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Development

Asterisk - the Open-Source PBX

November is shaping up to be a month of important Linux Telephony releases. Two weeks ago, we examined the GNU Bayonne 2 Telephony Application Server. This week, we look at Asterisk, an open-source PBX (Private Branch eXchange).

[Asterisk] The Asterisk description states:

Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux, BSD and MacOSX and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in many protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.

Version 1.2 of Asterisk was released at the IP.4.IT Conference this week: "Asterisk 1.2 is the first major revision to Asterisk since the release of Asterisk 1.0 in September 2004, and includes over 3,000 feature additions and improvements to the overall performance and efficiency of memory usage."

The original author of Asterisk is Mark Spencer, president of Digium, Inc. Digium is a supplier of PC telephony cards and telephony systems, and is sponsoring Asterisk development. The company also sells Asterisk Business Edition, a commercial version of the software. The software is being developed by a wide variety of programmers, using the standard open-source development model. Asterisk has been licensed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Asterisk's feature set and list of supported protocols is lengthy. A few highlights include:

  • Architected as a central PBX core with loadable module APIs.
  • Works as a traditional PBX on standard telephone lines.
  • Supports Voice over IP (VoIP).
  • No special hardware is required for VoIP use.
  • Supports switching between all of the supported interfaces.
  • Supports connection to other Asterisk PBX instances for scalability.
  • Supports both U.S. and European standard signaling protocols.
  • Runs on Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X.
  • Works with a wide variety of telephony hardware.
  • Has free and commercial customer support options.
Asterisk looks like a fun and active open-source project, those with needs for both simple and complex PBX systems would be advised to give it a try. The code is available for download here.

Comments (4 posted)

System Applications

Database Software

PostgreSQL Weekly News

The November 13, 2005 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is out with the latest PostgreSQL articles.

Full Story (comments: 1)

Interoperability

Samba 3.0.21rc1 Available for Download

Version 3.0.21rc1 of Samba has been announced. "This is a release candidate of the 3.0.21 code base and is provided for testing purposes only. While close to the final stable release, this snapshot is *not* intended for production servers."

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Networking Tools

Shorewall 3.0.0 released

Version 3.0.0 of Shorewall, an iptables based firewall with flexible configuration, is out with several new features.

Full Story (comments: none)

Printing

How To Assign Printing Administration Capabilities To Users (CUPS)

A new CUPS printing system tutorial is available: "If you want certain users to have access to administer printers and nothing else, you need to create a group."

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Miscellaneous

Bootchart 0.9 Released (SourceForge)

Version 0.9 of Bootchart, is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process, is available. "Version 0.9 introduces application monitoring, alternative init invocation (e.g. initng) and offers better FHS compliance."

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

LDAS 0.1.1 Released

Version 0.1.1 of LDAS, the Low Delay Audio Streamer, is out with code improvements. Here's the change notice: "More correct use of the memory mapped access to the sound card when copying data from the queue to the sound card. The code should now be more generic, and work for more sound cards."

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Business Applications

WyattERP version 0.30.1 Released (SourceForge)

Version 0.30.1 of WyattERP, an enterprise resource and management application, has been released. "WyattERP is a set of tools to create customized, integrated ERP modules for small businesses. It has been developed and tested with the assistance of Action Target, Inc. This new release features Wylib and Wyseman as separate entities. Wylib enables the creation of tcl/tk ERP modules that closely tie into the database model created and managed by Wyseman."

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Desktop Environments

GNOME 2.13.2 Released

GNOME 2.13.2 has been announced. "This is our second development release on our road towards GNOME 2.14.0, which will be released in March 2006."

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First weekly status report on GNOME Dictionary

Emmanuele Bassi has announced the first GNOME Dictionary status report. "In order to let others know how's the status of GNOME Dictionary Breaking is progressing (and in order to force myself hacking on it regularly ;-)), I'm sending the Not So Weekly Status Report on GNOME Dictionary Containing the status of the review-slash-breaking-slash-rewrite process of the GNOME Dictionary application and applet."

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Clearlooks Gtk-engine cairo patch (GnomeDesktop)

If you like animated controls on your desktop, take a look at the Clearlooks gtk-engine patch. "tirpse (aka SchAmane) made an Clearlooks gtk-engine patch to get animated progressbar and checkboxes using cairo. Just download latest clearlooks gtk-engine CVS, patch and compile."

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GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week: You can find more new GNOME software releases at gnomefiles.org.

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Announcing KDE 3.5 Release Candidate

KDE 3.5 is about to be finished, and the first release candidate is now available for testing. "Because of the short timeframe for the release candidates we don't give the distributors a head start of one week for binary packages..."

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Oxygen Icons Website Launched (KDE.News)

KDE.News notes the launch of the Oxygen web site. Oxygen is the look and feel of the upcoming (someday) KDE4 desktop, so the site gives some hints of what KDE users can expect to be working with in the future.

Comments (11 posted)

OpenSync and KDE Cooperate on Unified Data Syncing (KDE.News)

KDE.News covers a collaboration between OpenSync and KDE. "The OpenSync and KDE teams have joined forces to create a unified library to synchronize data from mobile devices with the data on the desktop. OpenSync, the successor to the MultiSync project, provides a modular desktop-independent synchronization platform. It can be extended by plugins to support additional devices and data types. Plugins for the most commonly used devices and applications such as Kontact, Palm, Windows CE, mobile phones and more are already available or under development. KDE has now adopted OpenSync as the base for its future synchronization tools."

Comments (1 posted)

KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week: You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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X11R6.9/X11R7 Release Candidate 2 ready for testing

Release Candidate 2 of the X11R6.9/X11R7 window system is out. "This RC includes many bug fixes and updates since the first RC. We have tagged both the monolithic and modular trees and have prepared tarballs for you to test."

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Xfce 4.2.3.1 released

Version 4.2.3.1 of the Xfce lightweight desktop environment is out. "A new bug fix release of Xfce is finally available, after almost 6 months!" See the change log file for details.

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Electronics

LEDLoad hardware/software project

The LEDLoad project has been launched. "LEDLoad is a CPU load display using a single dual color LED. It is designed to use a free internal USB port of any modern PC and replace the power LED in the case with something more interesting. A host driver kernel module is available for Linux."

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XCircuit 3.4.9 released

Version 3.4.9 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing package, is available. This release features a number of bug fixes.

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Graphics

ShadeVis 1.00 Released (SourceForge)

Version 1.00 of ShadeVis has been announced. "The ShadeVis tool computes a simple static, but much more correct, per-vertex ambient term. This effect, commonly known as ambient occlusion, is aimed to provide more faithful shading for realtime rendering. In practice rather than considering the ambient lighting to exist uniformally throughout a scene, this approach determines the ambient brightness of each part of a surface to be proportional to the extent to which the surface has "its outward view of its environment" free i.e. ''occluded'', by other surfaces of the object. Inner part will therefore appear darker."

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GUI Packages

PyQt 3.15.1 announced

Version 3.15.1 of PyQt, a comprehensive set of Python bindings for the Qt GUI toolkit, has been announced, it features minor bug fixes.

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Interoperability

Wine 0.9.1 released

Version 0.9.1 of Wine ("a free implementation of Windows on Unix") is out. Here are the changes: "Support for Find function in regedit, Winelib app to eject a CD, Many MSI improvements, Better support for running text-mode apps without X, Improved support for various code obfuscation tools, and Lots of bug fixes."

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Mail Clients

bogofilter 0.96.6 Released

Version 0.96.6 of bogofilter, a Bayesian email filter, is out with bug fixes.

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Medical Applications

ClearHealth Version 1.0 RC2 Update (LinuxMedNews)

Version 1.0 RC2 of ClearHealth, an open-source medical suite, has been announced. "After a long testing and packaging cycle RC2 is finally available. This release includes numerous fixes, enhancements and entirely new features. Some of these highlights include comprehensive billing support (CA Medicare and CA Medicaid tested/certified), graphical installer and performance improvements."

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OpenEMR 2.8.0 Released (LinuxMedNews)

Version 2.8.0 of the OpenEMR electronic medical record system has been announced, it includes a long list of new features. "Today OpenEMR version 2.8.0 is released for download at the project's SourceForge site. Concurrently, a companion FreeB release 0.11 is available."

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Open Healthcare Framework - Eclipse (LinuxMedNews)

LinuxMedNews looks at an Open Healthcare Framework extension to the Eclipse development framework. "eclipse.org states: 'The goal of the Open Healthcare Framework (OHF) is to extend the Eclipse Platform to create an open-source framework for building interoperable, extensible healthcare systems.'"

Comments (none posted)

Office Applications

HylaFAX 4.2.3 Released

Version 4.2.3 of Hylafax, a fax modem application, has been announced. Changes include a security update, bug fixes, and new capabilities.

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Office Suites

Korn: Massachusetts, Open Document, and Accessibility

Peter Korn, an accessibility architect at Sun, has posted a detailed look at accessibility issues involving OpenOffice and the OpenDocument format. "The accessibility issues affecting people with disabilities in the applications that read and write Open Document Format are real. While some users with some disabilities should have no difficulty with ODF (and in fact in some specific cases an improved experience), for others a move to Open Document capable applications today would have significant impacts on their productivity and efficiency. However, the first significant Open Document deployment affecting people with disabilities - in the State of Massachusetts - is still nearly 14 months away."

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Science

Release 1.0 of StrBio Java classes (SourceForge)

The 1.0 release of the StrBio Java classes have been announced, the code has just been released under the LGPL license. "The StrBio library is a set of Java classes useful for development of software for computational structural biology research. These classes are the basis for software in several published research projects, including the Pred2ary secondary structure prediction software, the JThread fold prediction algorithm, and parts of the ASTRAL Compendium for Sequence and Structure Analysis (http://astral.berkeley.edu)."

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Video Applications

CinePaint 0.20 Released (SourceForge)

Version 0.20 of CinePaint has been released. "CinePaint version 0.20 is a major release of the popular motion picture deep colour paint and retouching program. Thanks to Kai-Uwe Behrmann for creating this release. This release is the latest Film Gimp (GTK) version of CinePaint. CinePaint developers continue to maintain this legacy architecture until the future Glasgow architecture is complete (in 2006)."

Comments (none posted)

DVDStyler v1.5 beta 2 Released

Version 1.5 beta 2 of DVDStyler, a cross-platform DVD (movie) authoring system, is available. Changes include bug fixes, translation work, and more.

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Web Browsers

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 Available (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine has announced the second release candidate of Mozilla Firefox 1.5. "Like the first release candidate, Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 is intended to allow testers to ensure that there are no last-minute problems with the Firefox 1.5 code."

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Languages and Tools

Caml

Caml Weekly News

The November 8-15, 2005 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with the latest Caml language articles.

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Java

Jericho HTML Parser 2.0 released (SourceForge)

Version 2.0 of Jericho HTML Parser, a Java library which supports the manipulation of HTML documents, has been announced. "Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of previous versions, including the core parser and caching mechanism. The major new feature in 2.0, in addition to the HTML form manipulation features added in 1.5-dev, is the ability to easily define new tag types for recognition by the parser. Performance is also greatly improved and the documentation has been expanded significantly."

Comments (none posted)

Lisp

ECL 0.9h released

Version 0.9h of Embeddable Common-Lisp has been announced. "This version reduces memory usage, improves the FFI, includes new build scripts, now runs also on OpenBSD, and fixes a few bugs."

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PHP

XOAD 0.6.0.0 released (SourceForge)

Version 0.6.0.0 of XOAD is out with several new features. "XOAD is a PHP based AJAX/XAP object oriented framework that allows you to create richer web applications. Formerly known as NAJAX, XOAD has many benefits: it uses JSON, supports server / client side events, HTML manipulation, Caching and many more."

Comments (none posted)

PostScript

AFPL Ghostscript 8.53

Release 8.53 of AFPL Ghostscript has been released. "Artifex Software, Inc. and artofcode LLC are pleased to announce the release of AFPL Ghostscript 8.53. This is a maintenance release in the stable 8.5x series." Changes include bug fixes, performance improvements, and more.

Comments (none posted)

Prolog

JLog 1.3.4 Released (SourceForge)

Version 1.3.4 of JLog, a Prolog interpreter written in Java, is available. "Version 1.3.4 includes a substantial number of improvements and refinements, introduced throughout the development cycle of the 1.3.0-1.3.3 Developer Preview versions."

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Python

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!

The November 16, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with a new collection of Python article links.

Full Story (comments: none)

PySizer 0.1 announced

The 0.1 release of PySizer has been announced. "I'd like to announce the first release of PySizer, a memory usage profiler for Python code. PySizer was written as part of Google's Summer of Code."

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Ruby

Ruby Weekly News

The November 13th, 2005 edition of the Ruby Weekly News looks at the latest discussions from the ruby-talk mailing list.

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REXML: Processing XML in Ruby

Koen Vervloesem introduces REXML in an O'Reilly article. "REXML (Ruby Electric XML) is the XML processor of choice for Ruby programmers. It comes bundled with the standard Ruby distribution. It's fast, written in Ruby, and can be used in two ways: tree parsing and stream parsing. In this article, we show some basic constructs on how to use REXML for XML processing. We also introduce the use of Ruby's interactive debugger irb for exploring XML documents with the help of REXML."

Comments (none posted)

Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The November 15, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is available. Take a look for new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

Full Story (comments: none)

Miscellaneous

aegis 4.21 released

Version 4.21 of aegis, a transaction-based, software configuration management system, is out with lots of new features and bug fixes.

Full Story (comments: none)

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