2004-09-19-0213Z


Finally got around to installing Asterisk for a possible Rentacoder job. I don't yet know enough about it, but I suspect this piece of software is really going to rock my world a little once I get the hang of it. When I first investigated it a few months back I thought it needed special hardware in order to be able to do anything, but not so. There are soft phones (best luck so far with kphone, which uses ALSA sound) which work fine with it, though it helps to have a full-duplex soundcard. I'll very likely be sharing experiences with this in the days to come.

Was given an unexpected and very welcome gift a few minutes ago which reestablishes the financial buffer I had emptied in order to jumpstart the internet café. This is a real lifesaver since I just got hit with the first $5/month fee by my bank for going below the minimum balance; I hate to see money flying away like that for no reason. Five dollars! I can live comfortably for two or 3 days on that, even in a forager's wasteland like Rosarito!

Forgot to mention that I got my bag of broken solar cells that I ordered from Kenneke.com, and am learning how to solder them together to make a solar panel. Together with some .9 amp-hour NiMH D-cells I bought on eBay, I'm gonna have a kick-ass portable power supply for my Clié that doesn't depend on having to plug into anybody's outlet. Then if I can just make the whole deal waterproof, I can go anywhere, land or sea, on a whim, without having to worry about a memo pad, internet connectivity, or any other conveniences/plagues of modern life.

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