Source: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/wlg/6946 by Jim Van Meggelen May. 1, 2005 I'm not exactly sure what causes people to get into telecom, but whatever the disease, there is finally a cure!
If you are a hopelessly addicted telecom geek (or, actually, any sort of geek who enjoys communicating), you need to take a look at the new phenom on the open-source scene: Asterisk! Imagine the fun of being able to build the ultimate über communications engine! Your own VoIP-enabled PBX. Or how about building something like a Voice-enabled BBS? Here's some of the infinite things that Asterisk can do: - Hold internet-based meetings of friends (Asterisk-based conference rooms are going to become the killer app for personal use)! - Create ridiculously complicated telemarketer blockers (they waste your time, now you can waste theirs)! - Send yourself telephoned reminders (it's so much more high-tech than tying a string around your finger)! - Have automated "emergencies" call you out of boring meetings (another killer app)! - Have your wired lines connected to your cell! - Play matchmaker - have your friendly date-bot connect your eligable friends together - automatically (and, for extra excitement, randomly)! - Set up automated birthday greetings! Imagine how loved your friends will feel when they get their own personal birthday message (and, yeah, to be sure you are the first - have it call at 3AM, while you are soundly sleeping)! - Avoid your parents! - Avoid your partner's parents! - Connect your respective parents together (is this too terrifying for words?)! Have I used enough exclamation points? Asterisk is fully Linux-friendly, and will happily interoperate with pretty nearly anything you want it to. This little-PBX-that-could is about to re-define all the rules when it comes to telecom. Telecom, fun? You betcha. Download a copy and check it out! Jim Van Meggelen is President and CTO of Core Telecom Innovations, a Canadian-based provider of open-source telephony solutions. -- * Simon P. Ditner / ON-Asterisk Mailing List / http://uc.org/asterisk *
