Wi-Fi, Linux, And VoIP In Canada

WEFUNK writes "Canadian Business magazine has a cover story promoting Wi-Fi, VoIP, and Linux as 'Stuff that Works: 3 hot technologies that live up to their hype.' The article goes on to describe a number of Canadian success stories, ranging from Spotnik Mobile's growing network of Wi-Fi hotspots to the Canadian National Railway's use of Linux since 1993, and quantifies the benefits of VoIP to a Canadian insurance company's call centre. The article also includes some shipment numbers for Linux servers in Canada, mentions the growing number of Linux apps, and nicely downplays the SCO debacle."

Comments

VoIP is awesome!

[Anonymous Coward]

I know that intel's facilities use VoIP for thier internal phone calls. I heard they had problems with the clarity, and had to add noise creation mechanisms to the chips because people thought the other party had hung up due to beautiful silence. :)

Re:VoIP is awesome!

[Jucius Maximus]

"I know that intel's facilities use VoIP for thier internal phone calls. I heard they had problems with the clarity, and had to add noise creation mechanisms to the chips because people thought the other party had hung up due to beautiful silence. :)"

The office where I work is working completely on VoIP. And yes, there are systems to deliberately add static to the sound so you know the other person has not hung up. The part that you may not know is that static is also added by your phone company to your analogue line too for the same reasons.

*will* live up to the hype

[ObviousGuy]

So this is one of those "look into the crystal ball" articles. A quick look at the numbers show that Linux adoption is levelling off, as are all server OSs across the board (with Solaris and BSD (is dying!)) actually decreasing in market share).

So you've got two technologies that are succeeding here, WiFi and VoIP. And you've got one that's doing okay, Linux.

It's certainly not 1998 and Linux is the new hot thing. It is 2003 and it is the old OS with a good rep. It hasn't lived up to all of its hype (it still sucks as a desktop OS despite your mama's running of it at home), but it has nicely fit a niche in server software that was completely dominated by some big names like IBM and Sun previously. That's not too bad.

I don't understand VoIP

[Sabalon]

Can anyone recommend some good books on it - more overview stuff?

I'm serious - I'd like to read something good on it. I understand the basics - voice sent over IP, but want to read about whatever other abilities it has that makes it so damn complex. It seems pretty simple to me.

I guess a lot of the complexity comes from tying it into the POTS, but in my simple mind, a headset on a PC and some H.323/T.120/whatever spec it is software would take care of it on the client end.

Though it seems a lot of the stuff seems to be special network gear to tie it into the current POTS headsets. To me, someone could make a killing by just making a server with a PRI connector or two and client software. Sell headsets for $20 and profit.

Or am I really oversimplifying it?

Call Centres

[yetiman]

In my city (~50 000 residents) we have one of the largest call centres in north america. For those of you who don't know, its telemarketing.

At any one time, there are 500 people actively dialing on the floor, and all are using VoIP for their outgoing call. It's quite amazing the network set up they have, as the only problem they ever seem to have is people knocking out fibre lines via car crashed :-)

Sidetone

[Detritus]

A portion of the transmit audio is also mixed in to the receive audio. If you don't do this, people think the phone is broken. Analog phones do this by unbalancing the hybrid that separates transmit and receive audio.

Loving VoIP (and of course Linux)

[Limburgher]

I work for a major food/beverage distributor, and we use VoIP for our entire phone system, both here in the corporate office and at our many distribution centers all around the U.S. It's reliable, clear, and like the article says, really flexible. We have a system that routes voicemail into out email boxes so we have the option of listening on the phone or with WinAmp. Nice if you're on the phone and need to check your voicemail. It's also cool to be able to crank up my speakers, put the phone on speaker, and play voicemail to the person on the other end.

And, of course, I use Linux for all serious tasks on my home network. Gateway, router, DNS, email, desktop, printserver. I have a couple of Winboxen for lite gaming, but that's it. Still trying to get Linux in the door at work. I know Citrix runs on Unix, but does anyone know if it has a Linux port yet?

Re:fp from canada

[lightsaber1]

Yes, isn't it grand? Here at the University of Waterloo, the Math (including Computer Science) computers all run UNIX (SOLARIS to be exact, I use Linux at home), the artsies and engineers use a Win2k-based networks. Why? The steeper learning curve is too much for the artsies who just want to type their essays, while the more technical students find it much more efficient to work in a *NIX-based system. I have no idea what the engineers are doing with windoze.

Anyways, they're also building up a campus-wide wireless network for students and staff to use. This makes it so much easier to play online games during lectures :-)

I must say, Linux and WiFi have made my life easier and I hope it spreads even further.