Daryll Strauss
Daryll Strauss has been a long time Unix user and a pioneer in the Linux community. He started using Unix systems while in college at Carnegie Mellon back in 1984. In the early 1990's he purchased a used NeXT Cube and finally had a Unix system he could run at home. In 1995 he decided Linux had matured to the point that he could use it to replace his now aging NeXT Cube. His first open source program was a driver to support the original Connectix QuickCam. At this point Mr Strauss was working as a software developer in the visual effects industry. In 1996 he released the first hardware accelerated 3D support for Linux on the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics card. In 1997, while at Digital Domain, he designed and built the Linux cluster used to render images for Titanic. After leaving Digital Domain he did consulting work for many film and computer graphics companies and was a designer of the Direct Rendering Infrastructure used in Linux X servers. He is now president of Digital Ordinance, a company that produces hardware and software to support HDTV and film post production.
Open Source Telephony Using Asterisk and VOIP
In todays information centric world, the telephone is a crucial tool for getting the job done. Asterisk is an open source public branch exchange (PBX) that runs on Linux. Asterisk running on a Linux system, with some additional interface hardware, can replace expensive office phone systems. It supports a wide range of features including interactive voice response systems, voice mail, call queues, and many other features. The application gateway interface allows Asterisk to connect custom software to your telephone system providing almost limitless power. Asterisk is the bridge that connects the phone network to the computer network.
Unfortunately, the learning curve for Asterisk and VOIP is fairly steep. Most people aren't familiar with the intricacies of telecommunications. They just plug in a phone and expect it to work, or pay a specialist to install and configure a phone system. There is a substantial amount of technology and terminology involved. To take advantage of the flexibility and power of Asterisk one needs to understand telecommunications as well.
This talk will approach Asterisk and VOIP from the ground up. It starts with an introduction to the technology and terminology used in telephony. It will point out some examples of the technology that can be used. Once the base is established, the talk will move on to describe some typical telephony applications and show how Asterisk and VOIP can be used to solve them.