Here’s a simple shell script sample on how to import a list of phone numbers into FreePBX’s blacklist module. The blacklist module is available for download in the FreePBX “Module Admin” menu. Unless you’re based in Switzerland, the call-center blacklist I’m using in the script below is probably not relevant to you – you’ll have to find one for your country. Read more »

Aus aktuellem Anlass wieder mal ein Post in Deutsch. Und zwar geht es dieses Mal um Belästigungen. Genauer gesagt um Meinungsforscher, Werbeanrufer und sonstige, gewerbliche Telefonterroristen, welche sich ungeniert über den *-Eintrag im Telefonbuch hinwegsetzen. Der Plan: Mittels einer Sperrliste bekannte Störenfriede automatisch abweisen. Was braucht man dazu:

1. Eine Telefonanlage, welche mit einer Rufnummern-Sperrliste umgehen kann
2. Eine maschinenlesbare Sperrliste mit Call-Center Nummern
3. Irgendwelche Update-Skripts zwecks Automatisierung

Read more »

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’m planning to host this website on a colocated Raspberry Pi. Meanwhile, my RPi has arrived at EDIS’ data center in Graz, Austria. I transferred all relevant files and database tables from this WordPress installation to the new home on the RPi. I had to tweak my LAMP installation to reduce the memory footprint because the default settings for Apache and MySQL tend to eat quite a bit of RAM. When I started testing the WordPress installation, something interesting happened: it took more than 10 seconds to serve a page. Read more »

Here’s the UnixBench v5.1.3 result of my Raspberry Pi (model B). I’m using a SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 card (up to 95MB/s) in the RPi’s SD card slot and the RPi is running Debian “Squeeze”. Read more »

After weeks of waiting I finally received my first (but certainly not last) Raspberry Pi last week. This one is going to be colocated in a data center in Austria and I’m planning to run this website on it. I sent it off today and it’s due to arrive at the data center later this week so I’d expect to move trick77.com to the Raspberry Pi (or short RPi) either this weekend or the weekend after.

I went for Debian because of all available images for the RPi, Debian “Squeeze” seemed to be most stable version for a production server. I should have gone with the basic Squeeze ARM-Netinstall image but I didn’t have the nerve to compile a kernel for the RPi. However, the provided Squeeze image is not really suited for a production environment and needs to be heavily apt-get purged. For instance, I threw out all X-related software and using the netstat command, I made sure no unwanted ports were left in the open (even though I’m additionally firewalling it). To free up more RAM for Linux I set the CPU/GPU split to 224/32 because the default 50:50 split doesn’t leave enough RAM to run a LAMP installation. After upgrading to the latest RPi firmware even my 8GB Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SD card started working properly. The rpi-update updater comes in handy!

Now, colocating a bunch of Raspberry Pi’s is certainly not a service every data center is providing (at least not yet :). I saw this offer from EDIS.at over at Lowendtalk and they’re even colo’ing the RPi for free. Yeah, for free! This includes power, an IPv4, multiple IPv6′s and 100GB/mo traffic on a 100mbit port. AFAIK the offer is still up, check this link: https://manage.edis.at/whmcs. Nope, looks like the offer has expired. Re-nope, here’s the sign-up link: https://manage.edis.at/whmcs/cart.php?gid=6

I expect that quite a few RPi’s are on their way to Austria right now and I’m really looking forward to see some photos of them once they’re installed in EDIS’s data center. It would be pretty cool to have the RPi’s lined up vertically in a 1U slot just like small blade servers. But since no such thing exists they probably just throw ‘em on a table or something.

Please leave a comment if you’re going to colo your RPi too and what you’ll be using it for!