[BLUG] NEXT BLUG meeting- July 15 at the library

[Dave Cooley]

All-

I'm pushing the meeting back by one week this month, to July 15th (a 
week after we'd normally have it) and have updated the wiki to reflect 
this (yep, I remembered to update the wiki; shocking, I know!).

What: Next BLUG Meeting
Why: Mark Krenz will be demonstrating Asterisk
Where: Monroe County Public Library, meeting room 1A
When: Tuesday, July 15 2008

I'll be very difficult to reach from the 4th (Friday) up until a day or 
two before the meeting; if you write and I don't respond, don't be 
surprised.

What is Asterisk?  Asterisk is an open source phone system for Linux.  
It can run (with special hardware) connected to POTS (plain old 
telephone service; the outside world), or it can run as a pure VOIP 
system using IP phones and "softphones" (with your mic and headset, or 
similar).  It can be connected to a single line or many lines and then 
run to extensions for everybody with voice mail, on-hold music, etc (if 
you like).

Asterisk is mature, *very* full-featured, relatively easy to program (as 
they say: easy to learn, a challenge to master), and suitable for 
anything from talking amongst friends, to an enterprise phone system for 
your company (I really mean that). 

If you have any interest in telephony, VOIP, or real-time communication 
via the internet, I strongly suggest you come along and check out Mark's 
talk.

Happy Independence Day!
Cooley

-- 
Dave Cooley
dcooley at kiva.net