[sf-lug] invitation for the next SF-LUG meeting

[Sameer Verma]

jim stockford wrote:
> [snipped...]   As to the topic, I don't see VoIP as having much to
> offer--I have it and use it. Got it from SpeakEasy, paid
> money, they sent a box. I plugged the VoIP box into
> the DSL box, plugged the phone into the VoIP box,
> and voila--i can call France for $0.08 per minute,
> long as I make the monthly (about $30) payments.
>    I.e. VoIP seems not to present user issues of much
> interest. There's no Linux component per se. I'd love
> to hear different.
VoIP and Linux go hand in hand really well. Of course, the topic will
not include the likes of Vonage as those are consumer services. I have
no idea what they use in the back. For VoIP, I would look along the
lines of building an Asterisk PBX server (http://www.asterisk.org/) for
personal/small business use. Two projects come to mind.

1) Trixbox [http://www.trixbox.org/]: A CentOS based VoIP PBX that will
work with hardware such as the TDM400P
(http://www.digium.com/en/products/hardware/tdm400p.php)...I happen to
have one :-)

2) AstLinux [http://www.astlinux.org/]: A small (32MB) Linux-based VoIP
distro that can run off a CD or a CF Card. Has a web-based interface and
can do IP to IP calls in a few minutes! The CF card is designed to run
off of a Soekris box [http://www.soekris.com/net4801.htm], which I can
arrange for.

Anyone interested?
>    Can we also include other topics? 
Absolutely.
> Maybe how come
> you use linux? which community efforts appeal? Do
> you value open source? what are your favorite
> programs? what's the job market for linux, for open
> source.... which linux distro(s) do you prefer?
>
>
Excellent questions. We can plan on meeting in a week or two, depending
on scheduling at SF State. I'll keep the list posted.

Sameer

-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/