Just received the Portable Powermat wireless charging, capable of charging three devices wirelessly and one through the USB connection. This portable version upon first glance is nowhere near as sexy as it’s desktop version. However, my opinion changed when I saw how small it could be folded up. The portable version is made up of 3 sections that are hinged and fold on-top of each other. Even when the mat is folded up it allows for a single device to be charged. In the folded state it takes up no more than a 4″ x 4‚” square, that is about an inch in height.

At first glance when I opened the box it was a bit overwhelming the number of piece that were included, however within two minutes everything was sorted and I was immediately charging my iPod Touch and also thinking of the dozens of other uses. The Powermat Portable is fine for charging one device, but it really shines when you have all three pads charging, since the number of required cables for power has been reduced to a single power outlet.

Nice features include are the two buttons that turn off the charging lights (perfect if you plan to use this in the bedroom) and a button that changes the volume level of the sound that plays when a devices is placed on or removed from the Powermat.

My first test of the Powermat was to place my iPod Touch, PSP and a friends Blackberry on the charging pads. It was amazing to see so many devices together and to not have all the extra cables hanging off the desk. Not to mention trying to find the power octopus so that I would be able to plug in all three devices at once.

In all I think my wife was the happiest to have the Powermat, in our house she is the cable nazi, and is always trying to find ways to reduce the number of cables. She smiled slyly as she watch me carry away all the obsolete power bricks to their new home in storage.

Be sure to sign up for the giveaway, two winners will be selected on September 10th, one for the mobile charging station and one for the mobile charging station. Only one entry per person – North American entries only (please).

You need a basic LAMP stack and “mp3info” – should be available in your repo’s.

This is totally open – if anyone wants to help out with development leave a comment or send me a message.

The goal is to stream remote media over the web with an intuitive web interface.

Installation :

apt-get install mp3info

cd /var/www

wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/cimediaplayer/Media.tar.gz?r=https%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fcimediaplayer%2Ffiles%2F&ts=1282412797&mirror=master

edit application/config/database.php using your database creds.

That should be about it – I know these instructions are lazy but it is Saturday… Leave comments if you need help.

So when I was checking Ebay to see what others were selling these for I found this hilarious dude trying to sell one for $800.  Pay close attention to the title / images, it really gave us a good laugh at the office.

Check out the mirrored ad-FAIL here.

Download the call here, check out the post here.

Listen to the VUC every Friday at noon here and be sure to take part in IRC on FreeNode at #vuc.

I made these frequently as a young boy, they are easy to make, parts are very cheap (if not free) and you can spend hours tweaking it!

What you need :

• About 1M (3′) Thin gauge enamel copper wire – thick enough that about three inches could support the weight of a pencil.
• Small magnet – many fridge magnets will do.
• 1xAA Battery (1.5v)
• Push pins or small finishing nails.
• Small square block of softwood (about 12 cm wide will do).
• 3cm (1.5″) diameter cylindrical object (large magic marker or C cell battery is about the right diameter.)

The Build :

Begin wrapping the copper wire around the cylindrical object 10 to 20 times leaving about 10cm (3-4″) free on each end- this will be used for the armature.  Wrap the wire a few times within the coil itself to keep the arms in place – you want to make sure they are exactly 180 degrees from each other and centered as they will be supporting the weight of the coil.  Strip the enamel off the arms  using some scissors or something sharp – they need to be totally free of enamel.

Cut two additional 10cm long pieces of wire and strip the enamel off completely – these will be the brushes and will support the armature / coil.  Now wrap each one a few times around each push pin and insert into the softwood block.  Create a small loop at the top of each brush for the armature to slide into.  Consult the (shaky) video if my writing doesn’t make any sense.

Attach the battery to each push pin with wires – it is really handy if you can find a battery chassis with the wires already attached.

I will take some steadier photos and maybe draw up a diagram if anyone wants further instruction.  All of the parts above I found at my favourite store Active Surplus for less than three dollars.  Enjoy your super fun DIY motors and feel free to submit your masterpieces – I will post them in a new article.

The good news is that we have gathered a team of developers to write a totally web based app for provisioning your endpoints with ease.  To start we will support the devices that we actually have and can test.  Within the week we plan to support the following models :

• Grandstream GXP XXXX & Budgetone Models
• Cisco 79XX series
• Several Aastra models (53i, 9143i, 480i)
• Linksys SPA94X
• Sipura SPA2102 (AKA Linksys PAP2)
• Whatever else can be found or generously donated.

We began development on the frontend which has two modes – wizard (basic) and advanced.  We have also constructed working templates for many models listed above which is probably the most tedious task.  We will offer HTTP and TFTP provisioning totally free! as well as the option to download your entire endpoint configuration to place on your own network (if you so choose).

A word on security :

Any and all data you submit to this application will be passed through an extensive encryption / decryption process and stored in the database – thus no one but you will have access to the private information.  You will actually have the ability to set your own security salt and change it if you suspect foul play (which is very unlikely).  We may also buy a CA for that extra peace of mind.

We will be adding this functionality as a module at ENUMPlus so sign up to catch first glimpse.

Anyone looking to help either with a donation of hardware or Paypal is of course much appreciated.  The more devices we can get our hot little hands on – the more we will be able to support.

Setting up your environment

Using a SSH client such as Putty – connect to your web server and create a directory in your users home named “bin”

$ cd ~
$ mkdir bin
$ cd bin

Next we need to download a stable copy of Zend Framework via subversion using the following command :

$ svn checkout http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/branches/release-1.10/

If svn (Subversion) is not installed you can download via wget using the following command :

$ wget http://framework.zend.com/releases/ZendFramework-1.10.3/ZendFramework-1.10.3-minimal.tar.gz

Next we need to untar (decompress) the framework :

$ tar -zxvf ZendFramework-1.10.3-minimal.tar.gz

Rename the decompressed folder :

$ mv ZendFramework-1.10.3-minimal Zend

** Note if you used subversion to acquire Zend Framework – you probably have downloaded the release directory – use the command above replacing the first argument with the release directory name.

Move the scripts from the Zend/bin directory into the ~/bin directory; make them executable; rename zf.sh to just zf (for simplicity) :

$ mv Zend/bin/* .
$ chmod +x zf.sh
$ mv zf.sh zf

The next step is to add the zf script to the users include path, this allows us to use the zf command without having to specify the absolute path. Copy and paste the next 6 lines into your shell :

cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc
if [ -d ~/bin ] ; then
PATH=~/bin:"\${PATH}"
fi
export PATH
EOF

You must now log out and back in to activate this path. Once you are logged back in you can test the zf command by typing :

$ zf show version

If you see “Zend Framework Version: 1.10.3″ you are ready to start your first project.

Creating your first project

Change to your web server document root, assuming you are using a Debian based server you can find it usually in /var/www (RHEL generally defaults to /var/www/html) :

$ cd /var/www

Create a project using the following command :

$ zf create project <project_name>

Where <project_name> is the name of your project in lowercase alpha numeric form (no symbols, spaces, uppercase letters (hyphens and underscores are OK))

Link your Zend library to your projects library directory as such :

$ ln -s ~/bin/Zend /var/www/project_name/library

Where /var/www is your web server document root and project_name is the name of your project.

If all went well – point your browser to your web server hostname or IP / your project name / public ( http://example.com/project_name/public ).

That is all for now – we’ll get into the actually writing some code next time. Leave me some comments below!

After completely rewriting ENUMPlus from the ground up (2 days total) we have come much closer to a universal ENUM lookup source.  The new module can be downloaded here so install it now! Here’s why :

• The module forms a HTTP request to our API which queries many other sources and returns the most accurate address.
• There is no longer a need to add multiple lookup sources to the old enumlookup AGI.
• It audibly notifies you when the call is made over ENUM.
• You can track your calls in the panel.
• White pages / search functionality (including avatars )
• Call validation is much more stable.

If you don’t have an account, get one – registration is quick and simple and you will be a happy geek.

Check out the project page / wiki / site / sourceforge / FreePBX / voip-info / piaf for more info.