Chrome updater fail

The answer to "why is my laptop suddenly running slow" is apparently "Google Chrome has just decided to update itself".

This is most unhelpful when I'm running on battery power, using a low-power profile that drops the clock speed down to 600MHz. I'm also using a mobile internet connection that's most definitely not unlimited, and I'd rather not download software updates on it when I can download the same updates on my truly unlimited home connection.

The really annoying thing is that this happened last time I was trying to get stuff done on the laptop, and I could have sworn I went in and ticked the "Don't start the task if the computer is running on batteries" option in the tasks (Chrome's updater looks like it uses the Windows task scheduler, which is admittedly a nice touch). But I've just had a look and that box is currently unticked. Hmm.

Come to think of it, I'm not even sure why I have Chrome on the laptop.

boggyb's laws of IP phones

Bonus post!

I would like to propose boggyb's laws of IP phones:

Law 1: Every IP phone will contain an easy-to-hit bug that makes it completely unusable for a common call flow.
Law 2: No two IP phones have the same bug.
Law 2a: Different versions of the same IP phone will have different bugs.

A bit of background: in SIP (which is what every IP phone that isn't Skype uses), you start a call by sending a request to the callee along with a SDP offer, which contains a list of media streams and codecs you support along with the IP address/port to send them to. The callee replies with a SDP answer containing the codec(s) that it has chosen for the call, along with where the callee expects to receive media on. Usually the answer contains a single codec which both ends will then use. The offer/answer process can be repeated during a call, for example to add a video stream. It's all deceptively simple but full of pitfalls for the unwary.



Anyway, on with the fail! Naming no names, because I can't remember which one has which bug.

( Media FAIL )

The fail is not limited to handling audio - some clients can't even cope with the SIP signalling!

( Extra FAIL )