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Showing posts from 2013

How to convert a file to a pbx-friendly format (8kHz, mono, PCM ulaw) with Audacity

In Audacity Edit – preferences – import/export – When exporting tracks to an audio file – use custom mix (done once) Open source file (mp3 or flac) Select Project Rate (bottom left) → 8000 File, export First time only: Select “Other uncompressed files” Click on “Options…” Choose Header → WAV (Microsoft), Encoding → U-Law On the Advanced Mixing Options, select 1 channel and add the unmapped channel to Channel 1 by clicking on the unmapped channel (it will get red borders) and then click on Channel: 1. Click OK Click OK at the “Edit Metadata” window Right-click on the output file, properties, summary, Advanced, make sure that: Channels = 1 (mono) Sample rate = 8kHz Format = CCITT u-Law

New Puppet Book

This is a book that was released a couple of weeks ago.  You can find my name in the list of technical reviewers  Puppet Beginner's Guide .

How to extract images from MS Word document (very usefull for screenshots and documentation)

I use Dokuwiki for almost all of my documentation needs. One downside of this system, compared to MS Word, for example, is that you can't simply create a screen capture, then paste it in your document. However, I learned a trick today: Put all your screen captures in a MS Word document Follow the trick here to extract all the images to a folder.  If fact, you simply save your doc in the "HTML (filtered)" format. Rename all your image files and upload them (one-shot) into dokuwiki using the media manager, in the namespace of the page you're creating Use the media manager interface to do a trial and error session to determine the code you need for your images, or the syntax help . Copy-paste, then edit the name of the image for each image in your document. Hope this helps!

Putty, vim, accentuated characters

I've been looking for a while for a way to be able to write accentuated characters in vim, while logged via SSH on a Linux system.  It wasn't really hard to do, it just took me a lot of time to find the recipe: In the putty session, in the menu "Window - Translation" put UTF-8, then save the session.  The next time you open it, you'll be able to use accentuated characters!

My experience with support issues with different vendors

Part of my job is to open support tickets, issues, cases, etc. to get help with hardware or software problems.  The quality level varies.  Here is my satisfaction level depending on the vendor (alphabetical order, with the products I've created tickets for in parenthesis): BSD Perimeter (pfSense): Excellent.  Very knowledgeable and their support contract is an hourly rate, so they don't mind working for you and they'll help as much as they can.  Always provided suggestions or solutions up to now. APC (UPS): Well, when you discover that your UPS needs a replacement under warranty and they only promise that they will ship it tomorrow (it took about 5 days to reach our office), you don't really care about how good the support may be.  At least they do make good products. Dell/Compellent (Storage Array): Very good.  Good knowledge base, helpfull techs, quality products as well (meaning we don't need to call them except for firmware updates, for which they...

voip.ms

I was looking for a way to reduce my VoIP bills.  I only use my VoIP lines to make long-distance calls and my provider forced me to spend at least 50$/year, which I never really used.  Someone recommended me voip.ms and I did the move.  I almost did the move for my home phone but when I called my home phone provider, they agreed on giving me a 15$/month rebate if I'd stick with them. voip.ms is very good because: Their prices are really good They offer a broad range of products For the price of a VoIP line, you get all the functions of a whole PBX Voicemail Ring Groups IVR DISA Multiple phones on the same account Callback Etc. Up to now, 100% reliable.