This issue has come up on slashdot and other places. Here's an earlier article on the same topic in the Guardian
The Silicon Valley Toxics coalition has extensive information about the problem. Some congresspeople are also attempting to deal with it.
What it comes down to is that old computers are just like other environmental hazzards: the actual cost of goods we buy does not reflect their environmental impact. Gas is cheap these days so it's inexpesnive to drive around in gass guzzling SUVs. But the price of the gas does not reflect the environmental impact of the emissions. Here too, the price of a new computer does not reflect the cost of disposing of it in a safe way. Eventually this will change and there will be an extra $20 charge for computers and similar electronic items that will cover the cost to the government of disposing of the waste when it reaches end of life.
You ought to look into Bayonne. There's a write-up on it in the latest issue of Linux Journal. Bayonne abstracts the board-specific API to its own asynchronously oriented scripting language (ccscript) that can freely interact with other beautiful tools such as Perl, TCL, and, I think, Python. This ought to reduce development time in a huge way.
The beauty of Bayonne is that you can slip other hardware onto the server and your app doesn't care because it's going through the Bayonne abstraction layer and Bayonne can handle other products besides Dialogic. My only reservation is that Bayonne does not appear to have plans for a VoiceXML interpreter. But who's perfect?
You can build a PBX with Intel (formerly Dialogic) "MSI" boards. The MSI can take an analog interface from the outside and generate ring and dial tone for your station sets. You can use an SC bus capable voice board for voice mail. Ought to be able to find this stuff on e-bay at a reasonable price. As for how-tos, there is a wealth of material on the dialogic/Intel support site
Check out the various documentation, especialy the the "Application Notes." There are also forums you can join for free and folks on the forum are very knowledgeable. The bayonne user community is also very helpful.
I've been dying to do this kind of project for years but haven't had the time. Enjoy!
There is an article in Yoga Journal from March/April, 1999, about using Yoga eye exercises. The guy featured in the article, Meir Schneider, saved his own eyesight. See the following references from the article:
Schneider, Meir. Self Healing: My Life and Vision. Penguin, 1989.
Schneider, Meir and Maureen Larkin. The Handbook of Self-Heling. Penguin/Arkana, 1994.
Schneider, Meir. Meir Schneider's Miracle Eyesight Method. Audiotapes from Sounds True, 1996.
What I do to avoid simple eye fatigue is every twenty minutes or so I take a break from the screen and keyboard and do some reading and taking notes. Also looking off into the distance from time to time helps. Remembering to blink frequently is freshing, as well. Good luck to you!
Slashdot Mirror
This issue has come up on slashdot and other places. Here's an earlier article on the same topic in the Guardian The Silicon Valley Toxics coalition has extensive information about the problem. Some congresspeople are also attempting to deal with it. What it comes down to is that old computers are just like other environmental hazzards: the actual cost of goods we buy does not reflect their environmental impact. Gas is cheap these days so it's inexpesnive to drive around in gass guzzling SUVs. But the price of the gas does not reflect the environmental impact of the emissions. Here too, the price of a new computer does not reflect the cost of disposing of it in a safe way. Eventually this will change and there will be an extra $20 charge for computers and similar electronic items that will cover the cost to the government of disposing of the waste when it reaches end of life.
You ought to look into Bayonne. There's a write-up on it in the latest issue of Linux Journal. Bayonne abstracts the board-specific API to its own asynchronously oriented scripting language (ccscript) that can freely interact with other beautiful tools such as Perl, TCL, and, I think, Python. This ought to reduce development time in a huge way. The beauty of Bayonne is that you can slip other hardware onto the server and your app doesn't care because it's going through the Bayonne abstraction layer and Bayonne can handle other products besides Dialogic. My only reservation is that Bayonne does not appear to have plans for a VoiceXML interpreter. But who's perfect?
You can build a PBX with Intel (formerly Dialogic) "MSI" boards. The MSI can take an analog interface from the outside and generate ring and dial tone for your station sets. You can use an SC bus capable voice board for voice mail. Ought to be able to find this stuff on e-bay at a reasonable price. As for how-tos, there is a wealth of material on the dialogic/Intel support site Check out the various documentation, especialy the the "Application Notes." There are also forums you can join for free and folks on the forum are very knowledgeable. The bayonne user community is also very helpful. I've been dying to do this kind of project for years but haven't had the time. Enjoy!
- Schneider, Meir. Self Healing: My Life and Vision. Penguin, 1989.
- Schneider, Meir and Maureen Larkin. The Handbook of Self-Heling. Penguin/Arkana, 1994.
- Schneider, Meir. Meir Schneider's Miracle Eyesight Method. Audiotapes from Sounds True, 1996.
What I do to avoid simple eye fatigue is every twenty minutes or so I take a break from the screen and keyboard and do some reading and taking notes. Also looking off into the distance from time to time helps. Remembering to blink frequently is freshing, as well. Good luck to you!