Entries from August 2006 ↓

I have not seen much tech shows on TV or heard them on Radio. I found Revision3 while I was searching for Asterisk. They have a great clip on Asterisk - that takes you through the basics and setting up the system. I checked out the other shows that they have and found them interesting. The Geekdrome is not too relevant for us, but the Systm and the other shows are good.

I have been thinking of a podcast or ebook for quite sometime. Nothing concrete on it yet. The purpose was to have something to train people in becoming good programmers. Let’s see how that shapes up.

I am making this post from the first wifi connection in the new office. The Sify internet connection is not as fast as we expected. Carpets are being laid down as I write this, and somebody is drilling some furniture on the walls behind. The thin clients and LCD panels are eating dust while the team here lived with stuff from Big Bazaar’s food stalls.

Mitul was in the office today and we finally got our Tata Indicom ISDN PRI line working with Digium TE110P card. Mitul posted an entry about it explaining the cable crimping method. It was exciting to dial into the system and hear the greeting. And then to explore the directory and voice mail services. We could dial out too easily and it was working like a charm. Now we need to remove the noise from local SIP connections. When we dial out, or somebody calls in, there is no noise. The Digium card seems to be doing the magic of noise reduction, we need to find something like that in a software now.

Also got the Sify cable connection working over Linux. It was very surprising to see that they had a Mac and Linux dialer available on their site. And it worked very well.

The Cisco IP phone couldn’t configure itself with our network Need to do some more research on that tomorrow.

And yes, the genius moment of the day! We were discussing about LDAP integration of Asterisk with Mitul and he said why don’t you use MySQL? Even for PAM?

Did some research on that, and looks like pam_mysql is stable. So we will be moving all our authentication to MySQL now. (there go the sleepless nights spent on LDAP…) But I think it’s a better choice considering it will be much easier to integrate all the other systems - activeCollab, Jabber, internal HR systems etc with MySQL.

It’s been a productive day! Looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow, when we move all the servers from LDAP to MySQL, and take the Asterisk setup forward!

We are setting up an Asterisk based PBX system for the new office. I have done a fair deal of research on Asterisk so far and have a few observations.

• Asterisk is a real solid system for enterprise use. It gives you PBX, Voicemail, VoIP and a lot more.
• There is a steep learning curve. The components involved, permutations possible and configuration - they all make it complicated to get a system ready.
• There is not enough documentation about intermediate / advanced level configurations.  The Asterisk: The Future of Telephony book is an excellent read, but you will have to read it twice and try things out to actually get a hang of things. AsteriskGuru has a good deal of tutorials. The Asterisk Wiki too is a very good place for information.
• When you configure Asterisk, do not use the sample configuration at the start. You will get confused. Rather, make your own dial plans and channel configurations. You will learn the best that way.
• Different softphones may work differently. eyeBeam is a good option for Linux and Windows. SJPhone is good for Mac.
• Echo and noise on the line are two things you may have to work around. We are not getting echo, but a lot of noise. Have to figure out how to cut that out.
• There is a lot of customization possible. Be ready to figure out things on your own.
• The quality of pre-recorded messages and music on hold, is great! We really liked it.
• Be willing to give Asterisk some time. You will appreciate the power once you get into it. Do not run away looking at the complexity.
• Take expert advice: Vaibhav and Mitul are two of my sources!

As of now, we have got a fresh install of Asterisk on a dual core machine. We are able to do call extensions on the network. There is a basic dial plan in place. And I have spec’d out the remaining things. Got an LDAP module compiled today. Have freePBX setup. Need to pull things together and hook them up with the Tata PRI ISDN connection we have taken.

I believe I will have some more on this in the next week!

We celebrated chocolates day in Magnet today. It was quite a blast. When HR emailed people about it on Tuesday, waves started. Here’s what Sarita said:

Hello Everyone,

Let’s celebrate Chocolate Day this Friday 25th August 2006,

Kitkat for “Friends”
Dairy Milk for “Best Friend”
Eclairs for “Colleagues”

--
Regards,
Sarita R.Hegde
HR Executive
Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd

There was a whole email trail after this debating about what should we do for lovers, crush and enemies! Finally, she had to send an update:

Hello Everyone,

On High demand, we have some additions,

Crush: Lolypop
Enemy: Hajmola
Love: Five Star
Kitkat for “Friends”
Dairy Milk for “Best Friend”
Eclairs for “Colleagues”
For Brothers & Sisters: We have just celebrated Rakhi Day.

--
Regards,
Sarita R.Hegde
HR Executive
Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd

And we had a blast today! Chocolates were flowing in the office the whole day. Generally, Magneteers love chocolates. If you get a chocolate in office, it’s an unwritten rule that you share it with others. Today, people said no when they were offered additional chocolates

While we were celebrating the chocolates day, the new recruits are celebrating holidays. We couldn’t complete the new office interior work on time, and had to give them a break for this week since there are too many activities going on there. We got the wall poster up there, and Ashok took a few pictures when he visited new office yesterday. These photos explain why the office work is going so slowly!

(If you don’t understand the pictures, you should take a look at the wall poster first!)

We are doing a soft launch of the new office this Sunday, and the main inauguration will happen in a few days after everything is settled.

It’s quite exciting these days

I read George Clason’s classic The Richest Man in Babylon two weeks ago. I read the ebook and it was a perfect read for a holiday. The book teaches you the fundamentals of money. How to save and grow your money, following principles that have worked for ages.
The book is a must read for anybody who wants to make money! It will certainly teach you a lesson or two even if you are an investment banker! There is also a website by John Murphy that sends these lessons over email. It’s Your Money has a nice rundown on the 7 cures for a lean purse - in context of the current world.

And we even included those 7 cures in the wall poster we made for office! Here they are.

Seven Cures for a Lean Purse

1. Start thy purse to fattening: “For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse take out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten at once and its increasing weight will feel good in thy hand and bring satisfaction to thy soul.”
2. Control thy expenditures: “Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending  more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.”
3. Make thy gold multiply: “Put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as flocks of the field and help to bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse.”
4. Guard thy treasures from loss: “Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principle is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail to collect a fair rental. Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments.”
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment: “Own thy own home.”
6. Insure a future income: “Provide for in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy family.”
7. Increase thy ability to earn: “Cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skilful, to act as to respect thyself.”

The language of the book can be a bit difficult to understand, I had to look up many words, but I enjoyed even that

Recommended Read!