than most of my computers. I "built" my last fast computer for video recoding and editing. There's no need for it anymore because people only capture short clips in standard formats.

Now you can't do a lot of things on Chromebook but ideal for wife and kids. They were using LibreOffice anyway. Using Google "Office" is a step "forward" without the need for saving. For me it's a super Linux machine with all the hardware compatibility problem solved because Chrome OS is Linux and all the hardware drivers are compatible with other Linux.

When I revisited my old XP boot partition, I'm surprised it's so fast. Much faster than Ubuntu now and comparable to the basic Chrome book on an ancient machine with rotating disks! I should do this more often. 

The free anti-virus software installed is still going strong. They are still near the top at industry performances. Though one of them seems to be giving up XP gradually, and falling down the charts.

I installed the British Comodo firewall to be paranoid. I need that hopefully to detect irregular activities on the computer. My model is that someone may have gained access to my computer and installed something to monitor me. They may sent information back to headquarter on a very low frequency so it's hard to detect. Comodo is doing well and got a lot bigger now. But they still are not too good for anti-virus so  can't have just one malware software.

Again, booting XP is a lot faster than Ubuntu and loading firefox there is a lot faster too. Should do it more often.

Game changer Moto G

I thought I missed something when I saw the Moto G.  But no.  Google only put that out in Jan.  I got a Jiayu G4 last Christmas.  I didn't saw it coming.

It's a game changer in many ways.  First, people have been buying phones (and other things) direct from China for years now.  The US product lines are too bad, too expensive, or didn't fill the gap.  So you have to pay a markup price for middlemen.  But once crossing national border, guarantees don't hold any more.  You have to pay more for some respectable middlemen.

For the Moto G, there is no 4G, single-band wifi, otherwise it's state-of-the-art - quad-core, 720p HD.  I never want 4G.  But to get a decent 4.5" phone without putting up a few hundred dollars up front, the carriers forced people to pay for 4G data, so they can complete the 4G network.  I'm not a travelling salesman.  When I'm commuting, 10Mbps is good enough for me, good enough for streaming a movie.  Otherwise I have wifi.  If you signup for AT&T internet, you can have all their wifi around the country for free.  (The catch is that they aren't as good as cable yet.)  I don't even want to get a smart phone for my wife but then texting will difficult for her.

For me it's a palm sized tablet, personal communicator, smart organizer, whatever.

For my boy, $179 for a handheld game device is a bargain.  It's comparable to a nintendo but the graphics is a lot better on the Moto G and games are free or cost little.  For my girl, she wanted a 3.5" phone to fit her pocket, but must be a smart phone for her to text.  She settled for a cheap 4" phone because I told her any smaller screen will look bad.

Google don't want or need to compete with carriers and phone manufacturers for dollars.  They are not strong armed by carriers.  They can also make what they want themselves.  One more Android sold means one more gmail and hangout user.  And one more user of the many Play store apps serving ads.

Google don't want or need to compete with game hardware or software manufacturers.  It's an open game platform.

Struggling with Cancer Research

......, the fund raiser for it.  They are relentless. I surrendered before but they start that every year as I'm on their list.

First I agreeded to donate some stamps.  Then I looked up their calling history for the 1st time.  It's not good.  I'll keep my promise when they mail me something but I blocked their calls.  But they keep calling everyday with different numbers.

Times like this I am grateful that I cut the phoneline at last and used the internet and Android.  I can look at the caller id at any or all smartphones to see if I pickup the phone.  I think I can block all their numbers on the phone but it's easier at my SIP provider's website to block them so no phone will even ring.

Landline providers are providing similar service but mine is much cheaper and more features.

I'll miss the voice / talking caller id of my antique answering machine.  There are apps for that but they all don't work for VOIP.  It's not a great loss as I can see who's calling with my mobile phone not far from me, even when I'm not at home or far from the answering machine.

However, since you can assign individual ringtone to a number, I can just use a sound file reading that number.  It's a bit of hassle to generate a file for each, but you can make a file for each group, with ringtone like "family calling", "company calling".  And for kids, "dady calling... dady calling".

Then they are estate agents.  They all want to see how I'm doing in this new year.  But I don't want to hear from them for the next 30 years.

Two OS, dual screen, one Chromebook

The alternative title is Crouton vs Chrubuntu (vs Chrome OS)

Crouton allows you to run Ubuntu at the "same" time as Chrome OS without the need to reboot.  You can switch by ctrl-alt-forward and ctrl-alt-backward.  Very exciting.

Crouton/Ubuntu works well on the C720, and a lot faster than on the AO722 of course.  The trackpad is fully functional as in Chrome OS, and then some.  The "some" is the half double tap that replaces mouse drag without left mouse button.  (it's a double tap without lifting the finger on the last tap, and then move to drag)  I'm elated.  I prefer half double tap (single-handed) to drag but it doesn't always work on Ubuntu.  Now the whole trackpad of the chromebook is the left button so I have that for backup up without looking for the left mouse button!

Chrome OS supports dual screen about the same way as Ubuntu, but chromeos may be a little more intuitive.  You don't want to mirror the two screens because that will cripple the higher resolution one.  BTW, the C720 screen is of course not as good looking as my 1080p HDTV.  Well, if you want that good and squeeze a big TV into 11" or so, it have to be over a grand.

With Crouton you can run a different OS on each screen!  At least the illusion of it.  When you switch OS with the hot keys combination, the screen doesn't refresh in all cases.  I don't remember exactly.  But the key thing is that Chrome OS is multitasking (of course).  You have to drag a browser tab out of the window to get another window.  Then you can move the window to another screen.  It's not clear because if you start an app anywhere, it will always default to use the first opened window.

That's the good of Crouton.  Switch with hot key.

The not so good.  Crouton is just a process in Linux.  It is under a shell under a terminal in the browser.  It seems that you can run the crouton process in the terminal background.  So you have to keep the terminal tab.  If you kill it you have to start again, get a terminal, get a shell and start crouton. I'm not sure if sound works on the other screen, the TV.

The fatal.  Crouton is using the same Chrome OS kernel, which is a version of Linux, not fully compatible with the Ubuntu kernel.  So some apps on Ubuntu will not work on the C720.  How to I know?  Trying to be clever, in chromeos I got a terminal and try to run openvpn and eryptfs as if I'm in Ubuntu.  I hope they will work as they are already part of chromeos so I don't need to install anything.  Both doesn't work.

In crouton, I got exactly the same error message as I was in a chromeos terminal.  Specifically, chromeos crippled ecryptfs so it won't work the way in Linux does.  May be so you can't possibly hack the encryption with stolen key, etc.  You can't install anything in the normal mode.  Chromeos probably use a more secure mode in openvpn for handling keys and certificates so most current vpn providers do not support chromebook's openvpn.  It's the same story for the command line execution.

For vpn I can work around it, paying more for a vpn provider who support chromebook, or run vpn at the router level with a vpn access point.  But no way I can work around the usb drive encryption.  The other encfs also doesn't work on crouton.

That drove me to Chrubuntu.  It was there earlier and there were some problems.  But for the C720 it's straight sailing.  I install with all default options and it worked fine.  It just takes a long time.  > one hour?

Everything works, video, sound, trackpad + half double click.  Ecryptfs and openvpn works.  It's about 5Gb.  I left some for Chrome OS.  So there's no much left on the hard drive.  But the usb 3 is capble of over 100 MB/s near peak.  For my old USB 2 drive it's more like 10!

I love chromeos.  The security fits me.  You can add a secret google account and delete it on the chromebook after use, all with ease.  Now that google encrypt the browser data (links + stored password), it will be easier than me currently using ecryptfs to encrypt all firefox data on the fly.  You can totally lost the book without exposing any data.  Even more secure than hardware encrypted disk drive.  The data just isn't there.

Crouton turns out to be not useful for me.  How do you know if your app is compatible with the Chromeos kernel?  If you prefer the Unity interface, may be.  But the chromeos UI isn't bad at all.  And google sync is pretty good and across android too.  If you need skype (and it works on crouton), and you can't Hangout with your friends yet, may be.  But if you don't replace the kernel, you can't be fully compatible.  And if you replace, you need bios reboot.

Chrubuntu turns out to be superior.  On intel chips, it's fully compatible I suppose.  It's also easier to dual boot.  ctrl-d to chromeos and ctrl-l to ubuntu.  You can't switch after boot, but well, you have to make some decisions.  And since booting doesn't take that long, it's not a big deal if you need to boot to another one for some work.

As for chromebook itself, it's a very good linux machine.  It's much faster than the AO722.  Everything works because the chromeos drivers should work for linux.  There's only 10Gb hard disk.  But in a way you don't carry a big hard disk with you all the time - the principle of portables.  It's absolute quiet and fast.  You can have file servers, streaming and all that.  And that it is $50 cheaper than the AO722.

Now I really doubt if the chromebook killed the chromebox.  Well, a quad core android stick computer cost $80 and more.  That's about the same if you plug the chromebook into a big monitor.  It cost $120 more but you get a portable as an extra.  The C720 is probably fast enough to run virtualbox, and run some Windows in it so you have all the os's just in case.

The chromebook screen gets in the way if you plug it into a desktop monitor.  You can use bluetooth keyboard/mouse/trackpad.  But you can also plug it into your HDTV in your home theatre.  You can have a big background screen and a close working screen.  The chromebook screen won't get in the way if you have a big screen.  Believe me, it's like working as Citizen Kane.

OK, if you installed Chrubuntu on the SSD, you can safely exit and reenter developer mode without affecting you Chrubuntu partition. But you cannot boot into Chrubuntu by cntrl-l. It wouldn't work. You have to reset the boot options. The following isn't all necessary, but sure it will work:

• get into developer mode (probably not needed)
• boot into chromos (what else?)
• get terminal by ctrl-alt-forward (not t, probably better)
• login as chronos, no password needed
• at the command line do this: (from reddit)

$sudo su
$crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1

The boot legacy option obviously let you boot into chrubuntu by ctrl-L instead of ctrl-D into Chrome OS. The usb option will boot from usb if you attach a drive to it.

Surprisingly good Acer Chromebook C720

Who said netbooks are dead?

I have the Acer AO722 Windows 7 netbook.  It ran Ubuntu ever since.  Everybody in the family was happy with it except me.  I thought it would play full HD video on Linux.  But in Linux you don't have drivers for hardware acceleration.  Updates never came, not that I'm aware of.  Everything else works.

The C720 is a no brainer at $200.  My wife and kids don't know anything Linux even when they are using it daily.  To them the AO722 it's really a net book and then some like word processing.  For school work or writing letters they can fire up Libre Office or anything that matters.  The C720 can't have a weaker CPU than the AO722.  The screen resolution is OK.  It should boot much faster and should fire up the native Chrome browser in no time.  That's all I needed to know.

I have reservations if they all can move into the cloud.  I doubt if dual boot Ubuntu runs smoothly and how much the dual boot annoys them.  But if the C720 can only solve some problems, I can have one more or something else for other purposes.

If you open the Chromebook, it looks like the AO722 at first.  But the screen is soft like TV and monitors.  That I call a surprise.  The AO722 is harder plastic like tablets.  But if the resolution is the same I have no complains.  Some writers complained about the narrower viewing angle.  Though he told the truth that there will be difficulties for a collaborating group in front of the computer together.  For a $200 computer?  The side to side viewing angle is pretty good, unless you are at the same time doing some weird yoga moves with your head positions.  The vertical angle is narrower, but you can tilt the screen for optimum viewing.  That's what netbooks are for.

The C720 actually has a touch screen!  You touch it, it wakes up.  A surprise.

The keyboard area is surprisingly spacious.  The C720 is a tiny bit wider and longer than the AO722, with a crowded keyboard.  Getting rid of one or two windows key can't make that much difference, can it?  The keyboard is a true redesign without worrying about windows compatibility.  Google can afford that.  It even doesn't run on Windows.  The DOS F keys are gone.  In place of them are brightness, loudness and some browser keys like back/forward, refresh and full screen.  There are no more multiplexing blue functions keys.  With the full screen key browsing is much more enjoying.  Never use full screen much if I have to use ctrl-F11.

The touch pad is another surprise.  There are no buttons, no left and right mouse buttons.  It's an obstacle to ask my family to switch.  Kids should be easy but I don't know about my wife.  For me when I got the AO722 I brought a wireless mouse at the same time just as I do with laptops before.  Never use mouse for portables much.  When I got use to the AO722's multi-gesture pad, I got rid of the mouse on my desktop instead.  The AO722's pad has less functions under Linux than Windows.  But still I never need to use the mouse buttons for good.  My lower cost keyboard + pad for the desktop has even less functions, but still I rarely use the mouse keys.  It's not some poor men's compromising.  It's superior that way than using any mouse.

In the Chrome pad, all the usual pad functions work and then some for being netbook.  Two finger tap for right click and two finger scrolling works for both horizontal and vertical.  Dragging doesn't work with half double tap as on Linux.  Surprisingly, the whole pad is a left mouse button that clicks.  In a way it's easier for people used to the left click buttons.

Pinching doesn't work, at least on the browser.  But it's easier to do it on the menu.  Pinching is also replaced by scrolling in some Linux applications and Chrome OS.  In Google Maps, you drag the map to scroll; you scroll to enlarge or shrink.

On the browser, horizontal scrolling becomes the back and forward buttons.  Three finger scrolling moves around tabs.  Four fingers ...... you must be weird to use more than that.

So I doubt very much if the touch screen version is worth it at $100 more.  For the same functions, the trackpad can do it better.  Selecting a folder on the screen takes more effort than selecting that on the trackpad.  If the touch screen is more Android like it will be confusing.

It is surprisingly easy to move into the cloud.  They all have Android so I don't even need to setup accounts for them in the chromebook.  To port their data, I just need to run the Chrome browser in the old computer and upload whole directory trees into Drive.  For Libre office files, you need to turn on the convert option when you upload.  You do not need to do that for other formats that Google Drive supports directly.

Another surprise is that you can't print directly on a printer.  As if some USB drivers will ruin it's cloud only reputation.  You need another computer to install it's own drivers and receive printing materials from the cloud.  I'm not surprised if you signed off your rights so Google can look at what you print without collecting personal information.  Not even a Wifi printer I think.  It have to be a cloud ready printer if you don't have any other computers.  But if you have another, it's trivial, because it's just the routing.

It's a big surprise without an Ethernet port.  Not that I use it.  I have to disable it for wifi to live in AO722.  Being Linux, you can still connect to Ethernet with a USB adaptor.  But you really use an Ethernet port when you backup your drive or download big media files.  But you don't do these on the C720.  You have only 10G anyway.  However, you have dual-band wifi built-in.  I would think you can get away with single band, and that the high frequency band cost a lot more to implement.

The C720 and other Chromebooks are Fort Knox's.  A big surprise.  They are using the same latest encryption system I'm using on Ubuntu, and on selected directories in my external drives.  Chromebooks use it for the whole internal disk, which is more secure than part of the file system.  Your Google password is also your encryption key so it is transparent.  If you change your password and forget the old one, your things in your local drive cannot be recovered.  It is designed for you not to put things on the drive and it's not a problem for most.  I have my machine generated Google password doubly encrypted and remembered on a PC browser.  I need to change it to one that is easier to remember and type.  Once the password is updated on Firefox, the old one is overwritten.  That's how I lost everything on the chromebook drive.  But I think I never put any user data in there yet.

You can't encrypt your external drive yet.  But if you get into a terminal, you mostly can.  It's just Linux with the Linux file system encryption.  But you need to mange your key carefully. [you can't]

You can use a Chromebook as a guest and no trace will be left whatsoever once you exit guest mode.  It's like a telephone extension on the corridor for anybody to use it.

Chromebook is more multi-user than traditional computers with the cloud in the equation.  Your disk area is separately encrypted.  Your data are mostly stored in your Google cloud account, encrypted.  I don't think any superuser can even log into the chromebook while you are using it.  I mean not even from the local network.  There's no superuser on a normal Chromebook.  You can't do anything if you are not in the developer mode.  And if you are in the normal mode, there's nothing you can install other than approved by Google.

Your bookmarks and browsing history are all at the cloud.  It's just not on the chromebook for someone else to hack.  Google has your encryption key but you have the option to keep it locally.  Also, encryption keys are easier to handle securely than private raw user data.

The video player on the chromebook is awesome.  It plays HD video on the usb drive with no problems whatsoever.  The awesomeness is on the fast forward and backward keys, < and >, which is standard on any keyboard.  It's like setting good alarm clocks.  If you don't release the buttons, time will travel faster and faster.  Perhaps not.  Because the cpu and usb 3 is fast enough, the keys are responsive.  You just need two keys for each direction to skip secs or mins.  Backward is as good as forward even in HD.  In Linux you have 3 different sets of keys to program different skip time like 10s, 30s, 5min etc.  Some players have the option of changing playing speed with a slider.  The chrome player makes them all obsolete.

Now there are nasty surprises on the video side of things.  WMV is not supported.  AVI is, but you know there may be all sorts of codecs within.  DLNA is not supported it seems, so you can't stream your movies into the C720.  There is a DLNA app but doesn't work for the unix server rygel.  There is a total solution with PLEX.  There is an app for that in Chrome OS.  It works because that's just an URL into your PLEX server.  You can stream movies.  If the format is not supported in chrome os, Plex will transcode the stream in real time, changing the format as you watch.  But that is CPU intensive and needs a decent PC for the server.  PLEX works for PS3, XBOX, WII U, and comcast.  So it's worth it.  But however you stream, the awesomeness of the chrome player will be lost.  Really, it's not bad carrying around a 1TB usb drive the weight of an android phone one or two years old model.

A silly way to get around streaming and unsupported format is the remote monitor.  It is as easy to setup as Netflix and you can control a remote computer in front of the chromebook as if you are sitting in front of the remote computer.  You can play and watch anything on the remote computer as if you are using the computer.  Movies playing on the remote computer is watchable on the chromebook, but not as good.

How about docking?  Nobody talks about that for sometime now.  Your data is always in sync as there is only one copy in the cloud.  Your main storage and backup storage is on the cloud.  Another desktop is what you want instead of docking.  But the C720 is not bad for even a desktop, or call it a nettop.  You need a bigger monitor.  No problem, just plug in the HDMI.  You don't need another keyboard and mouse.  Those on the C720 is better than the one I'm using on the desktop right now.   The only problem is that the chromebook screen getting in the way of a bigger monitor.  But it can be done depending on the size of your monitor.  The screen of the C720 at the lowest incline angle may go behind your monitor from under it, with the keyboard right in a good position.  But you can always use a bluetooth keyboard instead.

Chrome OS supports VPN natively but I think in a more secure mode of exchanging keys and certificates.  So, only if a VPN provide explicitly says it support openvpn or L2TP/IPsec FOR the chromebook, don't go for it.  Few supports it.  I tried and it just doesn't work if the servers are not setup for chrome OS.  But if you go into developer mode, it may be easy with or without another Linux. [doesn't work in dev mode either]

To get VPN it's may be cheaper to get an extra wifi router that supports VPN to be a repeater of your main browser.  Then you have a dedicated access point to connect for vpn while all other traffic are not encrypted with your IP from ISP.  I would also use this "channel" for guest access without a password.  The traffic is encrypted and your IP is protected.  I don't know if that's such a think but you can probably do it in dd-wrt installed routers.  Just to setup VPN for everybody in dd-wrt isn't easy.  Instead of using the UI, the one that works use scripts to generate config files, run steps with a few secs in between to make sure that something did ran.  You can also setup only one access point (SSID) with VPN, or only to a subnet.  But there's no simple cookbook scripts for everybody to do it.

So far I'm quite happy and enjoying my chromebook, not keen on installing Ubuntu on it yet.

I can see schools and corporates can make good use of chromebooks.  There's no maintenance.   There's even no need to setup on the chromebook.  No virus to worry.  No updates.  It's more than no maintenance because it is secure.  You are strictly limited to the apps on the chrome store.  It is secure enough to Google's standard, unless your standard is higher and you don't trust Google.

Christmas light fault finding II using binary search

Warning: the following instructions include exposure of hot wire at full voltage of electrical outlets.  The modifications to equipments are non-standard that could expose personals to high voltage who do not know of any modifications. The equipments should be supervised by the installer at all times.

Christmas light fault finding apply mostly to 2.5V incandescent lights bulbs, with 50 bulbs in serious in one strand.  Newer LED's don't blow up easily; they just fade away very gradually.  But in a "few" more years, my lights can be collectables!  Otherwise the nostalgic value is there - your childhood, your child were born, their childhood.

There are non-contact voltage detectors for fault finding.  But their range should be an inch or more for detecting wires behind walls.  Imagine icicles lights when the original neat formation is gone, and strands are hanged over each other to increase the brightness and light density.  Even for one strand, the wires with and without voltage due to faulty bulbs are twisted together.

The faulty bulb finder is an old fashioned high voltage probe, a long single piece of wire, and a plug without polarity so you can swap hot and neutral.

The bending of the probe is incidental and have no relation with the project.  A probe is just a bulb plus a high resistance.  You touch the red end, using human as the electrical return path. It is safe because the current is very small.

DO not touch the red end because it can now be at 120 V.  It is easy to attach a wire to the red end with the screw and spring inside.  You should take off the metal clip too as it is dangerous.  You should not touch any metal part except for the tip part of the probe - the opposite when using a normal probe.  You can tape the end with electrical tapes but after Christmas you can just take the wire out and use the probe again, until next year.

There are probes that looks the same for low voltage as in hobby electronics.  You will burn the bulb if 120 V is applied to it.

I actually keep the pair of wire which can be reused.  But make sure that only one of the wire is used, and insulate any bare wire of the other unused wire.

A full chain of Christmas lights may have several strands of about 50 bulbs each.  For a fully working light, if you take off any one bulb, a section of the light will be off.  That's a strand.

Now assume there is only one faulty strand. Procedure:

1. plug in the fault finder in any convenient voltage outlet.  Don't touch any bare metal or wire (except for the tip of the probe).
2. take out about the middle bulb in the strand.
3. short the two contacts in the bulb housing with the tip of the probe (this is safe)
4.  if the strand light up, this bulb is the faulty one.
5. Otherwise, probe the two contacts in the bulb housing in turn and note if the probe lights up in each of the two cases.
6. Let the state of the probe light be ON (or brighter) and OFF (dimmer).  If the state of the probe is OFF-OFF, you need to change the orientation of the plug, swapping the hot and neutral position.  Then you should get one ON and one OFF.
7. If you can't get an ON state, there are multiple faulty light bulbs.  You should pick any one side as the faulty side.
8. The faulty bulb is on the OFF side of the strand.  The wiring into the housing should clearly indicate which is the OFF side.  If not, you can pick one side at random and assume it is the OFF side.  Then see later if your assumption is right.
9. Put the bulb back.
10. On the faulty (OFF) side, take off the bulb which is mid-way between the last test bulbs or the end of the strand.
11. Repeat from 3 until 4 happens, or in case of multiple faults, you will approach the faulty bulb on both sides.

If there are multiple faulty strands, just do one strand at a time if you know the boundary (by looking at the wiring).  The 1st or last bulb at the strand has 3 wires attached to the housing; others has two.  Or do a less aggressive binary search by assuming a short strand.  One strand is usually 50 bulbs.  If your assumptions are wrong, there will be contradictions later.

Happy New Year!

Android VOIP Landline updates

My totally free VOIP solution worked for a short while until PBX kicked me out of their service.  Sipdroid exists to sell PBX services.  If I pay, I would not be going through so much trouble to use Google Voice for free.

I upgraded to a Wifi firewall router in the hope that I can install Asterisk myself as a server to connect to GV and be independent on anybody else.  But the support is in disarray, in contrast to the impression one gets.  Firstly, they can't keep up with new chipsets and won't work with some.  Then I discovered that my router will probably not support the newer (and lower production cost) USB drives that do not need a power supply.  And they need FAT partition.  So I never tried to install anything to day.

As you know, instead of charging for the calls, they dropped the open x??p protocol and integrate GV into hangout.  I come to understand and predict their strategy.  If you charge the calls mobile users are not going to pay twice by using GV.  They never and still aren't interested in landlines.  They are only interested in their own bread and butter.  If you have been using GV, you are very motivated to use Android and Hangout when you consider switching.  The support of x??p protocol is to initially attract compatible standard users to start using and switch.  Now it became a distraction when people using it as free Voip calls, and supporting companies such as OBI.  

SIP VOIP is here to stay.  The service and equipments are there for many years.  It does not need great investment to run a service.  Great phones are very cheap compared to a smartphone, standalone skype phone and in the future, a standalone hangout phone.  Even the main cost for a great sip phone is on the screen and software.  Google and Microsoft will not be interested to go into carrier business, which will be on the mercy of cable and telecom infrastructure companies.

Skype's turns are interesting.  It came on at a time no servers can support that many phone calls, only p2p.  Now you have the clouds.  MS has it's offerings.  Google of course want to move everybody into the clouds. It's good if you don't need to pay extra, using the bandwidth you already brought, a smartphone or the computer.

I can see that Google can take over the whole of telephone and video phone business.  Android phones are already doing that, only needing to integrate with your phone number.  For a dedicated desktop phone? There is already the chrome book selling for $200 dollars, cheaper than the price of top end sip video phones.

I do have a chrome book.  Until then I use Callcentric.  It's great for people who don't use that much of their landline.  If you don't call, you can be just paying the 911 tax and may be some other tax.  I doubt even that you need a 911.  Now when you activate a cell phone you can enter a default address for emergency.  You are probably always closer to a cell phone than to your home phone at any time.  And old cell phones with old sim cards can still cal 911.  Now if you used 3 carriers before you have a lot of redundancy.  You just need to keep all of the antique phone charged.

I never had internet outage or cell phone outage.  So I won't hesitate to switch instead of believing that some old fashioned reliable wire connects me to the local telephone company.

However, Sandy wiped out Callcentric.  To provide the low cost service, they don't have geo redundancy.  If you are serious, you should port to Google so people can always reach your number if your connection to the internet is OK.  You can change SIP provider at an instant.  There's a lot more coming out of Sandy in case you are interested in emergency planning.  BTW Callcentric offers free porting.  You can save $25 and try the service for no investment.  Port cost $20 for google and a sim card + activation for porting to wireless first.  T-mobile has free sim activation kit on a day to day basis.

I was burnt by Sunrocket and so I'm not interested in Oma or Obi.  The Oma business model is doubtful.  Now it's clear that you can still call for free but will be stuck in equipments many years old.  Any the Oma is not for low volume callers and nowadays people are mostly on the cell, except for office.  With GV, the Obi is just an dumb telephone adaptor.  Why you still want to stick with your old analogue telephone?  (Fax?)  If you are locked into a service, you are not getting new techs.  Now the non-HD voice IP phones are dirt cheap.  It doesn't help your business image, and there's no other major reason to go into SIP.

I got hooked on HD voice when I tried once.  As they say, "you sound better than yourself".  Hearing yourself when speaking is different than hearing yourself from the other side of the phone (echo test service or HD voice mail).  It sounds so much better with HD.

My thinking has been correct, just I thought too much, both ways.  First I brought a Gigaset IP phone with DECT, which got me hooked up on HD voice.  The remembrance of a once tech giant adds to it.  The "basestation" need to plug in to the router (or modem) and you can put the handset anywhere.  DECT has a good range, and in no way can be worse than my super analogue cordless.  DECT was developed years ago but HD voice came out of it for sure.  May be they have enough bandwidth or they have updates.

I probably got the last one of the last lot.  It was a huge discount.  I can't anything like it for that price even now.  But sorry that I returned it.  The software is so crappy compared to any smartphone.  They can't be compared as a smartphone cost some $500.  Maybe it's a mistake.  I should have look into ways to integrate with the android phone book.  You can use a smartphone as an extension but do not use it to call. The one reason to keep it is that you don't need wifi for it to work.

I didn't know what I was thinking.  I brought a cordless DECT phone.  May be I was going to get an ATA and use the DECT for a start, and then as a backup without the need for wifi.  The selling point is that you can pair cell phones with it and use it at home, which is much more comfortable.  It's a Panasonic, same as my super analogue cordless, which like Siemens, is winding down it's gadget consumer electronics division.  I could have kept it but I didn't.  It was a special straight from factory.  If I return it I have to pay a heavy restocking charge.  But I managed to sell it at Amazon at zero lost because my phone is discounted.  However, the postage Amazon asked for is a bag, I upgraded for a box big enough to put the phone in.

Now my solution to Android SIP VOIP WIFI is almost completed when I had some time.  First you have to the check the wifi coverage and signal strength in your house and yard.  There are Android apps for that.

I upgraded my wifi router.  If you need a reason to upgrade, this is it.  While the spectrum congestion of cell phone and analogue cordless never came to me, the wifi spectrum is very congested.  You can beat your neighbours easily by upgrading to a dual band one.  But your phone have to support that.  The iWhatever's do.  I also turned the old router into a repeater for the far away rooms.  Wifi is a totally different animal from cell and DECT signals, which are not sensitive to the number of walls and what materials are in them.  It is only then I understand why the HDX transmission from VDU isn't always successful even though the test is fine.

It turns out to be well known that wifi is tricky for voice and the android audio latency is also well known.  But I think these may be non-matters.  But it doesn't hurt to do the best and the obvious.  You don't want to lose calls when all your kids are playing online games or streaming HDX movies.

First you need to activate quality of service (QoS) on your router to give priority to the SIP protocol.  And give priority to the phones you are using via MAC, which you can find it on info on your phone along with IMEI, etc.  Failing all that, put your phone on the DMZ zone, straight through the firewall without checking and processing.  If it depends on IP and port range, you may be limited to one phone.  But you can use other phones for caller ID, ring tones, etc.

I don't think it matters much but you can create a virtual AP without security encryption.  You should isolate it from other AP's so any hacking is limited to the phones and there's no much to loose in them.

For Csipsimple the SIP app, you can enter expert mode to improve the latency.  But I think it didn't work or there's no more margin to improve that way.  There's another app known to tackle the latency aggressively but they don't have the option anymore as I see it.

The critical issue is the echo at the dumb phone end.  Since my telephone company is still charging $30 for all the modern conveniences such as caller ID, call waiting, etc, I am sure there's still millions and millions of dumb phone around.

All mobile phones have good echo cancellation, they have to be, so that's a non-issue.  But the issue is created by the smart phone end.  The sensitive mic will pickup from the ear piece.  So the caller's voice come out from the earpiece, went into the mic, and back to the caller's earpiece.  If you are lucky, you can reduce the echo by reducing the volume on the earpiece and the sensitivity of the mic.  For Csipsimple you can adjust those during a call.  Some phones it can't be done unless you have trouble hearing the caller or the caller can't hear you properly.

The complete solution is really a ear plug.  Completely no echo.  You have your ear and head to absorb all the sound wave and there's nothing hard to carry the wave from the earpiece to the mic - just a flexible wire.

I also think that the echo is also the culprit for a large latency.  Echo cancellation is software.  And if the software is trying to cancel a long echo, the buffer has to be larger, hence more delay.

Now an earplug is really inconvenient.  How to get kids who are not old enough to use a cell phone to get use it it?  You just can't pick up the dam phone.

I was thinking to get the cheapest ATA at $15 so all my lovely analogue equipment are still usable as a backup.  No learning curve.  And that I can keep my talking caller ID answering machine.  To date no talking caller ID works for SIP in Android.  If I like to sound HD I would go to the Android or my computer.

While talking caller ID can't be replaced, because you don't need to get up to see who is calling, you can achieve the same with assigned ring tones.  You just need any numbers of Android phones to attach as extension to assign ring tones.  Android can also read the name from your phone book.  The phone you actually talk on can be dumb.

And for a little more, you have have a very good new non-HD IP phone.  They can be plugin before the router so one less failure point.  It's really just "pickup the phone".  There will be no echo issue, a totally different animal from a squar rigid glass and metal frame good for conducting sound wave.   However, they are huge and totally unsuitable for home.

And for some $40 you can get an HD phone.  But the screen may be too poor from an Android and that some are big.  I spotted one that is suitable and did a "best offer" on ebay.  The listing ended before the offer was considered.

I was thinking that a bluetooth headset will ease the inconvenience.  There's no wire so you just pick up the headset instead of the phone.  You can put the phone in some convenient place attached to the charger all the time.  You can even hide it if you have a cracked screen.

A bluetooth headset may or may not have the same echo problem.  The usual ones are tiny that hangs on your ear.  There are some with a stick to put the mic closer to your mouth.  I would think a conventional headphone with a stick mic will have absolutely no echo problem.  But, how can a kid answer the phone or make a call?

It dawned on me that I needed a handset (as opposed to a headset).   I remembered handsets that looked like my dad's phone's handset.  Dad will be happy to use it.  I found a low cost handset that doesn't resemble my dad's phone.  But the design is basically the same, with earpiece on the ear, the mic by the mouth and something soud absorbing in the middle.

Bluetooth or not isn't the point.  One more piece of wire isn't critical and BT isn't espensive.  But usually nowadays you can do voice command on the handset (or headset for that matter).  How about "call dady" ?   Or "momy called".  The handset has only about one 4 way rocker switch to work with.  Can't be simpler than that.

I should have found one that docks and charges.  Now this one charges with USB.  But that's not a problem.  Even the smallest kid have a USB charger by her bed.  She use it for playing games on ipad, android and whatever.  She knows to keep all her electronics fully charged or she cannot play.

I don't know if BT can carry HD voice.  There are BT that certified for that.  In any case the cheap handset will be useful for many things, if only as a backup.

Now I don't have anything specific for SIP only.  If they doesn't work as intended I have nothing to return.  Let see how it goes.

VPN service updates

I have been using paid VPN service for over a year now.  Now it's about $6/7 a month so that's not bad compared to some dedicated service.  VPN is flexible that meet my several needs.

I tried Kryptotel for a month, then three, then a year.  It's that good.  But recently the service was unreliable.  The server may becomes slow, that's when I switch to another random server.  It usually works great but it seems that all the servers are busy.

When my subscription ended, I was surprised that they don't sell openvpn anymore!  The company's business is all about encryption, and I have been taking it seriously because it is an offshore company setup for that purpose.

Maybe they are pressured not to sell something that is not crackable?  They still sell other VPN's.  May be openvpn is too difficult to support?  Their local techs do seem not to know what they are doing, but very responsive.  Maybe they can't compete with Openvpn itself, selling VPN by bandwidth.  That's a very good deal if you just want to protect you IP and privacy from coffee shops.

I changed to Mullvad and so far so good.  The servers are not as fast as when I used Kryptotel a year ago.  But much better than the last days of Kryptotel Openvpn.  Their advantage is that for random servers they have some in Eastern Europe.  That seemed to be popular for some p2p applications.  But your bank and facebook will be very suspicious.   You can also use servers only from some countries if you change the server address.  I have a script for that to switch servers developed for Kryptotel.

They have the same "bug" or feature that couldn't make it work out of the box for linux.  It's the pushed option from the server:

redirect gateway def1 bypass-dhcp

They have to bypass dhcp for Windows but it's an illegal option in Linux.  So the whole option is discarded.  So in your client config file you need to add:

redirect gateway def1

And my lesson learned - never pay for the whole year.

Openvpn works on a lot of my platforms now.  Ubuntu insists on separate certificate files.  Ipad works if you email the single config file to yourself and open it.  Android works if you just drop the separate files to the phone.  But it doesn't work for some stick computers because they don't include a kernel module.  But you can root and upgrade.  DD-wrt accept separate files pasted into dialog boxes.  Chrome OS the same.  But I didn't try the latter two.  I will be surprised if they don't work.

No monthly fee landline replacement with Google Voice and Android wifi soft phone

Now I have a working system paying nothing.

I opted for a soft phone in Android.  Although it's a mobile phone, but it is classified as a soft phone.  A dual core will be fine but a single core isn't much far behind in benchmarks.

You need to check your wifi reception around your house.  Actually my 900MHz analog cordless is superior in range.  There are no problems inside the house and around the yard.  On the same floor with the router upstairs, the front rooms have interference from across the street.  The signal drops a lot downstairs.  I used to think wifi signal has a large range.  But no, my old wireless router was just sufficient to browse the web in most places indoors.  I never did much on wireless other than browsing.  With my new router, with careful placement of it, I manage to get 3Mbps in most indoors areas.  That figure is from speedtest.net.  I think that's megabytes.  That's the minimum speed provided by some ISP and typically for DSL.  My ISP is 30Mbps and I can get almost that when I'm close to the router.

One of the soft phone said it requires over 1 Mbps to work properly.  Double that is safe as link speed fluctuates a lot and depends on how your neighbors operate their routers.  I use my Android phone with wifi apps to walk around and check the signal and link speed.

For the soft phone I use sipdroid.  It setup Google Voice during install without problems.  For now pbxes.org allows HD voice codec for free.  If you are not talking to another soft phone, or a sip phone, it doesn't mean a thing.  But that's the cool factor.  It sound pretty good if you try the echo test number *43 or the 909... number for PSTN. 

Using a dedicated Google Voice account is recommended because you have to give out your password.  Also, sipdroid acts as if it's talking on the computer via Google talk/chat all the time.  So you must not use it.  Don't login to gmail, but if you have to, logout of Google talk/chat there.  At the Google Voice account, you have to set forward to Google talk/chat, and that's forwarding to your softphone.  You can ring other numbers too as well.  Your softphone will ring first on your mobile before your carrier does.

Sipdroid is pretty much integrated with Android.  But ...  the native dialer won't work with sipdroid without a sim card or perhaps a valid carrier plan.  But any other dialer will work.  You can put the icon of your new dialer in place of the native dialer if you have to.  There are dialer widgets that you can put on the home screen.  Remember that it is supposed to be a landline replacement that kids can use.

The native/Google contacts work.  The call history works.  Sipdroid is transparent if you set it as default if there is wifi.

Now for a change, the Google Voice app is able to send and receive text via wifi only.  The GV app can run any time without interfering with Google Talk/Chat, which is connected to your softphone.  But make sure to set the app not to make any calls.  Confusing enough?

Those talking to you will certainly hear echo of themselves if they are on PSTN.  It's a characteristic getting across different networks, the PSTN and the internet or other networks.  Cell phones have echo cancellation I think.  On the PSTN side, I think echo canceling is done on the carrier network.

Your caller's echo is due to sound from the earpiece coupled into the mic on YOUR phone.  In the echo test number, you can hear the 2nd echo of yourself.  To reduce that set the mic gain to low in sipdroid.  If the echo is still bad, set the earpiece gain to low.  For some phones, if the sound level is too low, you can set the earpiece gain to high.

There's no doubt about it, the voice quality is good, sounds like a landline and better if both ends are soft phones or sip phones.  Using Google Voice, there is a delay that may or may not be noticeable.  The only issue is calling some call centres when you have to use DTMF tones.  You have to slide it out in Sipdroid, not as convenient and responsive as physical buttons.

Can't do fax at home.  Have to find an online account.

There are reasons not to use Google Voice.  When you call somebody, you will be connected to the pbxes server probably in Germany.  They will forward the call to a Google talk/chat server probably in US.  From there your call goes into the PSTN.  If you don't use Google Voice, your call will not bounce across continents.

Before I sorted 0ut my wifi problems, I almost wanted to get service from a VOIP/SIP provider.  The reason I returned my SIP phone is because I have no confidence to find myself a good provider.  If you pay $20 a month there's no problem.  A reasonable provider seems to be callcentric.  First, their website is update - copyright 2013.  They seems to be the real deal full service provider with 911.  You can pay as you go.  The monthly fees are like $1 and the setup fee is free or at most a few dollars.  Calls are a bit expensive at less than 2 cent a minute.  But then if you don't use the phone much you pay almost nothing.  You can try out their services with very little upfront payment.  They also promise to refund any unused prepaid credits.  But they are for geeks who know what is DID and understand why you have separate packages for calling out and receiving calls.  There's a little bit of catch as they will port your home number for $25.

I might still do, for 911 for less than $2 a month.  I'm sure you can still call 911 on the go phone with an expired sim card.  I'm not so sure on the Android.  Some people dial 911 as their first call on their new phone.  It's true, that's the only way you can be sure.  But emergency services is very much against that.  The position reported from my always online Android is not bad at all, mostly fall in the right lot.  But there were exceptions that I didn't look into.  I will.

Even with sip providers, you can still port your number to Google Voice (via wireless first).  For outbound calls they can put any verified phone numbers as the ID.  People can just call your GV number and get forwarded to your DID number.  Since GV is a redirection service, the calls are not bounced across servers as in Google talk/chat.

One more thing, pbxes.org is totally for geeks.  Of course people who manage pbx are IT people for a company.  And don't mess with the settings too much.  If you messed up, HD voice won't be free any more as per their plans.  However you can still delete the account and reinstall sipdroid.  They don't ban the same email after you delete your account.  I don't know if I can keep their free account for long.  Their emails to warn of deleting your accounts are a bit threatening.  I like to pay them reasonable charges but they don't provide sip services, just pbx.

One step further will be having your own PBX.   From there your call goes straight to Google talk server, which will be the same as talking on your computer using gmail.  That's way too complicated but it's all because Google has strategic reasons not to become a free sip provider.

The most popular Asterisk pbx server is actually available on jumbo versions of DD-WRT, that are preinstalled or can be installed on many wireless routers.  The one time cost are adding up fast if I actually buy a new router.  However, I might just do that because the whole house need better wifi coverage.  The old router can be used as a repeater.  Also, I was amazed how many things can be installed on a router nowadays.  A printer server - you may want that in large offices as the router has a large antenna while wifi printers don't.  File server of course.  In relation to that bittorrent clients.  VPN of course but so far I see no openvpn.  For files I must need file encryption like truecrypt of better still the Linux version that do not have pre selected fix sizes "folders" for all your secrets.

But most of it can be installed on Android stick computers too with minimal power consumption.  I don't see why not as you can even install Linux over Android.  But then may be I'm the only one who want Asterisk on an Android stick - until Google Voice shows it's next move.