Can someone clearly identify what specific GPL code was violated? If the only modifications were in user space, or were proprietary kernel modules (not statically linked to the kernel) then there may in fact be no violation (with the possible exeption that they fail to tell you how to get your modified binaries onto flash - the so called control and loading scripts). So far, I see a pile of "oh they are bad people" and not enough of "this is the specific violation they made."
It is not a violation to include proprietary kernel modules, nor to have proprietary code in user space. From what I can see, that is where it's highly likely the vendor code lives.
PhoneJACK cards are not expensive at all if you
consider the fact that they are the ONLY product
out there for the low-density VoIP market that
has on-card, no license, royalty-free compression
codecs. The "royalty" is built intot he hardware
cost. There are NO OTHER OPTIONS at this point,
if you want to use decent compression with
open source code. GSM, despite being available,
does have patent issues, and uncompressed audio
will not fly on the open net.
If you want to do VoIP for $20 a port, you will not get the compression - the license fees are higher than that, even before you pay for hardware. The VoIP-Blaster is a nice toy, but it cannot do compression and it cannot ring the phone - so it's basically an outgoing phone interface unit that does not support compression.
I've played in this space for almost 4 years now. It's not changed much. There is still a lack of good low-density hardware at decent prices with good cross-platfrm support; the biggest reason for this is volume. If the demand were there for 100,000 cards, you could probably get a decent break on volume pricing. To date the demand has never grown sufficiently so I predict the prices will not drop radically.
And as for PSTN interfacing, you will always have the cost of the real termination point to factor into any system. Even if you can do this cheaply, to match what the phone system does now you will not lower the cost per minute all that much - you can easily get 4-5cents/minute rates in the US, which is a lot cheaper than VoIP if you factor the costs of the new equipment in.
The place where VoIP makes the most sense is still the third-world. You face internet access issues there, but at 35-50 cents/minute long distance rates in the best cases, you have lots of margin to save serious cash by choosing VoIP, even after paying for the new hardware.
VoIP is quite interesting, but linux based VoIP and telephony in general has declined in the last few years - mostly due to a lack of new hardware support. That is due to the fact that the US market - the major market for hardware - is still so cheap for real telephony that there is no market driver. At least in my opinion.
WRONG. The G.723.1 codec is burned into a DSP inside and the license to use it is built into the chip cost. This is the ONLY way that open source code can take advantage of these patented codecs.
Non-Compter Agreements are illegal in California -
this is a "right to work" state. You have the
right to work for anyone, and they have the right to fire you at any time. However, the language
used in many Employee Confidentiality Agreements
is legally an "end run" around the right to work
provisions of the law. The courts are still sorting out how to deal with these, but no one wants to be the first cases to form the "precedent."
As I discovered, it would be dangerous for me
legally to work on any project - EVEN AN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT - that was in the field that I was working in at $PRIOR_FIRM. While the provisions in the agreement (that I signed, like a dunce) could be beaten, who has the cash to pay a lawyer to fight a battle like that?
Take the advice offered above - read carefully before you sign, and have a lawyer look it over. I ended up paying an attorney for an hour of her time anyway - and I'd be in a stronger place legally if I'd paid it BEFORE joining that company, rather than after leaving it.
Project Neptune aims at using fiber optic cables (normally used for trans-oceanic telecom)
to provide a real time link to sea floor sensors.
They have feasability studies on their web site.
This is far more practical than trying to use either a tethered buoy or an acoustic modem.
I worked for WHOI for a year doing onboard science
support (net admin, programmer, technician,
whatever it took, etc.). There is a heavy use
of linux by oceanography folks. The WHOI and UW
ships all use linux mostly, though Scripps uses
a lot of Solaris.
Weeder Technologies (www.weedtech.com) has good multi-drop A/D modules that have an RS-232 interface. Then get a pair of wireless modems - older Proxim's can be found surplus that work fine, or get new ones from someone like Hummingbird (http://www.xetron.com/900xcvr.htm).
Then use a linux box. I have serial code you can have (LGPL) if you want.
To be honest, I forgot to add my disclaimer - yes, I work for Quicknet. Of course, my email and web links proclaim that, so I was not hiding anything - unlike you, who chose to post anonymously.
Of course, I completely disagree with your views of our products, and of OpenH323. We use them in our business all the time, under linux, and they work very well.
Then again, you posted anonymously, so how can folks evalutate the credibility of your post? You could be trolling for our competition. If so, where are *your* open source drivers?
And as for "being just for hobbyists" - well, linux had that rep for a long time after it ceased being true. That's the beauty of open source - if there are issues, they get fixed. Enough said.
You can do what these phones do - using your linux box and an Internet PhoneJACK. The drivers for the PhoneJACK are already in your 2.2.14 or later kernel, in fact!
Combine that with the software at www.openh323.org you can do excellent quality VoIP calls TODAY with open source software all the way to the metal.
You do NOT need ultra-fast connections to do Internet Telephony. If you use a software only solution (using your sound card) you can compress with GSM and take the 64kbps audio stream (one way, 8khz samples at 8 bits each) and get it down to about 9kbps or so. You add latency due to the time it takes to do the compression. If you have a hardware compression device (such as what my company makes) then you can use better (and more standard) compressions like G.723.1, or G.729a. These can get down very low (5.3kbps for G.732.1). And since it's done in hardware, you get very little increase in latency. The most important thing is that you get to use the compression codec with the license paid for by the hardware vendor. Thus, open source projects can use this technology without issue regarding the intellectual property and royalties regarding the advanced compression codecs. And you can plug a real phone (such as a cordless) into your PC and it acts like a phone because it is a phone!
Remember - that's one way! You need to add the reverse direction, and then add the packet overhead of RTP (real time protocol) and UDP, plus the control signals. You can do great IP calls and use about 16kbps or less. I know. I do it all the time!
Our products (PCI/ISA/PCMCIA) allow you to connect a normal phone to your PC (and provide dial tone, DTMF, ringing, etc) and provide the compression codecs. We have open source linux drivers, and are in the kernel as of 2.2.14. For more information, write me or see our web site: Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
There are several VoIP solutions out now. The most useful one is part of the OpenH323 Project. There are several applications in the package: the basic test app called Voxilla, and the more interesting app called OpenPhone. The latter is the "flagship" application of the OpenPhone Project.
These applications run on linux (and Win32) and work very well, even over dialup connections. If you use hardware to do the audio compression you can use a normal phone and get MUCH better performance. Disclaimer: my company, Quicknet Technologies, Inc. makes this kind of hardware. We even have open source drivers, and are in the kernel as of 2.2.14! We're hiring too!
Internet Telephony is the next big thing - and linux will be a major platform for it.
You can do the same thing with a normal phone and your Linux PC right now, if you add in a phone interface card from Quicknet, who just released their drivers GPL by the way.
And, as a small point of contention, the manufacturer is not required to release any code GPL if it runs in user space. As I'm sure you realize, apps can be closed source in Linux and not violate the GPL nature of Linux itself.
Get a catalog from Graingers or similar - look at the cases made by Hoffman and their competition. Specifically look at the NEMA 4 rated boxes... those will survive nasty conditions. I built boxes that did essentially what you describe and they lived for years on power poles.
Note: you have to be concerned about heat, since if you add a fan hole you are no longer watertight. Use low-power parts and you are probably fine. One nice aspect of keeping the inside a littel warmer is that you limit condensation inside. Use light colored boxes (or better, unpainted silver) to reflect as much sunlight as you can to limit heat in the summer. It's smart to put a 1/4 pound bag of dessicant inside too - eats up moisture that you do not want condensing out on your PC.
Note: you are going to have issues with getting space on poles. Talk to the power and phone utily first - they may donate space, but there are rules about how the box can get mounted - you have to honor the "climb space" so that repair guys can work, etc.
Note: use silicon goop around your antenna through-hole - even if you use good rubber gaskets. The gaskets never hold, and the silicon goop is good insurance. Plan on inspecting yearly and replacing the outside goop layer... it deteriorates in the sun and heat.
Geeks are highly techno-capable, and also intellectual in general, putting them outside the mainstream social circles. We also used to say that geeks were "several sigmas out from the norm" to indicate the same thing.
Nerds are also social misfits, and may or may not be geek-like in intelligence - the significant difference is that nerds usually have the inability to fit into any social groups - even groups of geeks.
There are client and server solutions in progress now. Quicknet Technologies, Inc. have recently released pre-alpha Linux drivers for their Internet PhoneJACK card (and soon will support the Internet LineJACK card). The PhoneJACK has a normal analog POTS port you can plug a phone into - the card does all the interfacing needed. The LineJACK has a POTS port and a PSTN port. With these cards, you can make a single port Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone gateway - and there are Open Source efforts underway now to do just that. At this time, Open Source H.323 and MGCP stacks are in the process of being written, and there is a budding effort to do an open SIP stack. There is excellent new RTP/RTCP code available too. There is a growing collection of developers doing this kind of work, and we invite you to join us!
A new mailing list has been started to support efforts to write new code using Quicknet Cards. You can subscribe by emailing to majordomo@linux.quicknet.net with "subscribe linux-sdk " (without the quotes of course) in the body of the message.
We are planning a special developers package price for our hardware to allow developers to save a few dollars up front (and hopefully write some great software!). We'll be announcing this in the next week, most likely.
Quicknet is committed to Linux - in fact, counting myself, Quicknet has hired three senior Linux programmers in the last few months. Feel free to contact me (Greg Herlein) at gherlein@quicknet.net if you want more information.
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It is not a violation to include proprietary kernel modules, nor to have proprietary code in user space. From what I can see, that is where it's highly likely the vendor code lives.
Does anyone have any evidence to the contrary?
If you want to do VoIP for $20 a port, you will not get the compression - the license fees are higher than that, even before you pay for hardware. The VoIP-Blaster is a nice toy, but it cannot do compression and it cannot ring the phone - so it's basically an outgoing phone interface unit that does not support compression.
I've played in this space for almost 4 years now. It's not changed much. There is still a lack of good low-density hardware at decent prices with good cross-platfrm support; the biggest reason for this is volume. If the demand were there for 100,000 cards, you could probably get a decent break on volume pricing. To date the demand has never grown sufficiently so I predict the prices will not drop radically.
And as for PSTN interfacing, you will always have the cost of the real termination point to factor into any system. Even if you can do this cheaply, to match what the phone system does now you will not lower the cost per minute all that much - you can easily get 4-5cents/minute rates in the US, which is a lot cheaper than VoIP if you factor the costs of the new equipment in.
The place where VoIP makes the most sense is still the third-world. You face internet access issues there, but at 35-50 cents/minute long distance rates in the best cases, you have lots of margin to save serious cash by choosing VoIP, even after paying for the new hardware.
VoIP is quite interesting, but linux based VoIP and telephony in general has declined in the last few years - mostly due to a lack of new hardware support. That is due to the fact that the US market - the major market for hardware - is still so cheap for real telephony that there is no market driver. At least in my opinion.
WRONG. The G.723.1 codec is burned into a DSP
inside and the license to use it is built into
the chip cost. This is the ONLY way that open
source code can take advantage of these patented
codecs.
As I discovered, it would be dangerous for me legally to work on any project - EVEN AN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT - that was in the field that I was working in at $PRIOR_FIRM. While the provisions in the agreement (that I signed, like a dunce) could be beaten, who has the cash to pay a lawyer to fight a battle like that?
Take the advice offered above - read carefully before you sign, and have a lawyer look it over. I ended up paying an attorney for an hour of her time anyway - and I'd be in a stronger place legally if I'd paid it BEFORE joining that company, rather than after leaving it.
I worked for WHOI for a year doing onboard science support (net admin, programmer, technician, whatever it took, etc.). There is a heavy use of linux by oceanography folks. The WHOI and UW ships all use linux mostly, though Scripps uses a lot of Solaris.
Weeder Technologies (www.weedtech.com) has good multi-drop A/D modules that have an RS-232 interface. Then get a pair of wireless modems - older Proxim's can be found surplus that work fine, or get new ones from someone like Hummingbird (http://www.xetron.com/900xcvr.htm).
Then use a linux box. I have serial code you can have (LGPL) if you want.
Of course, I completely disagree with your views of our products, and of OpenH323. We use them in our business all the time, under linux, and they work very well.
Then again, you posted anonymously, so how can folks evalutate the credibility of your post? You could be trolling for our competition. If so, where are *your* open source drivers?
And as for "being just for hobbyists" - well, linux had that rep for a long time after it ceased being true. That's the beauty of open source - if there are issues, they get fixed. Enough said.
Combine that with the software at www.openh323.org you can do excellent quality VoIP calls TODAY with open source software all the way to the metal.
Get more info at Quicknet's web site.
Remember - that's one way! You need to add the reverse direction, and then add the packet overhead of RTP (real time protocol) and UDP, plus the control signals. You can do great IP calls and use about 16kbps or less. I know. I do it all the time!
Our products (PCI/ISA/PCMCIA) allow you to connect a normal phone to your PC (and provide dial tone, DTMF, ringing, etc) and provide the compression codecs. We have open source linux drivers, and are in the kernel as of 2.2.14. For more information, write me or see our web site: Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Check out the OpenH323 Project and the OpenPhone Project for more information.
These applications run on linux (and Win32) and work very well, even over dialup connections. If you use hardware to do the audio compression you can use a normal phone and get MUCH better performance. Disclaimer: my company, Quicknet Technologies, Inc. makes this kind of hardware. We even have open source drivers, and are in the kernel as of 2.2.14! We're hiring too!
Internet Telephony is the next big thing - and linux will be a major platform for it.
And, as a small point of contention, the manufacturer is not required to release any code GPL if it runs in user space. As I'm sure you realize, apps can be closed source in Linux and not violate the GPL nature of Linux itself.
Note: you have to be concerned about heat, since if you add a fan hole you are no longer watertight. Use low-power parts and you are probably fine. One nice aspect of keeping the inside a littel warmer is that you limit condensation inside. Use light colored boxes (or better, unpainted silver) to reflect as much sunlight as you can to limit heat in the summer. It's smart to put a 1/4 pound bag of dessicant inside too - eats up moisture that you do not want condensing out on your PC.
Note: you are going to have issues with getting space on poles. Talk to the power and phone utily first - they may donate space, but there are rules about how the box can get mounted - you have to honor the "climb space" so that repair guys can work, etc.
Note: use silicon goop around your antenna through-hole - even if you use good rubber gaskets. The gaskets never hold, and the silicon goop is good insurance. Plan on inspecting yearly and replacing the outside goop layer... it deteriorates in the sun and heat.
Best of luck! Write me if you need more info.
Nerds are also social misfits, and may or may not be geek-like in intelligence - the significant difference is that nerds usually have the inability to fit into any social groups - even groups of geeks.
Just my opinion, of course.
The OpenPhone Project aims to make it easier for this kind of software to get built. Other good links include:
OpenH323 Project
Linux Telephony
Voxilla - More Linux Telephony
A new mailing list has been started to support efforts to write new code using Quicknet Cards. You can subscribe by emailing to majordomo@linux.quicknet.net with "subscribe linux-sdk " (without the quotes of course) in the body of the message.
We are planning a special developers package price for our hardware to allow developers to save a few dollars up front (and hopefully write some great software!). We'll be announcing this in the next week, most likely.
You can download the Linux drivers from here .
Quicknet is committed to Linux - in fact, counting myself, Quicknet has hired three senior Linux programmers in the last few months. Feel free to contact me (Greg Herlein) at gherlein@quicknet.net if you want more information.