The article is very much focussed on IP security. But this site was exploited via Asterisk voicemail. They had the “dialout” option enabled in voicemail.conf and the hackers gained access through an insecure mailbox PIN and used the dialout feature to make international calls.

So be very careful about the “dialout” and “callback” options in voicemail.conf.

Regards,
Steve

Can I install it on this server?

[WM: Not recommended. We'll have a new one soon. ]

It will never be the primary device of the power-user section of people. But for 95% of the online public, it will provide what they need. Nice, fast web-browser. Well designed e-mail app. Great e-reader. Nice sized video device. 10 Hour battery. The best part is the price. At $499 it is a strong competitor to the netbook market. I have used several netbooks, and I have to agree with Steve, they do not do anything well.

I’d extend your insight to education K-16+ in general. Interactive textbooks, with simulations, built-in tutorials, will change education forever. Maybe, finally, we’ll do what Ivan Illich wisely proposed years ago, and that’s to “deschool society”!

But after reading several pages, accidentally found myself on this page and installed this script which does not appear to include GV.
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=602

Do I have to start over, or do you have a trick for adding the GV portion of it all?
I’m terribly excited about this.
Thanks,
steve

[WM: Your safest alternative is to reinstall. Sorry, but it doesn't take that long. ]

You will be derided harshly in secret and subtly in public. I, too, will mock you into helping you escape from yourself.

Cloud computing it not a new concept: Beowulf + NAS.

Google will have another dimension of frightening with which to profi… interact with you: GeoIP location + GPS + tower triangulation. What could possibly go wrong there?

@sheeple

try to remember google is an AD serving company first.. now think really hard: why might they encourage people to use as many “free” google services as possible?

Apple, through non-itard users, few though they are, is learning about the fun of class action lawsuits.

Locking a device to a particular mobile provider does not appear to be in the spirit of FCC mandated Open Access does it?

Verizon has already lost a phone claim class action lawsuit (v710).

Why would I want to buy a “smart phone” that I have little or no intention of using email- or web on SINCE they MANDATE a $30 upgrade penalty (required data package)

What if a parent didn’t want a child having internetty phone? Too bad.. still “get to” pay the verizon smart phone data penalty.

Yeah… that’s going over oh so well

Can I haz free markt?

Want games and junk: PSP

Isn’t the word “phone” in the title of this article?

_differences between Apple and Google philosophically_

The latter hides behind the ever evolving “do no evil”, bearing more similarity to witchcraft than the Hippocratic oath. The former makes the notion of “walled garden” seem like a hallucination.

http://voxilla.com/2009/10/15/asterisk-on-the-cloud-with-a-click-1405

Seems like the PiaF NV people should one-up them with an Orgasmatron Amazon Machine Image

I did have one question though… with the 57i, does anyone know of a way to import a contact list I have from my mobile phone (just plain CSV) so I can see who is calling? Possibly import that into the directory of PBX in a Flash?

This would be really great if this would work as a module in asterisk. I’m from Canada and it’s unfortunate that GV doesn’t work here.

Eric

However, one thing struck me about this piece: you make no mention of the incompatibility of Nexus One with the AT&T 3G! (Although, you did mention this band discrepancy for the HTC Magic overview and recommended the Rogers version of HTC Magic.)

This, in fact was the deal-breaker for me. I don’t want to deal with T-mobile’s network and coverage issues, thankyouverymuch. I would choose AT&T with their problems (at least for now). I am sure that there are others like me.

Until Nexus One becomes 3G triband (like the iPhone, which already is), I would hesitate getting this phone.

Otherwise, thanks for pumping out quality reviews. I will keep reading.

[WM: We're actually using the Nexus One on AT&T's 2G network. To be honest, we can't tell any performance difference between the Nexus One at 2G speed and our iPhone at 3G speed. That speaks volumes about AT&T's 3G network performance. But, you're right. We should have covered it in the article.]

Thanks for the education,

If they changed it *to* 1004hz at 0dbm/600ohms, then on that particular point I have to grant them absolution (though yes, making the old version available would probably be nice…)

1004hz at 0dbm has been the standard milliwatt test tone since Mark Spencer’s *parents* were in diapers.

An 1940 IRE publication is the first reference I can find to milliwatt tone, but I can’t confirm it specifies 1004, and based on my memory of *why they picked 1004*, it wouldn’t.

I’m trying to source it now, but as I recall it was to put it *far enough away* from a submultiple of the digital sampling frequency that early, wobbly, PCM circuits would be less likely to screw it up.

[...]

Apparently, the problem was that when Bell deployed the D-1 PCM channelbank in the early 60s, they discovered that digitally generated 1khz tones would translate to a pattern on the PCM side that looked too much like the framing pattern, and dumped the digital link.

Digital Telephony by Bellamy appears to have a citation on this, but Scribd is predictably worthless, and Amazon wants me to log in. I have a copy at home; I’ll dig up a citation tonight.

Asterisk is not a PBX.

You heard me.

It’s a *toolkit* for building PBXes.

Just like XML is a *toolkit* for building data-transport-wrapper languages (note; *not* -storage

If you’re going to be a toolset, you have a much different and more stringent set of rules to follow, and these are the rules that Ward’s complaining about Digium breaking.

I’ve danced this exact same dance with a DBMS vendor intermittently for the last 20 years, with the same justifications on their side and results on mine.

There are long-known, time-honored semantics for version numbering, and going from 1.2 to 1.4 being called a “major version upgrade” is not one of them.

1.4 to 2.0, yes.

That said, I concur with Ward’s point of view, which is, approximately “it is, indeed, incumbent on Digium not to break the programmatic interfaces to Asterisk without exceptionally good reason, and that’s standard Release Configuration Management best practice, and they should know this. IE: Mark and Jared are wrong, and Ward’s right.

[WM: Right you are. Not quite that easy, but here are the steps.]

1. Visit http://pygooglevoice.googlecode.com and discern the name of the latest update.

2. Log into your server as root and issue the following commands using the new filename:

cd /root
wget http://pygooglevoice.googlecode.com/files/pygooglevoice-0.5.tar.gz
tar zxvf pygooglevoice*
cd pygooglevoice-0.5 #<– Use latest filename here, too!
python setup.py install

[WM: We've had great VoIP calls and lousy ones. It all depends upon available bandwidth.]

[WM: Your quote is a little out of context, but folks can read the article and make their own judgment. As for reliability and support, it's interesting that everyone seems to have forgotten the early problems with the iPhone and AT&T. Customer service was non-existent then, too. And, with AT&T at least, it really hasn't changed much in three years. As for Apple support, you might want to take a long look at this thread on Apple's support forum before choosing Apple based upon their fine customer service. Bottom Line: They've all got their crosses to bear.]

Does that kind of integration works the same with SipDroid? It doesn’t work that way with external applications like Fring for instance..

[WM: You can choose whether to make a cell or SIP call by adding a + to the number for SIP. Not quite as polished as the Nokia E71 implementation, however. Google Voice on the other hand works almost exactly like the Nokia E71 to place outbound calls through GV.]

It pains me that I can’t use it. Until battery technology takes another significant leap ahead it’s back to Blackberry for me.

[WM: If your phone made it 'til 8 p.m., you had a good day. Everyone will have charging cradles with these new superphones, I'm afraid.]