Asterisk Testing

 

Greetings,

I think we can do a much better job at testing within the Asterisk project and I suspect you do, too. The vast install base and wide variety of uses gets us very good feedback. However, it is clear that we can do better within the development community at improving the quality of the code before it makes it out in any type of release (beta, RC, or full release).

I would like to propose that we adopt an automated testing approach as a part of our development process. There are 4 pieces to this:

Testing with our eyesBottom-Up testing using unit tests within AsteriskTop-Down testing using an external test suiteTests running constantly using a continuous integration framework

While this isn’t automated testing, it is too valuable not to mention. One of the most effective ways of finding bugs in code is by peer code review. We see this more and more as we continue to increase our usage of ReviewBoard for peer review before changes are merged. It’s rare that a change goes in as the first proposed patch that goes on ReviewBoard. While it has never been a hard rule, it is strongly encouraged that every committer to seek a sign-off from at least one other committer via ReviewBoard for _every_ non-trivial change.

https://reviewboard.asterisk.org/

For unit testing, we have a new API in Asterisk trunk for writing unit tests within the code. We’re up to 20 unit tests. Writing these tests has already found multiple bugs and running them continuously has caught one regression before it made it into a release.

See include/asterisk/test.h

The beginnings of an external test suite have been created. There is still design work to do, but hopefully it will begin to be populated with tests soon. In general, though, this will become a suite of tests that can use whatever external tools are necessary to verify Asterisk functionality. There is a README.txt that documents what is there so far.

$ svn co http://svn.digium.com/svn/testsuite/asterisk/trunk

On the continuous integration front, we have been using buildbot for a long time for doing compilation on various systems. It’s time that we extend our continuous integration approach to not only compile Asterisk, but also run regression tests. After evaluating some different options, Bamboo has been installed and configured for our use. So far, it is compiling all release branches of Asterisk. For Asterisk trunk, it is running all of the unit tests after every change to the code. The results of the tests are integrated into the application.

Bamboo – The Asterisk Project

The only build slave right now is Linux. This will be extended to other operating systems. If you would be interested in providing a build slave and assisting with its maintenance, please talk to me. We can configure up to 25 build slaves (“remote agents” in Bamboo terminology).

If you have commit access, you are strongly encouraged to sign up for an account on bamboo.asterisk.org and associate your account with your svn username. That way, bamboo can notify you by email and/or jabber if there any problems associated with changes that you make.

As you work on changes to the Asterisk code, you should consider this approach to testing along side your development. If there is a unit test you could write to help prove your code works or prevent a bug from showing up again, then please write one! If there is an external test you could write to help verify some piece of functionality you are using continues to work precisely as expected, then let’s figure out how to get that into the test suite. This kind of testing not only prevents regressions but it also guarantees that expected behavior will remain intact across releases.

I am excited about what this effort can do for the quality of Asterisk in the long term, and I hope you are, too. I look forward to your feedback on the approach as well as participation in the development of our testing infrastructure.

Thanks,

–
Russell Bryant
Digium, Inc. | Engineering Manager, Open Source Software
445 Jan Davis Drive NW – Huntsville, AL 35806 – USA
www.digium.com -=- www.asterisk.org -=- blogs.asterisk.org

Asterisk 1.8.0-beta1 Now Available

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the release of Asterisk 1.8.0-beta1. This release marks the beginning of the testing process for the eventual release of Asterisk 1.8.0.

This release is available for immediate download at http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

All interested users of Asterisk are encouraged to participate in the 1.8 testing process. Please report any issues found to the issue tracker, http://issues.asterisk.org/. It is also very useful to hear successful test reports. Please post those to the asterisk-dev mailing list.

Asterisk 1.8 is the next major release series of Asterisk. It will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release, similar to Asterisk 1.4. For more information about support time lines for Asterisk releases, see the Asterisk versions page.

http://www.asterisk.org/asterisk-versions

Asterisk 1.8 contains many new features over previous releases of Asterisk. A short list of included features includes:

Secure RTPIPv6 SupportConnected Party Identification SupportCalendaring IntegrationA new call logging system, Channel Event Logging (CEL)Distributed Device State using Jabber/XMPP PubSubCall Completion Supplementary Services supportAdvice of Charge supportMuch, much more!

A full list of new features can be found in the CHANGES file.

http://svn.digium.com/view/asterisk/branches/1.8/CHANGES?view=markup

For a full list of changes in the current release, please see the ChangeLog:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.8.0-beta1

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

Tags: Asterisk · Release

The phone system that lets you change your mind

 

Switchvox resellers already know how powerful the product’s features are, so I thought I would stress how powerful the sales process can be from both the reseller and corporate customer perspectives.

Here’s one of the messages you should understand about Switchvox:

“You can always change your mind.”

A phone system upgrade or replacement can seem overwhelming to small businesses. That’s why SMBs are justifiably worried they may be buying the wrong solution, they may need a feature and forget to mention it, etc.  Of course price is a major item, but so is fear of the unknown. Remember, it’s a significant expenditure and organizations want to be sure they are getting the right product. When considering a Switchvox purchase, customers need not worry because if their business changes or they need something new, they can always change their mind with Switchvox.

Here’s something we often discuss with customers.  During the needs discovery for automatic call distributor (ACD), call recording, find me follow me, etc., prospects will typically just throw out some of these options as they don’t need them today. However, it’s important to know that “You can always change your mind” when you go with Switchvox.  This helps dispel some of the fear about buying the wrong thing.

The analogy we use is some people have a small car when they get married and that works great until they have a kid, then they get a dog, bikes, etc.  Now that small, fun, two-door car no longer fits their needs. It was great when they got it, but now things are different and they need something like a minivan.  Well, it’s time to go trade in the small car and get the minivan to suit the new family needs. This means getting rid of one piece of hardware to go through the buying process again hoping they get it right this time.

It’s the same with any organization — needs change as a company will invariably decide to alter its business, hire more people, acquire a competitor, etc.  What was not important when initially buying a phone system — like the awesome and free Switchvox Mobile smartphone applications — is now critical. For example, imagine a top-performing new salesperson who is accustomed to having access to all the great features of her office phone system right on her smartphone, which she can’t live without it. A company would realize that her value goes up when she has the correct tools to make her productive. The organization would want to be able to make that addition on the fly.

With other systems, prospects may need to buy an add-on for more cost, or worse, it may not even be available on the product they bought. With Switchvox, they can add call recording, ACD, etc. at any time.  This way, organizations “change their mind” and Switchvox allows them to grow and accommodate as needs increase and change.

Switchvox has a multitude of features built in and can adapt to future needs as it is based on open standards. With this in mind, prospects can rest assured that as they change and grow, they can change their minds as to the types of features required to meet the needs of their organizations. They’ll have a great platform that changes with them and a partner delivering the best VoIP phone system that exists.

 

Veteran Open Source Technologist to Keynote AstriCon 2010

Mark Summer explores this year’s conference theme, “Asterisk: The World is Calling,” by sharing his experiences using the telephony platform to help improve local economies and quality of life around the world

Asterisk is changing the world, not just in the limited confines of  business-oriented UC communications, but in real, tangible, and life changing ways.  Our featured AstriCon keynote is  Mark Summer from Inveneo,  whose work in bringing Open-Source to under-served areas is literally changing lives.

The ability to communicate via voice is something we take for granted, but in many areas of the world that basic technology has remained out of reach due to cost, complexity, and implementation difficulty with traditional telecommunications infrastructure.  The good news is that in the last several years, Open-Source software and hardware has made inroads into these previously unreachable areas, and we’re seeing how Asterisk is actually changing the quality of life in areas where it has enabled people to talk with each other at a distance.

Mark brings to this keynote address his real-world experiences with Open Source communications in developing areas, and has concrete examples of how free software and methods are not only creating economic opportunity, but uplifting whole communities with communication.  His work in Sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti, and elsewhere focus on the implementation of Open-Source telecommunications, and the changes he has witnessed when people are given the tools to exchange ideas and create opportunity.  Asterisk is a component in this change, bringing not only the ability to connect people together, but the ability to allow local administration and innovation in what was once a centrally-managed, monolithic, and slow-changing telecom world.

Register Now for AstriCon 2010

How to Lower Monthly Phone Expenses

I’ve been in the IT industry a long time, and I’ve seen lots of changes. When the economy was going strong, many clients wanted the latest and greatest – and they didn’t mind paying extra for every little bell and whistle. This worked well for a lot of VARs for a lot of years.

When the economy turned sour, companies that had made their mark by making fast, product-based (rather than service-based) sales had a much harder time staying in business. In fact, 40,000 of the 250,000 VARS in the United States went out of business in 2009.

One of the reasons that my business continues to flourish is because I always knew that I should focus on cost savings and quick ROI for my clients. Everyone loves the bells and whistles – but can’t we have it all? (The answer is “yes”).

When it comes to phone systems, Digium Switchvox is a great solution for helping customers save on their telecom expenses while improving employee productivity. Switchvox is the right answer for any business that wants amazing features, rapid and effective return-on-investment, and a great price.

Case in point:

One of my clients, a local Dallas Fort Worth-based CFO outsourcing company with about 40 employees, wanted to lower its telecom expenses and improve employee productivity.

At the time, the company utilized Covad’s Hosted VOIP service and 3Mb/s of Internet service. However, their monthly telecom expenses topped $3,500 per month – and we knew we could help them realize savings and even better functionality.

My company, The Fulcrum Group, proposed a completely managed VOIP solution that would mirror their current Covad Hosted VOIP service. We proposed that the company utilize:

XO 3Mb/s IP Flex Voice/Internet service (2 T-1s, up to 32 SIP trunks, dynamically allocated between voice and Internet), 3 year contract;Digium Switchvox SMB AA355 appliance with 50 Silver subscriptions (we re-used their existing Cisco switches and phones), 3 year lease; andThe Fulcrum Group’s SPOT Managed VOIP Services offering, a fixed price, “all you can eat” support offering that covers all of the maintenance, support, moves/adds/changes, backups, and end training for the Switchvox VOIP system.

Bottom line:  We were able to lower the customer’s monthly telecom expenses by approximately $2,000 per month, and they now have a more flexible, higher functionality phone system that is improving employee productivity.

The takeaway?  Digium Switchvox is a great product to be selling in these tough economic times. But it’s going to continue to be a product that will make companies like ours look great – no matter what the economy is doing.

Digium’s Charlie Wilson Recognized as Young Professional of the Year at Small Business Awards Ceremony

admin September 1st, 2010

In honor of the heroes of small business in the surrounding area, the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County held its annual tribute to the area’s small businesses on Aug. 31, while also honoring non-profit organizations, young professionals and outstanding local businesses.

Digium is proud to announce that Charlie Wilson was the recipient of the prestigious Young Professional of the Year award. Both Charlie and Timo Sandritter were nominated in this category, giving Digium the distinction of the only business with two nominees for the honor. This award recognizes those who have made outstanding achievements in both business and the community. Olly Orton, the winner of last year’s Young Professional award and the presenter for the 2010 recipient recognized many other young professionals in his opening remarks.  Notably, he highlighted the achievements of business leaders who have achieved great things at a young age, including Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence at age 33, Wernher Von Braun who was in his 20s when he came to America and in his 30s when he led the rocket teams at Marshall Space Flight Center. Orton also noted the accomplishments of Digium’s Mark Spencer, who was only 22 when he created Asterisk.

Charlie was recognized for his leadership, business accomplishments, and commitment to family and community. In his acceptance remarks, he acknowledged the support of his wife and family, as well as his co-workers and fellow community leaders who have continued to encourage innovation and create opportunities for young professionals.

There were 98 contenders, a record, for awards in six categories; 18 were finalists.

“The success of small businesses in the community is the foundation for a healthy economy,” said Don Nalley, the Chamber’s board chair. “The vital signs of any community’s economic health are intrinsically tied to the overall success of our small business community. More than 95 percent of this Chamber’s member organizations employ 350 or less workers.”

Digium has been a past nominee for the Small Business of the Year award as well, joining other innovative technology companies in the Huntsville community.

The 2010 winners and finalists in other categories included:
Government Services: Winner – Sigmatech. Finalists – Aranea Solutions and Kaya Associates.
Professional Services: Winner – Appleton Learning Center. Finalists – Cyn Shea’s Complete Catering and Terrame Day Spa & Salon.
Technology Services: Winner – deciBel Research. Finalists – Bevilacqua Research Corporation and GATR Technologies.
Non-Profit: Winner – Huntsville Madison County Botanical Garden. Finalists – Choose Life of North Alabama and Junior Achievement of North Alabama.
Young Professional of the Year: Winner – Charlie Wilson of Digium. Finalists – Beth Martin of Worthington Federal Bank and Glenn Clayton of Appleton Learning.

AsteriskNOW 1.7.1 now available with add-on installer module for FreePBX

roderickm September 14th, 2010

AsteriskNOW 1.7.1 has been released with a new module for FreePBX that allows installation of Digium add-on software from within the web-based interface. Now there’s no command-line work to be done to get Digium’s G729 codec, Fax for Asterisk, HPEC, or Skype for Asterisk. We’ve also made some changes to make AsteriskNOW even friendlier for newcomers to the Asterisk community.

Together with the DAHDI configuration module that began shipping with 1.7.0, these modules make Asterisk administration even easier.  Download AsteriskNOW today, and burn it to a CD or start it in a virtual machine. In minutes you can turn your computer into your next phone system!

Setting Up An NFS Server And Client On OpenSUSE 11.3

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Last edited 09/14/2010

This guide explains how to set up an NFS server and an NFS client on OpenSUSE 11.3. NFS stands for Network File System; through NFS, a client can access (read, write) a remote share on an NFS server as if it was on the local hard disk.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using two OpenSUSE systems here:

NFS Server: server.example.com, IP address: 192.168.0.100 NFS Client: client.example.com, IP address: 192.168.0.101

 

2 Installing NFSserver:

On the NFS server we run:

yast2 -i nfs-kernel-server

Then we create the system startup links for the NFS server and start it:

chkconfig --add nfsserver
/etc/init.d/nfsserver start

client:

On the client we can install NFS as follows:

yast2 -i nfs-client

 

3 Exporting Directories On The Serverserver:

I'd like to make the directories /home and /var/nfs accessible to the client; therefore we must "export" them on the server.

When a client accesses an NFS share, this normally happens as the user nobody. Usually the /home directory isn't owned by nobody (and I don't recommend to change its ownership to nobody!), and because we want to read and write on /home, we tell NFS that accesses should be made as root (if our /home share was read-only, this wouldn't be necessary). The /var/nfs directory doesn't exist, so we can create it and change its ownership to nobody and nogroup:

mkdir /var/nfs
chown nobody:nogroup /var/nfs

Now we must modify /etc/exports where we "export" our NFS shares. We specify /home and /var/nfs as NFS shares and tell NFS to make accesses to /home as root (to learn more about /etc/exports, its format and available options, take a look at

man 5 exports

)

vi /etc/exports

# See the exports(5) manpage for a description of the syntax of this file.# This file contains a list of all directories that are to be exported to# other computers via NFS (Network File System).# This file used by rpc.nfsd and rpc.mountd. See their manpages for details# on how make changes in this file effective./home 192.168.0.101(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)/var/nfs 192.168.0.101(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

(The no_root_squash option makes that /home will be accessed as root.)

Whenever we modify /etc/exports, we must run

exportfs -a

afterwards to make the changes effective.

 

4 Mounting The NFS Shares On The Clientclient:

First we create the directories where we want to mount the NFS shares, e.g.:

mkdir -p /mnt/nfs/home
mkdir -p /mnt/nfs/var/nfs

Afterwards, we can mount them as follows:

mount 192.168.0.100:/home /mnt/nfs/home
mount 192.168.0.100:/var/nfs /mnt/nfs/var/nfs

You should now see the two NFS shares in the outputs of

df -h

client:

How To Set Up A Wireless Network Using WPA/WPA2 With Radius Authentication With CIITIX-WiFi

Other Preface

For more documentation downloads and support head to http://ciitix.ciit.net.pk and remember to check out the forums. This document serves as quick guide on how to set up a wireless network using WPA / WPA2 with radius authentication. This document will only cover the basics and is not exhaustive of all possibilities and features but with this information and basic networking skills you should be able to get running very soon. No knowledge if Linux is assumed in this guide and for the most part its spelled out with screen shots.

I'd like to thank the team who created this easy way of implementing radius authentication for WiFi and believe it's the only package around which is aimed at a turn key solution meaning no compiling, setting up databases and the like. After all everyone has enough to worry about keeping there IT infrastructure working. I decided to do this guide for the users wanting to try out and implement radius authentication for WiFi security. This project is still very new, and at time of writing the latest version is v1.1.

 

Prerequisites

1) You have downloaded the ISO file and have that ready to install; see http://ciitix.ciit.net.pk for downloads.

2) You have an access point / wireless router which is capable of WPA / WPA2 enterprise setup.

3) Basic networking skills and computing skills, and hardware ready to install CIITIX-WiFi

The PC which you will be installing CIITIX-WiFi on does not need to be a super spec machine, but if is being deployed as a mission critical assset you will be better off using new hardware or a virtual machine.

The installation hardware which was used for this tutorial was VMWare ESXi server, 1 vCPU, 1 vHDD (4gb), 768 Ram.

And just for trivia while sitting idle it is using 10Mhz and 7mb ram. Anything Pentium 3 based and up will suffice.

 

Let's get started

Burn your ISO onto CD and place that into your drive, and boot from the CD drive. Make sure you have no important data on the hard disk because the installation will destroy all existing data on the drive you install to.

1) After your system is booted you will see the following screen, at this point you choose 'Start GUI Install' and hit enter.

openSUSE 11.3 has been released

The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of openSUSE 11.3. openSUSE 11.3 includes new versions of GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, the Linux kernel, and many, many more updates and improvements. In 11.3 you'll find more than 1,000 open source desktop applications. openSUSE also includes a full suite of server software and a rich selection of open source development tools.

openSUSE news - openSUSE Conference 2010

The openSUSE Conference brings together users, contributors and friends of the openSUSE project from 20th to 23rd October in Nuremberg, Germany. Over four days, more than seventy talks and workshops explore the theme of ‘Collaboration Across Borders‘ in Free and Open Source software communities, administration and development. The conference is the yearly get-together of the openSUSE project to give its people a chance to meet face to face, talk to and inspire each other. It takes place in the Berufsförderungswerk Nuremberg in the beautiful surroundings of the Franconian metropole. Everybody interested is welcome to join and enjoy the program which starts each day at 9am, the admission is free.

Asterisk PBX 1.4.36 Now Available

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the release of Asterisk PBX 1.4.36. This release is available for immediate download at:
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

The release of Asterisk 1.4.36 resolves several issues reported by the community and would have not been possible without your participation.

The following is a sample of the issues resolved in this release candidate:

   

Asterisk PBX 1.6.2.12 Now Available

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the release of Asterisk PBX 1.6.2.12.  This release is available for immediate download at
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

The release of Asterisk 1.6.2.12 resolves several issues reported by the community and would have not been possible without your participation.

The following is a sample of the issues resolved in this release:

   

How To Set Up WebDAV With Apache2 On OpenSUSE 11.3

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Last edited 09/07/2010

This guide explains how to set up WebDAV with Apache2 on an OpenSUSE 11.3 server. WebDAV stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning and is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allow users to directly edit files on the Apache server so that they do not need to be downloaded/uploaded via FTP. Of course, WebDAV can also be used to upload and download files.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using an OpenSUSE 11.3 server with the IP address 192.168.0.100 here.

 

2 Installing WebDAV

If Apache is not already installed, install it as follows:

yast2 -i apache2

Afterwards, enable the WebDAV modules:

a2enmod dav
a2enmod dav_fs
a2enmod dav_lock

Then create the system startup links for Apache and start it:

chkconfig --add apache2

/etc/init.d/apache2 start

 

3 Creating A Virtual Host

I will now create an Apache vhost www.example1.com in the directory /srv/www/web1/web. If you already have a vhost for which you'd like to enable WebDAV, you must adjust this tutorial to your situation.

First, we create the directory /srv/www/web1/web and make the Apache user (wwwrun) and group (www) the owner of that directory:

mkdir -p /srv/www/web1/web
chown wwwrun:www /srv/www/web1/web

Now we create the Apache vhost for www.example1.com:

vi /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/www.example1.com.conf

Installing PHP5 Debugger On OpenSUSE 11.3

PHP

This tutorial shows how to install php5 debugger (xdebug) on OpenSUSE11.3.

I suppose you have installed Apache2 and PHP5 packages through zypper or yast. If not, please run:

zypper install php5 apache2 apache2-mod_php5

The reasonI use xdebug is, as far as I know now, xdebug supports php 5.3 or above.

I have the following installation environment:

OS: OpenSUSE 11.3 32 bit

Webserver: Apache 2.2.15 linux/suse

PHP: 5.3.2, with xdebug 2.1.0

Now let's begin (I runthe following step as root, although you may not need it for some steps).

Step 1. Download xdebug 2.1.0 from http://www.xdebug.org/files/xdebug-2.1.0.tgz into /tmp directory, run tar command to unzip it, and cd into the xdebug2.1.0 directory:

cd /tmp

tar zxvf xdebug-2.1.0.tgz && cd xdebug-2.1.0

Step 2. Install additional packages before compiling xdebug, for my system, I need gcc, make, and php5-devel:

zypper install gcc make php5-devel

Step 3.  Make sure /usr/bin/phpize and /usr/bin/php-config exist (soft links to /etc/alternative/):

ls -l /usr/bin/php

How To Set Up Apache2 With mod_fcgid And PHP5 On Fedora 13

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Last edited 08/18/2010

This tutorial describes how you can install Apache2 with mod_fcgid and PHP5 on Fedora 13. mod_fcgid is a compatible alternative to the older mod_fastcgi. It lets you execute PHP scripts with the permissions of their owners instead of the Apache user.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using a Fedora 13 server in this tutorial with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address 192.168.0.100.

I will create two Apache vhosts in this tutorial, www.example1.com and www.example2.com, to demonstrate the usage of mod_fcgid.

Before we start, make sure that SELinux is disabled. Open /etc/selinux/config...

vi /etc/selinux/config

... and set SELINUX to disabled:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.# SELINUX

iRedMail 0.6.1: Open Source Mail Server With Postfix, Dovecot, Amavisd, ClamAV, SpamAssassin, RoundCube On Ubuntu 10.04

Postfix

iRedMail is a shell script that lets you quickly deploy a Open Source Mail Server solution in less than 2 minutes.

It supports Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux & CentOS 5.x, Debian 5.0.x, Ubuntu 8.04/9.04/9.10/10.04, FreeBSD 7.x/8.x, it supports both i386 and x86_64. Most components used in iRedMail are provided by Linux distributions officially, it means iRedMail users can get software update support for as long as for the distribution itself. It supports OpenLDAP and MySQL as backends to save the virtual domains and virtual users. It offers a web-based admin panel.

iRedMail was initially published in 2007, and now iRedMail 0.6.1 also supports Ubuntu 10.04.

Main components used in this solution: http://code.google.com/p/iredmail/wiki/Main_Components Discussion forum: http://www.iredmail.org/forum/ Project home page: http://code.google.com/p/iredmail/ Project DEMO: http://demo.iredmail.org/

 

1 Requirements

To install such a system you will need the following:

The Ubuntu 10.04 server CD, available here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04.1-server-i386.iso (i386) or http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04.1-server-amd64.iso (x86_64) It is strongly recommended to install a minimal Ubuntu system, and then deploy the mail service via the iRedMail solution.For 10.04 (Lucid, LTS), it is not needed to modify default /etc/apt/sources.list. iRedMail uses packages from the default stable version, both 'main' and 'universe' repositories .

 

2 Preliminary NoteIn this tutorial we use: Hostname: mail.example.com IP address: 192.168.1.10 LDAP suffix: dc

Cisco releases new tablet called Cisco Home Energy Controller for smart home market

 

Tablets or just gadgets in the broad sense that do our work is finally coming close to being a reality especially with the Cisco tablet that has been released recently. Seated at just one single area of the house, the tablet provides the user with complete control of all the other utility items in the house.

Named the Cisco Home Energy Controller, the tablet is an even more specialized product from Cisco that comes hot on the heels of the other tablet offering from the same company in the form of the Cius that has been built purely with a business scenario in mind.

This one is more focused towards monitoring the electricity usage of all the gadgets in the home from a single location while also suggesting means that will lead to optimum usage of electricity.The launch of the tablet can be seen as an extension of Cisco’s Home Energy Management Solution Suite which is a part of its Connected Grid portfolio of smart grid products as well as technologies that it had recently unveiled.

A 7 inch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 forms the main display area of the tablet. The screen is capacitive and incorporates touch screen features. An Intel Atom processor with a clock speed of 1.1GHz provides the Home Energy Controller tablet with its computing power and runs the open source Linux operating system.

The way the tablet works is this: the tablet connects to smart thermostats and appliances via 802.11n WiFi or gigabit Ethernet connection so as to form a successful interconnected web. It then allows the user to view on its screen which device is consuming how much of power. Based on this, the tablet in turn will allow the user to decide which of the gadgets needed to be turned off or slowed down in order to save power. The device itself can suggest methods for optimum usage of power.

For instance, with the air conditioning on during summer, the lights can be dimmed a bit to conserve electricity and hence, save money. The appliances that need to be monitored also have to be compatible to this device. In any case, the Home Energy Controller is a far cry and a lot more sci-fi in comparison to the current practice of monitoring electricity usage by sensing the rotation of a thin disc inside a meter placed on the exterior of the house and rotates as per the power consumption that is taking place in the house.

“With its simple and elegant user interface, the Cisco Home Energy Controller is like a virtual energy assistant for consumers, giving them valuable information about, and more discretion over, their energy use,” says the general manager of Cisco Smart Grid, Paul Fulton.

But then, the Cisco Home Energy Controller is not only about saving electricity, for the tablet can also playback videos via Mediafly. Then there’s also a dedicated application store to pick up applications from while it is also rumored the tablet can be used for VoIP processes as well.

Price for installation is likely to be around $900 per installation at home though there are expectations the cost will drop down further with subsidies from power companies. And if there are federal tax credits, things can be even more juicy. But in any case, the cost should be offset by the reduction in power bill. So there are savings to be made whichever way you look at it.

Source

 

Asterisk libpri 1.4.11.3 Now Available

The Asterisk Development Team has announced the release of version 1.4.11.3 of libpri. This release is available for immediate download at:
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/

This release fixes a regression in the calling number assignment logic:

 

Asterisk PBX 1.6.2.10 Now Available

he Asterisk Development Team has announced the release of Asterisk PBX 1.6.2.10.  This release is available for immediate download at
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/

The release of Asterisk 1.6.2.10 resolves several issues reported by the community and would have not been possible without your participation.

The following are a few of the issues resolved by community developers:

 

Suitors May Be Calling on Polycom

A technology sector that has attracted scant investor attention is videoconferencing, even though it's on its way to becoming the chosen tool for companies seeking efficiency and productivity with greatly reduced travel costs. The major Wall Street houses have all but ignored the group, so not much is known about stocks that excel here. Cisco Systems, which recently acquired videoconferencing firm Tandberg, is the top provider of videoconferencing gear. But another key, if smaller player, in this rising market that has caught the eye of some investors is Polycom. It develops and makes video-, voice-, data- and Web-conferencing equipment systems that provide corporate users with a complete communications and videoconferencing network infrastructure.

But what adds spice to the stock is its potential as an attractive takeover target. Rumors have swirled that Polycom has been approached last year by two different groups with feelers proposing a merger or a buyout. Such speculation is fueled in part by Polycom's alliances to develop and market voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) communications products with several major tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Avaya, a unit of Nortel Networks.

In Microsoft's case, Polycom has a deeper relationship that involves a development and marketing pact to integrate its desktop, conference-room video system and network hardware and software systems.

Source

Meet The 2600hz Project, The New Sound of Open Source Telephony

I really miss my Bluebox and the days then that would work.  Gotta love the $5 rRdbox from hallmark or the infamous Blotto Box that was no joke at all.  We salute you Captain Crunch!
 
Gigaom - Some of the core developers behind FreePBX — a well-known, open-source phone system — have teamed up and started The 2600hz Project, a commercial entity promoting a collection of open-source telephony applications and libraries. Today, they are releasing blue.box, a reworked version of open source FreePBX. The new venture is co-founded by Darren Schreiber and is also a subsidiary of newly formed VoIP Inc. The 2600hz Project received $250,000 in funding from an unnamed investor.

2600 Hz is the frequency that the phone companies used back in the day and was hacked by those seeking to make free long distance phone calls. In order to do so, one needed a device that generated the 2600 Hz tone, called the blue box. The new venture is an homage to that heritage.

From what I understand, the new company was formed after some disagreements between the FreePBX developers and the original backers of the project. FreePBX is a graphical user interface that sits on top of open-source telephony software such as Asterisk. FreePBX was promoted by Bandwidth.com.

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openSUSE Announce First 11.4 Development Milestone With Improved Package Management Performance, New XOrg, KDE and GNOME

Metalink multichannel download, so package candy melts your screen, not your internet connection.

openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 1 is available today, Thursday, September 2 for developers, testers and community members to test and participate in the development of openSUSE 11.4. M1 starts off openSUSE 11.4 development at a cracking pace with performance improvements in the package management network layer and version updates to major components.

This milestone contains libzypp version 8.1, which has a new backend for http and ftp package downloads. MultiCurl replaces the old MediaAria backend, and brings support for zsync transfers and better Metalink download support. These will improve both repository refresh and package install and update performance. Metalink allows the m

openSUSE Weekly News, Issue 139 is out!

04.09.2010 IBM developerWorks/Roderick W. Smith: Resizing Linux partitions, Part 2: Advanced resizing Google Video/Chat Plugin KDE News/Sebastian Kügler: Help Test the Next Generation of KDE’s Kontact

Content:

Announcements Status Updates Team Reports In the Community New Applications Security Updates Kernel Review Tips and Tricks Planet SUSE openSUSE Forums On the Web Contact us Credits Translations

New Search for openSUSE Wiki

Here is the news that a lot of you have been waiting for!  The new wikis (en.opensuse.org, languages.opensuse.org, and dewiki.opensuse.org) have been switched to the new Lucene search engine.  The legacy wikis are still running the old search, but they will start using Lucene as they are migrated to the new wiki system.  So what should users expect with the new search?

Relevance and Ranking

The new search uses more complex algorithms to determine search rankings.  This means that you can find what you want faster.

Suggestions

The new search engine can produce suggestions based on the wiki content.  This means that it can suggest names, obscure terms, and other words that wouldn’t be found in a standard dictionary.  In addition, it can provide suggestions for whole phrases, even if all the words within the phrase are correct.

Fuzzy Searching

Not sure how to spell it?  Just add

openSUSE Weekly News, Issue 140 is out!

11.09.2010 Sankuru: Using ffmeg to batch convert cd audio files to mp3 OMG!SUSE! team: Geeko Gist – September Network World/Joe Brockmeier: Linux desktop market share: Small no matter how you measure

Content:

Announcements Status Updates Team Reports In the Community New Applications Security Updates Kernel Review Tips and Tricks Planet SUSE openSUSE Forums On the Web Contact us Credits Translations

Forum Users Benefit from openSUSE KDE Repository

Without question, users who frequent the openSUSE forums are very appreciative of all the work being done by ALL the various development teams. The progressive nature of KDE4 continues to spark a great deal of interest generally, though especially do users want options to try the latest and greatest, yet at the same time maintain a level of stability. With KDE development moving so quickly between distribution releases, users don’t want to be stuck with the distro release version of KDE. The much requested 4.5.

openSUSE Conference 2010 – Collaborate Across Borders

The openSUSE Conference brings together users, contributors and friends of the openSUSE project from 20th to 23rd October in Nuremberg, Germany. Over four days, more than seventy talks and workshops explore the theme of ‘Collaboration Across Borders‘ in Free and Open Source software communities, administration and development. The conference is the yearly get-together of  the openSUSE project to give its people a chance to meet face to face, talk to and inspire each other. It takes place in the Berufsförderungswerk Nuremberg in the beautiful surroundings of the Franconian metropole. Everybody interested is welcome to join and enjoy the program which starts each day at 9am, the admission is free.

Read on to learn more about details of the program, involved people and the event in general.

Skype Introduces 10-Way Video Calling

Skype — apparently pleased with its five-way beta group video-calling functionality — has just released a new version of Skype 5.0 for Windows that doubles group support. It now allows for up to 10 video callers.Skype 5.0 beta two is already available for download; it includes 10-way video calls, automatic call recovery and a cleaner user interface. The update is also said to improve call quality and includes a number of bug fixes to make the overall experience much smoother.

Of course, the standout feature is 10-way video calling, something that certainly one-ups their own previous offering and makes it suitable for even larger virtual team meetings and mini family reunions. Of course, it also makes Gmail’s (Gmail) video-calling functionality look like the ugly step sister — a proactive move on the part of Skype (Skype) to combat recent buzz surrounding Gmail Voice Calling.

Still, Skype does caution that 5.0 is beta, and hence, very buggy. It’s also limited to Windows (Windows) users, and 10-way video calls require all group chatters to be using the same second beta version of the app. Have you tested out five-way video calls? Are you ready to upgrade to the 10-person variety?

Source

Cisco making a play for Skype?

 Cisco is reportedly looking to buy Skype before the Internet phone provider goes public.  The blog TechCrunch posted over the weekend that Cisco made an offer for Skype before it completed its IPO process. The site attributed the unconfirmed information to "reliable sources."

It would be a multibillion purchase as Skype is looking to raise $5 billion in its initial offer, according to TechCrunch.Cisco declined to comment. Skype was not immediately available for comment.

The acquisition would be key to Cisco's thrust into the unified communications and collaboration, and consumer markets. It would bring to the company what is now a free and consumer friendly voice and video capability to augment the IP telephony and unified communications systems it now provides to corporate enterprises.

Integrated with a device such as the Flip pocket videocamera -- which would need an Internet access connection like the expected Wi-Fi capability -- Cisco could offer a handheld voice/data/video device for the consumer and perhaps enterprise market.

Source

Crestron offers new MTX-3 wireless touchpanel remote

The MTX-3 offers seamless interaction with AV and environmental systems, providing true feedback of all settings, and displaying metadata information for all digital media.  Crestron’s infiNET EX wireless technology provides reliable two-way communications throughout a residence or commercial structure utilising a 2.4 GHz mesh network.

A complete infiNET EX network uses the lighting dimmers and other devices throughout the structure as wireless relay stations, each receiving and passing on wireless commands to the central gateway.

Every device that is added to the network effectively increases the range, strength, and reliability of the entire network by providing multiple redundant signal paths, ensuring that every button press is executed instantly and consistently.

The MTX-3 can also communicate directly with the gateway if no other infiNET EX devices are installed. Up to six MTX-3s can be assigned to a single gateway.

Source

How To Set Up Apache2 With mod_fcgid And PHP5 On Ubuntu 10.04

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Last edited 08/18/2010

This tutorial describes how you can install Apache2 with mod_fcgid and PHP5 on Ubuntu 10.04. mod_fcgid is a compatible alternative to the older mod_fastcgi. It lets you execute PHP scripts with the permissions of their owners instead of the Apache user.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using an Ubuntu 10.04 server in this tutorial with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address 192.168.0.100.

I will create two Apache vhosts in this tutorial, www.example1.com and www.example2.com, to demonstrate the usage of mod_fcgid.

Make sure you're logged in as root:

sudo su

/bin/sh is a symlink to /bin/dash, however we need /bin/bash, not /bin/dash. Therefore we do this:

dpkg-reconfigure dash

Install dash as /bin/sh? <-- No

In addition to that, we must disable AppArmor:

/etc/init.d/apparmor stop
update-rc.d -f apparmor remove
aptitude remove apparmor apparmor-utils

 

2 Installing Apache2/mod_fcgi/PHP5

In order to install Apache2, mod_fcgid, and PHP5, run

aptitude install apache2 apache2-suexec libapache2-mod-fcgid php5-cgi

If Apache2 was already installed with PHP5 as an Apache module, disable the PHP5 module now:

a2dismod php5

Then enable the following modules...

a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod suexec
a2enmod include
a2enmod fcgid

... and open /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini:

vi /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Uncomment the line cgi.fix_pathinfo