Since the majority of my work as of late has been completely telephony based – I thought I would share some of my experiences with you  (you may have noticed the last 5 or 6 posts – all Asterisk)

So here’s some neat stuff I have learned in my recent integration endeavors.

1. Asterisk can do almost anything, the System() function opens a huge window of possibilities.

Here’s why :

I needed to feed my fish while I was away on vacation and had to cook up a quick way to do this before I left.  I setup a computer with a minimal Debian Etch install and attached a string to the cdrom drive.  I then tied the string to a flat piece of plastic that would scrape along the top of the aquarium lid when the drive was ejected – thus dropping food into the tank.  I then grabbed the machines public key and wrote a quick script to ssh to the box and eject the cdrom upon dialing an extension. Neat huh?

2. Asterisk + cURL = limitless possibilities.

Here’s why :

cURL is an extremely powerful application as it can send requests to a remote server – with ease.  Just read the man page and you will see this is one of the coolest things ever.  Not only can we post any information available to the server, we can grab info from the web and send it over the phone as well.  I used it to create Asteristickies and it really was a breeze to set up.

3.  We have only scratched the surface.

Here’s why :

Now that TTS is rock solid and voice recognition is on it’s way to the open source world (thanks Google) – we can integrate a whole new level of voice + web.  Want to post a call to your blog? just have your * box transcribe it for you.  Looking to adjust the temperature of your house? read you your email?  This is already available and ready for action.  The best part is this is only the beginning.

Every day I am looking for new creative ways to make Asterisk do something neat just because it can. I am looking forward to the day when E.164 is globally used and there is an Asterisk box in every home.