Ravings Of A Strange Mind

The Secret Project

CraigS — 2005-09-23T19:27:53+10:00

Those people who have been around the OpenH323 project for a few years have noticed that I am far less involved in the project than I used to be. Part of that is because I am no longer employed by the company that owns the openh323.org domain, so my time is spent working on for other people and that code doesn't always end up in the CVS.

But recently, these changes have been because I've been working on a very new and exciting project that has consumed almost all of my spare time, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. I think it is time that I finally announced this new project.

The new project is called "Get A Life".

Fax facts

CraigS — 2005-08-27T23:20:41+10:00

As VoIP becomes more prevalent as a replacement for traditional PSTN connections, the issue of how to handle fax traffic becomes more and more of an issue. Fax imposes special demands on VoIP networks because the standards used for fax transmission are designed to exploit features of switched circuits that do not fit within the parameters of most VoIP equipment.

Believing the impossible

CraigS — 2005-08-19T01:51:56+10:00

Time for one of my pet peeves.

Three times in the past week I have been been faced with blatantly incorrect behaviour in someone else's code. Something really obvious, like a segmentation fault, or a return value set to something stupid, or a function that reports an incorrect input value when the the offending argument is obviously within the valid range.

In each of these cases I spent the time to isolate the problem and create a simple test program that demonstrated the failure condition.

In all three cases the author, when presented with this information, uttered those four hated words:

"It works for me"

If this happens again, I may just have to do serious damage to someone or something.

History shock

CraigS — 2005-08-16T01:14:30+10:00

If you are reading this, the chances are that you one of those lucky people who are completely familiar with the Internet, computers and all of the hi-tech gadgets and goodies that go along with them. Let's put it another way - I'd be willing to bet that the only reason your VCR is flashing "12:00" right now is because you've not used it since the last time the power went off. And that's because you use a DVD (when you rent a movie) and you use a PVR for recording those rare shows you can't get via BitTorrent.

Quick report from ClueCon

CraigS — 2005-08-06T02:32:30+10:00

Sorry that I've not had time to keep the posts flowing, but I've been at ClueCon in Chicago, and things have been more than a little hectic.

First of all, I arrived on Tuesday evening at 5pm local Chicago time after 24 hours of continuous travel. I was dehydrated and jetlagged, so of course I went out with the other delegates and had a few drinks. I can remember until about 9:30pm, and then I woke up in my hotel room at 3:30am. Everyone says I had a great time, but damned if I can remember anything. I remember reading somewhere that everyone should give up drinking once they turn 40 - I think that time may have come.

IAX, ClueCon and T-shirts

CraigS — 2005-07-30T21:08:39+10:00

I've just finished checking a whole bunch of new code into the CVS. This code came from long-time contributor Derek Smithies who has performed the amazing feat of implementing the IAX2 protocol as part of OPAL, and did it with the support and permission of his employer Slashdot article was carrying the following quote in an article titled "Voip Security":

The fact that VoIP operates across standard networks makes it vulnerable to all manner of IP hacking - including man in the middle attacks,sniffing, session hijacking, etc.

This seems to be saying that VoIP is somehow less secure because it operates across networks that use standards. This is an interesting conclusion, because the implication is that this is somehow different from the situation with the existing telephone network that VoIP is replacing.

There are so many holes in this argument that it is hard to know where to start, but I'm going to try anyway.

The history of OPAL

CraigS — 2005-07-28T01:11:08+10:00

The history of OPAL as a piece of software development is a long story. A verrryyy loooong story. And a lot of it isn't even my story, as Robert has been the prime mover behind the development of OPAL even though the idea was originally conceived by both of us. But as I am going to be talking about OPAL next week at ClueCon in Chicago, I think it is time that I wrote down a coherent version of the history of this software, especially as I am intending to be using it for new VoIP projects looking going forward into the future.

Links of the Day

CraigS — 2005-07-27T01:58:30+10:00

From time to time I get asked what web sites I check on a regular basis for news. I posted on this back in December 2003, and it was interesting to see what has and hasn't changed

New site....

CraigS — 2005-07-26T01:11:24+10:00

Welcome to Craig's new RoaSM blog.

I know it has been a long time coming, but life kept getting in the way. But now that I have MovableType re-installed, I can get back to my semi-occasional discourses on a variety of topics.

A static version of my old blog will continue to be available until I can migrate entries I think are worth keeping.