Here’s the top ten list of fun and interesting things to do with VoIP.

1. Caller ID Spoofing – Use Asterisk to spoof Kevin Rose’s home phone number. Call all your friends and tell them you’ll be on the next diggnation.
2. Beat the telemarketers by implementing Asterisk Zapateller. Their predictive dialer software will think your number is disconnected and you’ll be deleted from their database!
3. Use a free SIP client like X-lite and Voipbuster to make free calls to Europe.
4. Signup as a volunteer with your favorite political party. Use Skype to make free “get out the vote” calls to registered voters in swing states.
5. Torture a telemarketer! Replace your answering machine with Asterisk and setup the Telemarketer Torture dial plan.
6. Integrate Asterisk and the Google Calendar API. Have Google Calender Call to remind you of appointments.
7. Make unlimited cell phone calls with Sprint for $5 month.
8. Use BottleRocket to integrate your X10 system and Asterisk. Have fun turning your lights on and off with your cell phone.
9. Can’t afford an iPod? Use TrixBox to stream podcasts to your cell phone.
10. Three-Way Caller ID Spoofing (the ultimate in Caller ID spoofing). Call person A and spoof the CID so it looks like person B is calling. Simultaneously call person B, but spoof the CID for person A. Connect all three of you to an Asterisk Meetme Conference call. Make sure to mute your mic so they can’t hear you laughing. This work even better if you pick two random people that don’t know each other.
    

Have you ever wondered the correct way to hookup that Cable TV coax cable? This site has a good list of cable tv hook up diagrams.

Including the following:
No Converter:

• Cable Outlet to TV

• Cable Outlet to VCR to TV

• Cable Outlet to TV to Stereo

• Cable Outlet to VCR to Stereo to TV to Stereo

With Converter:

• Cable Outlet to Converter to TV

• Cable Outlet to Converter to VCR to TV

• Cable Outlet to Converter to VCR to TV (w/ Stereo hook up)

• A/B Switch Configurations

• Cable Outlet to Converter to HDTV

• Game Console Configuration

• DVD Configurations

• DVR Configurations (PVR, TiVo, Replay TV, etc.)

A few years ago, my brother purchased a new Dell Inspiron laptop. He also shelled out a few hundred dollars on the extended warranty program, assuming that Dell would fix it when it broke. The new Dell Inspiron arrived in perfect condition and performed flawlessly for months.

About a year after he purchased the new Dell, his battery gave up and died on him. “No problem” he thought, “I’ll just call Dell and have them Fix it!”  Wrong! After spending many hours on the phone with Dell technical support, he found out that the extended warranty didn’t cover the battery. Apparently, Dell treats the battery as an accessory, and not a critical component of the laptop. To this day, the only thing wrong with that Dell Inspiron laptop is the battery that died and Dell won’t fix it.