Category: Tech

Anything and everything I write that has something to do with tech. Maybe it’s a post about the time I blew up that server in 2003 because I didn’t know what bridged networking really meant. Sorry Roger!

Saying goodbye to an old but solid server

I researched and installed an HP x510 at a small business back in 2010 just before I was leaving Peace Corps. People I work with now think I’m crazy when I talk about server-class hardware that could last 5 or more years. I suspect this thing will work for another 6. It had it’s fair share of dead drives of course, owing much to my previous insistence on 7200RPM even for a glorified NAS. Once I understood the impact from the extra heat I started using the Western Digital RED series. I’ve set up at least three other servers using those and they haven’t failed either yet.

I stopped appreciating the excessively aggressive upgrade cycle that has been introduced with smartphones. Replacing hardware every two years isn’t on my top-ten list of favorite things to do.

This server has now been donated via Freecycle to the tech teacher at a primary school. I can only hope it serves them well too.

FIXED: Forwarding All Video Calls

I have had this annoying notification on one of my T-Mobile S7s for the last 3 months, but I haven’t really looked into figuring this out until this weekend.

t-mobile-forwarding-all-video-calls-notification

Attempted all of the following with no success:

  • Basics, rebooting, reseating SIM, etc.
  • Disabling Voice over LTE
  • Carrier shortcodes for disabling all forwarding, requested ISP tech support to remove all forwarding from their side
  • Requested over-the-air SIM refresh from ISP (and rolling my eyes when the tech suggested I factory reset the phone before troubleshooting would continue)
  • Setting SIM in an iOS device and re-running all shortcodes. (Sometimes I really do use iOS)

Upon putting my SIM into another known-good Samsung, and receiving the same annoying notification, it was clear it had nothing to do with my phone.

Took it into the ISP this AM and asked for a SIM swap. Notification now gone.

What’s most interesting about all of this, is it happened after I went on a work trip to a foreign country that is commonly associated with APTs. Potentially just a coincidence, but looking over Google doesn’t reveal any specifics on how this even gets turned on, nor anyone else having better luck figuring it out what caused it.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7/713205-persistent-video-call-forwarding-notification.html