Asterisk - The Open Source Linux PBX

Reading Jon Udell's blog I came across a reference to Asterisk - The Open Source Linux PBX. Cool. You can watch a 1999 Real Player presentation by UT Austin's David Gracy which gives lots of details.

I was thinking about the functionality in the Office place, when I wondered about using this to setup a Home PXB (private exchange) : separate voice mail for all your room mates; redirect to their cell phones if they do not answer the extension; blocking ex-girlfriend phone number; ring a couple of extensions for siblings when their mother rings; (they did not mention it but) different ring tone for different numbers.

The presentation is done is a style which I've only rare seen : 2 panels, one the the speaker and one for the slide show, synchonized to the speaker. It's nice to have a PDF to read/print but the value add for this is HUGE, whether conference or school lecture. Tthe only thing I've seen better is adding a synchonized transcript to the 2 panels, and give speech to text software this must be easier. It this case the RealVideo stream synchronized to a slide show was done via Virtual Courseroom Environment (VCORE) project which was the real subject of Jon's blog pieice.