66: When to raise your Google Voice
2010-03-01
Download MP3 For Geekons Episode 66
Pop-Up: Google Voice
- Google Voice is an online service that gives you a single phone number that can be forwarded to several other phone numbers at once.
- It also allows you to screen calls by requiring the person calling you to say their name before you pick up. It then plays back their name and lets you choose whether or not to answer the call.
- Google Voice also has some standard features you would expect from a phone service, such as:
- Receive phone calls at an existing phone number
- Place phone calls
- text messaging
- voicemail
- It is not a telephone service, so you will need to already have a phone service through someone else (I use a VOIP service myself).
- Voicemails are all transcribed by computer and you can optionally have them sent to your mobile via text message or to your email inbox.
- The website also allows you to block callers, which makes your google voice number a great number to give away for people on craigslist and other semi-public areas to call you.
- You can also have your google voice calls recorded, which is great for conference calls and other important calls that might contain important details.
- By using GV to send outgoing phone calls, you aren't charged long distance by your phone company and Google doesn't charge for calls inside the US and Canada. (other countries have low long distance rates, in fact calling a land-line in Israel is only $0.02/min!)
- 5 out of 5 stars, the core service is free and priceless, and it makes things much less awkward when someone you don't really want to talk to asks for your phone number.
Geek-Tweak: How to make a Windows program with AutoHotKey
- Last week we learned how to use AutoHotKey to expand a few keystrokes into potentially pages worth of text.
- This week we're going to learn how to write Windows applications with the same scripting language!
- The first step is to download and install AutoHotKey from autohotkey.com (which you really should have done after hearing that awesome tip from episode 65!)
- Next, fire up your favorite text editor and write an application using the AutoHotKey scripting language!
- Basically most Gui commands work like this:
- Gui, sub-command, optional sub-command parameters separated by commas
- We'll dissect each line to learn how this all works:
- Gui +Resize -MaximizeBox
- This is an optional line I've added to enable window resizing, but disable maximizing the window.
- Gui, Add, Text, ,Hello World!
- This line adds some text to the window that says Hello World!
- The blank space between commas means we have decided not to add any options for this control.
- If we wanted to, we could have specified the width, height, and location of the text within our window using that blank space.
- Gui, Show, w150, Hi Again!
- This line tells AutoHotKey to show the Gui window we just defined.
- We've chosen to add a width of 150 pixels by typing w150. We could have also typed h75 to give it a height of 75 pixels.
- The final paramter, Hi Again! will be what shows up in the title bar of the window.
- Return
- This line tells AutoHotKey to stop executing stuff and wait for the user to do something with the script.
- This is required because the top part of every script is automatically launched when the script is launched.
- Without this line, the script would continue to run, including the ExitApp line (that we'll get to in just a moment)
- GuiClose:
- GuiClose is one of many Window Events that AHK tracks.
- All of the lines of code below this event will be executed until it runs across the line Return (like we had earlier)
- ExitApp
- This exits the application and completely terminates the script so it isn't using any resources.
- Without this line, even though the window is closed the script would still be running.
- Gui +Resize -MaximizeBox
- And that's our basic 6 line windows application created using AutoHotKey!
- You can add all kinds of other controls, such as input boxes, buttons, drop down menus, etc.
- I wrote a script to help me create config files based on values typed into a form, and even had the script create a new text file for me and put it in the correct location on my computer.
- If you make an awesome application, you can even run the Convert .ahk to .exe script in order to create a distributable compiled application that doesn't require the recipient to install autohotkey themselves. (It basically packages AHK with your script.)
- If you want to make complicated applications with AHK, you can always design your application using SmartGUI which is a WYSIWYG editor available from http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/SmartGUI/
View-Source: Spiritual Packet Filtering
- An online dictionary defines Packet filtering as "Controlling access to a network by analyzing the incoming and outgoing packets and letting them pass or halting them based on the IP addresses of the source and destination."
- The key phrases here are "analyzing incoming and outgoing packets" and "letting them pass or halting them"
- 1 Timothy 1:3-7 shows us an example of Paul telling Timothy not only to filter these packets, but to also stop the source of them, to seek out teachers and command them to stop teaching false doctrines and to stop devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies.
- A modern day example might be to filter out non-biblical teaching commonly found on TV.
- Easy targets are the pastors that claim God wants you to be rich, and if you aren't healthy and wealthy then you must be doing something spiritually wrong.
- More difficult targets are out there, that sound good and may have some truth to them, but aren't strictly in line with God's word.
- Like Timothy would have to analyze the teaching that was being given, we need to analyze the information we receive.
- Proverbs 21:23 tells us to not only filter incoming packets, but to also filter out outbound packets.
- What is the impact of your words when you are upset with someone?
- What is the potential impact for the person receiving your words, and for you and your relationship with that person and with Christ?
- Proverbs 4:23 tells us that the reason we are filtering incoming and outgoing packets is because of how important the network is.
- The issues of life come from our heart: the human brain greatly determines our actions and our thoughts, and it can be trained by keeping it clean!
- We need to filter out what we are willing to put into our hearts, and who we grant access to have an impact in our thinking.
- Matthew 6:22-23 tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body, and if they are good our whole body will be full of light, but if they are bad the whole body will be full of darkness.
- What are our eyes focused on? Are they on God and His will, or our own selfish desires?
- If we find that our eyes are focused on our selfish desires, what can we shift our focus to in order to make sure our whole body will be full of light?
- Like any network, we need to filter out what is coming in and what we are allowing to go out.
- What practical steps you can take to make sure you are guarding your heart?
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