A few months ago, I dragged my Linux laptop, some Digispark ATTiny85s, and some other hardware along to while away the time on an out-of-town visit. My objective was to, in my spare time, learn how to use some of the libraries available to the ATTiny85/Arduino environment, and to play a bit with the hardware.
In the year and a half since I wrote IP04 Progress, I've expanded my simple telephone system into something a little more comprehensive. I had three goals in mind; to provide that "complete accounting" of incoming and outgoing calls that my provider wouldn't supply, to manage the incoming calls so that I would be less bothered by telemarketers and other annoying callers, and to position the IP04 as a part of a much larger home automation project.
I've slowly worked my way towards all that, in fits and starts, and am ready to share some of my progress.
Since I wrote my "IP04 and Me" blog post, I've made remarkable progress. My home phones now run completely under the control of the IP04, and I have that virtual receptionist I've been working towards.
For a long while, I had put aside my IP04 to concentrate on other things. Recently, I resumed my explorations of the IP04 device, still with the long-term notion of using it as a home PBX.
I'm glad for the extended absence; it allowed me to reconsider my approach, and (when I resumed playing with the IP04) do some things that I had previously found impossible to do.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a Pogoplug (V2, gray) to try out. The PogoPlug comes with an embedded linux system, and is set up to externalize (through my.pogoplug.com) any USB storage device you connect to it. I wasn't as much interested in the services of my.pogoplug.com as I was in using the device as a general-purpose linux system.
A little while ago, I observed that Zellers was selling the Fidelity VPC, an inexpensive Linux-based netbook. Well, I saw it in action over Christmas, and I have to say that I was not impressed.
