What I used to do for my own PA system is use the sound card in the old PC I had running Asterisk.
Use chan_oss or chan_alsa, and the Asterisk box takes care of the automatic picking up. It works great. Grab a spare PC, install asterisk, do a IAX channel to it and it think you'll find it better, have more control.
The line in my asterisk setup was : exten => 310,1,Dial(Console/dsp,10,A(tone11));;intercom
This dialed the Console, or sound card, then played a tone right before the channel went live, as a warning tone. There's tons of applications for this. I used to have a program that somebody made that would say the incoming callers Caller ID name and number over the intercom as the phones rang. Plus, you could dial in mp3 requests and i'd use mpg123.
Good stuff. I'd recommend going this route. you don't need a huge, fast new PC, I did it with a P2 450, and it sounded great.
I glance at the google results for some of my own sites and the Reg is correct, Google's index is completely out of date, even for a super small time guy like me.
I know the GoogleBot indexes the site almost every day. Yet, while one of my sites is completely out of date (the Cache is from 2005), another is almost completely up to date.
Google's got problems.
Re:Silly question about Asterisk@home
on
Build Your Own PBX
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You can have 2 FXO cards (Wildcards ) in one computer, though sometimes it gives people problems. The *best* solution to what you want is a full fledged TDM400P with 2 FXO and 1 FXS modules. But thats expensive.
You can get 2 Clone FXO cards for cheap, and then use a Sipura 1000 or 2000 for your FXS. I use a similar setup (1 Clone FXO, Sipura, some Grandstreams), which works well.
In front of my house, my roommates and I have both Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards signs on our lawn, as well as signs from local and state campaigns. (A house divided, so to speak)
All of them get trashed. the Bush/Cheney more often (4 signs down so far). But we live in a college town so such things are expected on Friday nights. Luckily, the Republicans here don't charge for signs, while the Democratic's charged $3 for the Kerry/Edwards signs, which get stolen/trampled/set on fire much less often.
I figure if I call up the local RNC/DNC offices and tell them of my tails of woe, they'll hook me up with some really huge, gaudy signs. With huge defense lasers and remote-controlled carpet bombing capabilities. That'll stop'm.
I hooked up my TiBook, a old Delorme Tripmate, my Treo, and my iSight and wrote a AppleScript that would put the GPS Cords in the picture that EvoCam took and then upload the picture and use XMLRPC to upload the coordinates to a database online.
The picture component of the system didn't work for my trip but the XMLRPC through the Treo worked great. It was a trip to the East Coast from Chicago, and it got everything till we hit the dark territory of PA, when we lost the connection.
Generally, Voice Over IP uses a voice codec which using lossy compression, i.e, it purposely looses data that it thinks you don't need since the voice quality will still be ok. This works the same way as MP3s, for example.
This is fine for voice because, even if the voice codec looses some of the data, it still sounds good enough for humans to understand. For a modem, like the one inside a Tivo or a fax machine, that's a problem. You can't have bits and pieces of the data stream disappear.
Thats why Analog Telephony Adapters, which convert regular analog phones to VoIP phones, have fax modem features which use lossless codecs. Hense, the exact sound (modem sounds) are preserved during compression.
Its sometimes tricky, but in no way impossible to get a Tivo or Fax machine to work with VoIP.
The ability to set outgoing CallerID data is one of Asterisk's more useful features.
Most DID (Direct Inward Dialing) providers do not let you set outgoing CallerID manually, though if you have any kind of digital phone connection, such as PRI,T1 or ISDN, you can. I say lets celebrate that NuFone allows you to fully control the service you pay for, rather then vilifying them for something that most Asterisk admins want.
Though the way international law works these days, it wouldn't surprise me to see this judgment fester and infect those of other EU member states or even the US.
I've spent the last few weeks putting together a home Asterisk box. VoIP with Asterisk is amazing; the fact that I have a fully functional IP-PBX sitting in my living room running on hardware I found at the dump is mind boggling.
The IAX protocol, which is a Asterisk-specific VoIP protocol, is great behind my IPCop box since it effortlessly works with NAT, requiring not a STUN server or any other kind of help. I've bought pre-paid VoicePulse Connect service for long distance calls to PSTN, and since I don't do much long distance its really a cost saver since I don't have to pay SBC all that money. For local calls, I have a clone-Wildcard PCI card I found off Slashdot. This isn't really a requirement, as you can get local numbers in most areas. Just not mine.
Bottom line: If you want to get serious about VoIP, start tinkering with Asterisk. Its going to be the Apache of VoIP. No doubt.
I run a club on the UIUC campus called the "Free Software Society"
We just brought Brad Kuhn of the Free Software Foundation here to campus for a great introduction to GPL. His question and answer at the end of the speech discussed topics such as enforcement.
Anybody can listen to the speech here off our website, near the bottom. Its in, of course, a free-software supported codec format. (ogg)
I'll have class in there every day next fall, and, honestly, I find the place spectacular. I find the architecture is modern yet not gaudy. Most of the architectural metal is muted, and the exterior blends well with the older buildings, even if it dominates the small high school across the street.
The place still has the most excellent smells of new computer/networking gear, and you can go around and sometimes see the MDF's still under construction.
I got my eyes checked a few months ago, the first time in ages, and computer use has absolutely speeded up the deterioration to my vision.
Not only has be myopia speed along as its typical pace, she also said I have developed astigmatism from my (apparently) near-constant computer use over the years. and i'm only 19..
They prescribed me some long distance (which i only use rarely, since I refuse to give in..) and some close-distance glasses that should the progression of the computer damage. I used them for a while, though they seemed not to do much in the way of helping.
The only way really to prevent this is to take breaks. up to 15 minutes, at least once a hour. Taking breaks can even help other aspects of your health, maybe if you combine them with some walking or other exercise.
xlr8yourmac.com did some tests and found Photoshop, in its current and almost current versions, can't use more then 2 gigabytes of ram. Plus, they found Photoshop CS slower then 7.0.1 w/ G5 patches.
While my Commodore is long gone, my 1702 Monitor worked great last year as my TV for the longest time. I bought a cable tuner for it from RadioShack. There's nothing more retro-coool then watching AdultSwim on the 1702. My Dad bought the monitor so I could use it with my Apple IIc, instead of the litttle crummy one that Apple had. It was great. Right now its sitting in storage; the phono connection has losened up so I gotta open it up and sodder it down. Still works pretty good after all these years. I'd like to see my new Wega last this long.
In comparison, Mac OS X ships with zero ports open to the Internet.
Actually, OS X does have (in most systems) some ports/services open by default. Here's a sample portscan with no user-services (ssh,httpd, afp, etc) running.
Port Scan has started...
Port Scanning host: 127.0.0.1
Open Port: 427
Open Port: 631
Open Port: 1033
1033 is assigned to NetInfo 427 is "server locator" 631 is "IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)"...according to the iana.
I've used this on my Treo too. SSH works great over GPRS, though VNC is too slow connecting to my Mac. Quartz is a little too graphics intensive for the connection.
There's always TopGunSSH . Its a old-school Palm SSH program, so you can get the command line on Palm. When I connect to my Mac OS X box with it (over TCP/IP mind you, though i think it can still do serial communication. Check out TopGunTelnet for pure-serial emulation.), tcsh by default has problems, most noticeably it seems to not to be able to run Pico or Vi (let alone Emacs). I havn't messed around with it enough; i've only used it in cases where i need to a little command line hacking from my Treo.
These are cool guys, I've gone to a few of their SIGMil meetings. Its cool to think i've partied with some guys who've been slashdoted (also perry TA'd a class i took in the fall). Nasko likes to hit on my girlfriend (tho he's only seen her twice).
Good job guys! Keep it up!
They also run the most excellent ACM Special Interest Group at U of Illinois- Urbana Champaign. Anybody who's interested in this kind of research should check it out when they host meetings in the fall.
University of Illinois at Urbana uses this too, though you must download both the client and key before you allowed on one of the few offical wireless lans for undergrads. Most buildings that have wlans are MAC restricted to grad students and professors only.
Slashdot Mirror
What I used to do for my own PA system is use the sound card in the old PC I had running Asterisk.
;;intercom
Use chan_oss or chan_alsa, and the Asterisk box takes care of the automatic picking up. It works great.
Grab a spare PC, install asterisk, do a IAX channel to it and it think you'll find it better, have more control.
The line in my asterisk setup was :
exten => 310,1,Dial(Console/dsp,10,A(tone11))
This dialed the Console, or sound card, then played a tone right before the channel went live, as a warning tone.
There's tons of applications for this. I used to have a program that somebody made that would say the incoming callers
Caller ID name and number over the intercom as the phones rang. Plus, you could dial in mp3 requests and i'd use mpg123.
Good stuff. I'd recommend going this route. you don't need a huge, fast new PC, I did it with a P2 450, and it sounded great.
I glance at the google results for some of my own sites and the Reg is correct, Google's index is completely out of date, even for a super small time guy like me.
I know the GoogleBot indexes the site almost every day. Yet, while one of my sites is completely out of date (the Cache is from 2005), another is almost completely up to date.
Google's got problems.
You can have 2 FXO cards (Wildcards ) in one computer, though sometimes it gives people problems. The *best* solution to what you want is a full fledged TDM400P with 2 FXO and 1 FXS modules. But thats expensive.
You can get 2 Clone FXO cards for cheap, and then use a Sipura 1000 or 2000 for your FXS. I use a similar setup (1 Clone FXO, Sipura, some Grandstreams), which works well.
This seems incredibly important, since it appears the first time that WMV9 can be decoded without using a windows DLL.
Perhaps now i'll be able to use WMV9 without using M$'s player on my Mac.
In front of my house, my roommates and I have both Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards signs on our lawn, as well as signs from local and state campaigns. (A house divided, so to speak)
All of them get trashed. the Bush/Cheney more often (4 signs down so far). But we live in a college town so such things are expected on Friday nights. Luckily, the Republicans here don't charge for signs, while the Democratic's charged $3 for the Kerry/Edwards signs, which get stolen/trampled/set on fire much less often.
I figure if I call up the local RNC/DNC offices and tell them of my tails of woe, they'll hook me up with some really huge, gaudy signs. With huge defense lasers and remote-controlled carpet bombing capabilities. That'll stop'm.
I hooked up my TiBook, a old Delorme Tripmate, my Treo, and my iSight and wrote a AppleScript that would put the GPS Cords in the picture that EvoCam took and then upload the picture and use XMLRPC to upload the coordinates to a database online.
The picture component of the system didn't work for my trip but the XMLRPC through the Treo worked great. It was a trip to the East Coast from Chicago, and it got everything till we hit the dark territory of PA, when we lost the connection.
It was a bloody mess of wires but it worked.
Generally, Voice Over IP uses a voice codec which using lossy compression, i.e, it purposely looses data that it thinks you don't need since the voice quality will still be ok. This works the same way as MP3s, for example.
This is fine for voice because, even if the voice codec looses some of the data, it still sounds good enough for humans to understand. For a modem, like the one inside a Tivo or a fax machine, that's a problem. You can't have bits and pieces of the data stream disappear.
Thats why Analog Telephony Adapters, which convert regular analog phones to VoIP phones, have fax modem features which use lossless codecs. Hense, the exact sound (modem sounds) are preserved during compression.
Its sometimes tricky, but in no way impossible to get a Tivo or Fax machine to work with VoIP.
The ability to set outgoing CallerID data is one of Asterisk's more useful features.
Most DID (Direct Inward Dialing) providers do not let you set outgoing CallerID manually, though if you have any kind of digital phone connection, such as PRI,T1 or ISDN, you can. I say lets celebrate that NuFone allows you to fully control the service you pay for, rather then vilifying them for something that most Asterisk admins want.
Though the way international law works these days, it wouldn't surprise me to see this judgment fester and infect those of other EU member states or even the US.
I've spent the last few weeks putting together a home Asterisk box. VoIP with Asterisk is amazing; the fact that I have a fully functional IP-PBX sitting in my living room running on hardware I found at the dump is mind boggling.
The IAX protocol, which is a Asterisk-specific VoIP protocol, is great behind my IPCop box since it effortlessly works with NAT, requiring not a STUN server or any other kind of help. I've bought pre-paid VoicePulse Connect service for long distance calls to PSTN, and since I don't do much long distance its really a cost saver since I don't have to pay SBC all that money. For local calls, I have a clone-Wildcard PCI card I found off Slashdot. This isn't really a requirement, as you can get local numbers in most areas. Just not mine.
Bottom line: If you want to get serious about VoIP, start tinkering with Asterisk. Its going to be the Apache of VoIP. No doubt.
I've been meaning to setup a system using NoCat
It creates a splash-screen authentication at first connection. Either that or mandatory VPN.
I run a club on the UIUC campus called the "Free Software Society"
We just brought Brad Kuhn of the Free Software Foundation here to campus for a great introduction to GPL. His question and answer at the end of the speech discussed topics such as enforcement.
Anybody can listen to the speech here off our website, near the bottom. Its in, of course, a free-software supported codec format. (ogg)
UIUC's new motto: Why mange multiple, redundant systems when you can do a botch'd up job with one for twice the price!
I'll have class in there every day next fall, and, honestly, I find the place spectacular. I find the architecture is modern yet not gaudy. Most of the architectural metal is muted, and the exterior blends well with the older buildings, even if it dominates the small high school across the street.
The place still has the most excellent smells of new computer/networking gear, and you can go around and sometimes see the MDF's still under construction.
Its a fun place.
I got my eyes checked a few months ago, the first time in ages, and computer use has absolutely speeded up the deterioration to my vision.
Not only has be myopia speed along as its typical pace, she also said I have developed astigmatism from my (apparently) near-constant computer use over the years. and i'm only 19..
They prescribed me some long distance (which i only use rarely, since I refuse to give in..) and some close-distance glasses that should the progression of the computer damage. I used them for a while, though they seemed not to do much in the way of helping.
The only way really to prevent this is to take breaks. up to 15 minutes, at least once a hour. Taking breaks can even help other aspects of your health, maybe if you combine them with some walking or other exercise.
I should listen to my old advice.
Photoshop isn't very 64-bit native either.
xlr8yourmac.com did some tests and found Photoshop, in its current and almost current versions, can't use more then 2 gigabytes of ram. Plus, they found Photoshop CS slower then 7.0.1 w/ G5 patches.
The Illinois ones don't. I keep mine in my old EX-Pass bag since i've moved.
While my Commodore is long gone, my 1702 Monitor worked great last year as my TV for the longest time. I bought a cable tuner for it from RadioShack. There's nothing more retro-coool then watching AdultSwim on the 1702.
My Dad bought the monitor so I could use it with my Apple IIc, instead of the litttle crummy one that Apple had. It was great.
Right now its sitting in storage; the phono connection has losened up so I gotta open it up and sodder it down. Still works pretty good after all these years. I'd like to see my new Wega last this long.
Actually, OS X does have (in most systems) some ports/services open by default. Here's a sample portscan with no user-services (ssh,httpd, afp, etc) running. 1033 is assigned to NetInfo
427 is "server locator"
631 is "IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)"
You could use SSH for Palm like I had above or VNC for Palm. Ether work well, especially over 802.11b.
you mean besides my Treo 180? or my Visor Dlx, or any other Palm for that matter?
I've used this on my Treo too. SSH works great over GPRS, though VNC is too slow connecting to my Mac. Quartz is a little too graphics intensive for the connection.
There's always TopGunSSH . Its a old-school Palm SSH program, so you can get the command line on Palm. When I connect to my Mac OS X box with it (over TCP/IP mind you, though i think it can still do serial communication. Check out TopGunTelnet for pure-serial emulation.), tcsh by default has problems, most noticeably it seems to not to be able to run Pico or Vi (let alone Emacs).
I havn't messed around with it enough; i've only used it in cases where i need to a little command line hacking from my Treo.
These are cool guys, I've gone to a few of their SIGMil meetings. Its cool to think i've partied with some guys who've been slashdoted (also perry TA'd a class i took in the fall). Nasko likes to hit on my girlfriend (tho he's only seen her twice).
Good job guys! Keep it up!
They also run the most excellent ACM Special Interest Group at U of Illinois- Urbana Champaign. Anybody who's interested in this kind of research should check it out when they host meetings in the fall.
University of Illinois at Urbana uses this too, though you must download both the client and key before you allowed on one of the few offical wireless lans for undergrads. Most buildings that have wlans are MAC restricted to grad students and professors only.