Asterisk

Discovered another gem in the rough. A open source PBX Server.
Think about it. Voicemail broadcasting. Email read to you. Low cost Vonage like connections. Free phone system for your office.

Go to http://nerdvittles.com/

They have tuned this setup for even Windows folks like me.

Also get the Asterisk book download published by OReilly. It is a great Nutshell book for writing code against it.

Then if you code in .Net C# like me... You will want to go one of two ways.

First there is a person who wrote a C# dll to interface with Asterisk.
http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=7948963b-7a3b-4303-9118-da800f4f84c3
I suspect if you want more control though you will want to try this idea out like I am currently...
http://www.codeproject.com/cs/internet/simple_tcp_client.asp
This should create a simple TCP client that can Listen and Send. I haven't tested it yet but I will let you know more later.
Asterisk does supply the complete ability to do almost all the work that you need through reloading .CONF files... You still need to run the reload command though.

Hope this all helps... PS:Think about advertising mixed with Asterisk and GeoCode data. Wow the possibilities are endless.

Peace!

Working on a new idea for a website...

Well all I have started on an application that uses Virtual Earth.

You can see Microsoft's Demo here... (http://local.live.com/ )

So far it seems pretty easy if you understand javascript.
Microsoft's interactive developer site is a WAY KEWL method to developers started making applications using this technology. http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/sdk/

When I launch this new website I have thought up I'll post more about it.

What the heck does jactation mean?

jacatation defined: (jack-tay'-shun) n. boasting; bragging.

Community Server 2.0

I have been working with Community Server 2.0 for the past three weeks.

Microsoft used this for a releasing information about netfx3. (Which is .Net Framework 3.0) (Which used to be called the Windows Foundation (something...)) You can see it here
http://www.netfx3.com

Dell just released a site using Community Server as well.
http://www.dellone2one.com/default.aspx

So it appears as though there is some emphasis around getting Community Server to appear as a solid solution for setting up Community Web Sites.

My opinions at surrounding the time of Community Server at the level of 2.0.
Negative Opinions...
1. Right out of the gate Abstraction Inversion (In case you are wondering what this is or means... go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipattern)
2. There is a sense of if you aren't on the Community Server team then you aren't going to be changing the core of Community Server 2.0 without some blackballing from the team at Community Server.
3. They have a lot of flexiability in this application that gets hard coded in the core modules.
4. It needs more development for the ordinary users in order to traffic and moderate content coming in. (Like a workflow system with accept reject made simple and tied into email maybe?)
5. Last but not least as you all know if you worked with it for even a day... NO DOCUMENTATION worth mentioning.
Positive Opinions...
1. Priced right.
2. Easy to get going for the predertermined peices.
3. Decent use of user controls for typical skinning to your own liking.
4. ASP.Net technology implemented.
5. Likely to be around for a while and supported long term since the original team comes from the www.asp.net site.

What are some of your thoughts about this product?

Microsoft Expression Web Designer CPT1 Install

Ran the setup.
It failed with "Can not complete installation. Error!".
Um,.. does this seem very descriptive to anyone else?

Greetings!

Microsoft Expression

My brother told me to look at Microsoft Expression today. It has ASP.Net 2.0 integration in Visual Studio.Net 2005. So no more bitmap graphic only websites!!! Woohoo!!! I love that! We can now easily integrate the talent of our graphic artists well placed desire for flashy items that make users intrigued within our .Net projects.

Look to the Video introduction here...
http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/demos.mspx