Asterisk 1.4 Coming Soon!

Digium – The Asterisk Telephony Company

Ok, this is a big deal. The next version of Asterisk supports GoogleTalk!

From the Press Release:
Asterisk 1.4 is the first major release of Asterisk since the release of Asterisk 1.2 in November 2005. With over 20 new functionality additions including IPFAX compatibility, unified messaging capabilities and Jabber/Jingle/GoogleTalk protocol compatibilities, Asterisk 1.4 features overall quality and performance improvements, as well as increased scalability and interoperability.

Why Videocommunication Didn’t Catch On

WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show: Why Videocommunication Didn’t Catch On (July 25, 2006)
From the post:
Computer scientist Jaron Lanier looks at why—despite all the predictions—videocommunication never caught on.

Pretty interesting. Discussing the non-verbal cues that we are missing in video conferencing.

(I wish WNYC would have permalinks on their site for each of these segments. I would rather post on my own blog than on Delicious but for now I have to click on the Delicious link and copy the URL and so forth. – That’s for you Brian, if you are listening)

Thanks Spencer..

Yet another video system for adding tags/comments in time

Techcrunch Blog Archive Viddler to make moments in video searchable

“The keystone feature here is the ability to add tags and comments tied to particular points in a video. Those tags are then searchable, so if I want to find the particular point in one of my videos that I tagged “touchdown,” that’s easy to do. I can also have a conversation with other users regarding a particular moment in a video and choose to embed the video on another site in it’s entirety or only from a particular point I select. While users can link to particular points in a Google Video as of last month, that’s easier and is just the beginning in Viddler.”

Add it to the list..
Viddler
ClickTV
Video Comments WordPress Plugin (Self serving link)

Thanks Jeff…

Record iChat Audio and Video

Ecamm Network: Conference Recorder – Record iChat AV Conferences – Save Audio and Video Memories
Nice..

From the site:
“Finally, an easy way to record your iChat audio and video chats. Conference Recorder is an add-on for iChat AV which automatically transforms your conference sessions into QuickTime movies. ”

GarageBand 3 allows the recording of audio and snapshots from iChat conferences as well..

Wondering where I can find an API for iChat to develop these types of things myself…?

Verizon Naked DSL Working!

In July, I complained that Verizon was constantly changing my IP address.

I theorized that it had to do with my impending transition to VoIP and that Verizon may have been punishing me… Well, turns out that I was wrong and that it was probably due to a lightning storm.

After contacting support several times I was finally sent a new DSL modem which is working great. I am still having some period disconnects but the reconnect is almost immediate and I am once again happy with my DSL. The speed is much closer to where it should be as well.

In other news, I was able to transition my phone number to Broadvoice and keep my DSL (without any problems). Now when I pickup the phone at home that is connected directly to the Verizon line I get a message saying that this is a dedicated data line and can not be used to make calls). Yippee!

ITJ Project Beta Released

Interactive Tele-Journalism
So.. I have finally released ITJ on SourceForge.net.

With support from Konscious and Manhattan Neighborhood Network we have packaged and uploaded the latest version and it can be downloaded at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/itv-ism/.