CT21 Plus Backpack
Shocking as it may sound, I have a new backpack. In previous posts, I talked about the CT21 (which I took to ClueCon 2025) and the CT15+ .
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STIR, SHAKEN, KYC... It's all just BS
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this post are solely my personal views and opinions. These do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of any company or project that I am (or have been) associated with.
APIBAN Now Has IPset (again)

	 
		 
		 It's Deja Vu All Over Again 

		 — Yogi Bera 

	 
 

 All the way back in 2021, APIBAN provided a method of integrating with IPset. I wrote about it in a post titled “ APIBAN Now Has IPset .”
Kindness of strangers

	 
		 
		 I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. 

		 — Tennessee Williams 

	 
 

 AnneMarie has always wanted to have a lemonade stand. 
 Last year, during ClueCon, she (and Mama) visited her cousin up in Wisconsin. Some kids had set up a stand in the neighborhood, and this ignited something. Over…
See you at ClueCon 2026
Join me in Chicago for ClueCon2024 ClueCon2025 ClueCon2026 ! 
 The SignalWire/FreeSWITCH team once again hosts ClueCon in the Second/Windy City… and we’re at a new venue this year… the Midland Hotel Chicago right on Route 66.
Pope Leo on AI

 
	 
		 
		 Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear…
Kamailio World 2026: Thoughts
tl;dr : Same venue as last year, amazing people, very well run, good food, great content. Looking forward to 2027. 
 Pre-Kamailio World 
 Like last year, Yeni and AnneMarie joined me on the trip. This year, we took a full week before the conference for some family time, with stops at (in no particular order):
CT15 Plus Backpack
Last month, when we discussed my favorite bags of 2026 , I mentioned… 

 
	 
		 
		 This said... if ctactical could make the ct-21 with just a bit more capacity or, let's say they did a version of it like their recent ct-14 plus, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Kamailio World 2026: Coming Soon
Where’s the best place to celebrate 25 years of Kamailio SIP Server development? Easy answer: Berlin, DE at Kamailio World ! 
 As I say (almost every March)… each year I look forward to Kamailio World. This year, On lucky years, I get to attend and this year the family and I are headed to Berlin to once again join other Kamailians for the 14th edition of Kamailio World Conference.
My Favorite Backpack? Why pick one?
Back in November 2024, I said that the Tom Bihn Synik 30 was “my favorite backpack… ever.” And, I stand by those words. The Tom Bohn Synik was my favorite backpack ever .
Thanksgiving Message 2025
Looks like I took last year off from the Thanksgiving message. Happens. Took off a few years in the 2010’s, too. I’m not reading too much into it. Life happens . Priorities change.
Upgrade Postgres 13 to 17
Upfront bias : I prefer MariaDB. 
 Truly don’t mean to start a flame war here. If postgreSQL is your way, that’s OK! Seriously, much like your favorite flavor of Linux (mine’s Debian), ice cream, or TV… I just don’t care. You be you.
Thoughts on ClueCon 2025
Last week, I attended ClueCon 2025 in Chicago. The event was well attended with open source RTC/VoIP community members. Any opportunity I get to spend time with Daniel-Constantin Mierla is well worth the trip. =)
New Bag: Ctactical CT21
As I’ve said before, I love backpacks . Always have, hopefully always will. 
 For a while now, I’ve used and really enjoyed some Tom Bihn bags, including the Synik 30 (which I had dubbeed “My Favorite Backpack… ever”), the absolutely incredible Brain Bag , and some of their briefcase bags.
See you at ClueCon 2025
Join me in Chicago for ClueCon2024 ClueCon2025 ! 
 The SignalWire/FreeSWITCH team once again hosts ClueCon in the Second/Windy City… and we’re back at the Swissotel Chicago. I like this hotel a lot.
Random Quotes
On parenting: 

 
	 
		 
		 The days are long, but the years are short. 

	 
 

 On sacrificing: 

 
	 
		 
		 Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do. 

		 — Irma Kurtz 

	 
 


 
	 
		 
		 You don’t…
A moment of patience...

	 
		 
		 A moment of patience in a moment of anger prevents a thousand moments of regret. 

		 — Ali ibn Abi Talib 

	 

Kamailio World 2025: Thoughts
tl;dr : Another new venue, more amazing people, very well run, good food, great content. Looking forward to 2026. 
 Each year I look forward to Kamailio World, and 2025 was no exception. Yeni and AnneMarie joined me and went well enough that all three of us hope to return next year.
Brain Bag vs Synik 30
If you think all the way back to April, I mentioned I bought a new (Tom Bihn) bag and just before that I had talked about how my Tom Bihn Synik 30 was “my favorite backpack… ever.”
Papa's got a brand new bag
Just a bit ago, I was talking about my new favorite bag, the Tom Bihn Synik 30 . 
 Well, my addiction to backpacks is legit and TL;DR I’m the brand new owner of a Tom Bihn Brain Bag .
Signal Vulnerability? Do Better News Media
The news today is rampant with a discussion of Signal ; mostly because of an idiotic use by the Federal Government. This post isn’t about the usage by Senior Level feds… for that, please see the direct source .
Politician Quote

	 
		 
		 Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you. 

		 — Unknown 

	 

Kamailio World 2025: Coming Soon
Next stop, Berlin! 
 Every year, I look forward to Kamailio World , and this year the Kamailio conference will take place on May 12 through 13 in Berlin.
RIP Skype
Story time… 
 When Yeni and I were first dating (in the mid 2000’s), we lived in different states. The 2000s were a fun time… instant messaging was just moving on from ICQ, AOL, MSN, etc… and Skype was becoming pretty popular.
WTF Sangoma
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this post are solely my personal views and opinions. These do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of any company or project that I am (or have been) associated with.
Telnyx Knows Nothing
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this post are solely my personal views and opinions. These do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of any company or project that I am (or have been) associated with.
Introducing Blockhosts
Avinash Chopde, back in 2005 (or so), wrote an incredible python script: blockhosts.py . On systems that we deployed that needed public access to SSH, blockhosts was simply a requirement.
Recovering a disk from QNAP failure
TL;DR: This is what I did to recover a drive (raid array mirrored) from QNAP hardware failure: 
 apt install mdadm lvm2
lvscan
vgscan
vgchange -ay vg288
lvs
mkdir /mnt/recover
mount /dev/vg288/lv1 /mnt/recover -o ro,user
cp -R /mnt/recover/share_folder /backup
 (where vg288 is the volume listed in vgscan that your raid is on)
Bluesky and Mastodon
Just over two years ago, I left twitter and joined Mastodon and Bluesky. Recently Bluesky has seen a ton of traffic/growth, and has become more engaging… this said, both networks have benefits.
My Favorite Backpack... ever
I love backpacks. Always have, hopefully always will. 
 I’ve tried a lot of backpacks over the years and have, as many others, changed my preferences over time.
Sangoma Continues to Disappoint
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this post are solely my personal views and opinions. These do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of any company or project that I am (or have been) associated with.
Kindness is the language...

	 
		 
		 Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see 

		 — Mark Twain 

	 

Why do headphones suck?
For some reason, I started believing that good quality headphones were worth a hefty price. The problem? Good quality headphones do not exist. 
 Take for example Bose . Now, perhaps it’s my age… or maybe liking The Sharper Image catalogs as a kid… but I had always considered Bose to be a “premium” brand. After all, it does come with a premium price .
As I ever was...

	 
		 
		 May not be good as I once was But I'm as good once as I ever was 

		 — Toby Keith 

	 

Hurricane Milton Came
Storm’s over. Unlike Helene , which was one of the worst storms I’ve seen in Gainesville, Milton was truly a non-event for us (locally). 
 
 
	 
 

Hurricane Milton Update
Latest update reduced the wind forcast for our area as the storm has stayed south. 
 GAINESVILLE FL 34 1 11(12) 11(23) X(23) X(23) X(23) X(23)
 
 
	 
 

Hurricane Milton Coming

	 
		 
		 It's like deja vu all over again 

		 — Yogi Bera 

	 
 

 Another day, another hurricane. I am getting really tired of these. 
 Helene Milton is heading through our area. AnneMarie’s school (and the colleges) are closed tomorrow and Thursday….
Hurricane Helene Came
Storm’s over. That was one of (if not) the worst storms I’ve seen in Gainesville since the 1993 Storm of the Century . That storm was nuts… way worse than what I’ve seen around town today (back then there were roofs ripped off, homes destroyed, etc).
STIR/SHAKEN Thoughts
This isn’t a discussion on “what is STIR/SHAKEN”… for that I refer you to Wikipedia , Transnexus , the FCC , and google . 
 Today, I wish to waste your time with my thoughts regarding STIR/SHAKEN being a ridiculous waste of time and effort .
Hurricane Helene Coming

	 
		 
		 Ridin' the Storm Out 

		 — REO Speedwagon 

	 
 

 Another day, another hurricane. I am getting really tired of these. 
 Helene is heading through our area. AnneMarie’s school (and the colleges) are closed today and tomorrow… so Papa is working from home today.
HP ending OBITalk Portal
I still remember when I first saw OBIHAI… at a ClueCon well over 10 years ago. I’ve seen many phones and it generally takes something extraordinary to impress me.
The kindest person...

	 
		 
		 Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true: The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.
Be Kind...

 
	 
		 
		 Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. 

		 — Dalai Lama 

	 
 


 
	 
 

ClueCon 2024 Kamailio Presentation
Thank you to the FreeSWITCH/SignalWire team for posting my ClueCon 2024 presentation, Kamailio and FreeSWITCH at Scale , to YouTube . 
 I’ve also posted the slides from the presentation to pgpx.io:
APIBAN Summer 2024 Stats
I figured it was time to check in on APIBAN before Labor Day… 
 Over the summer APIBAN SIP honeypots received traffic from (on average) 130-150 unique IP addresses a day. APIBAN HTTP honeypots saw traffic from (on average) 200-230 unique IP addresses a day.
Thoughts on ClueCon 2024
ClueCon has ended (or is about too… I had to leave a few hours before it ended). 
 Good time… as always it was great to meet with people from the community, especially Kamailians like Daniel-Constantin Mierla, Ramona Modroiu, Giacomo Vaca, and more.
Git Stash Drop
I love git. 
 Ever work with git and for whatever reason need to run git stash to override your local “changes.” Most of the time, I will never need these files again . Well, there’s an easy way to handle that… git stash drop .
Phishing Mail
I tell you what… phishing attempts are getting better than ever. 
 Take this one received this morning: 

 
	 
 

 This one definitely gave me a double take for sure, and there were definitely some things it did very well , such as:
Thoughts on CommCon SF 2024
This year, CommCon went on tour. 
 The tour visited London and San Francisco; and since I’ve never been able to make a CommCon in person, I absolutely did everything I could to attend the US stop. Luckily, my presentation on APIBAN was accepted.
See you at ClueCon 2024
Join me in Chicago for ClueCon2024 ! 
 I enjoy attending ClueCon, even with it being in Chicago (I’d much rather travel to Berlin for Kamailio World ). 
 All kidding aside, ClueCon consistently is an enjoyable event.