FreePBX vulnerabilities

Just saw this Secunia advisory - if you have http open to your asterisk system managed by FreePBX, 1st off you are'nt being too swift, 2nd, you may have a new vulnerability. Luckily FreePBX has provided updates to fix this (update all your modules), but you are still best not giving any public access to your PBX.

Freeswitch gets bought

Just saw this post from Tony Lewis at Schmoozecom about the changing of hands of the Freewitch product (an open source telephony platform), it seems Baracuda Networks (a major player in spam and network security) has made a major stake in Freeswitch, and the 2 primary developers have become employees of Baracuda (as in 'owned by').

While I can definitely relate with Anthony Minessale having to pay the bills, I am skeptical of Baracuda and their intent. A different product comes to mind (green), which gained commercial backing and soon began a downward spiral into worthlessness while crucial decisions bounced back and forth as to whether to give key development to the commercial offering, or the free open source offering. Other questions come to mind, PR representatives from Baracuda have said they will not be announcing their stance on the project until some time depending on several factors. What are they waiting for? What might change their stance on the product - ie "how high public demand is" - if lots of people want it, then so does Baracuda? Why have they decided to jump into the voice arena?, of which they have not even remote past experience.

It worries me greatly, as Freeswitch was going to be my replacement for Asterisk, which seems to be a great product, but at times decisions dont seem to be made with the project's best interest in mind (asterisk that is). Freeswitch gets its roots from Asterisk, but its goal is more openness, better compatibility with 3rd party components, and more logical programming logic (duh - or it wouldnt be logic;).

Anyways I had been keeping my eyes open on Freeswitch, awaiting its maturity, but now I keep a skeptical eye on it, awaiting political redirections.

UPDATE: July 5

As so kindly noted by Brian West in the comments, in this interview with Kerry Garrison, Anthony Minessale has cleared up any doubts posed by Baracuda's failure to answer key questions.

As for other questions readers might have about freeswitch and its roots, you might start by reading how it started at this site.

Bing it!!!

Well it looks like Microsoft is again trying to regain some footing from Google in the search engine arena, they have abandoned Live.com and now release Bing.com. Bing is a simplified search page in which they have stripped out the many hundreds of links found on your typical microsoft landing page - no doubt in an effort to assimilate googles method of "simply searching and nothing more".

They have some nice features, for instance "Safe Search" restricts all adult content from searches, however safe search is easily turned off allowing all those unwanted search results back in again.

Microsoft has reportedly launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign to promote bing, so dont be surprised to see it on TV. Typically I would tell someone to "Google it" if they were searching for something, but I doubt anytime soon that you will hear anyone say "Bing it" as a friend mentioned to me the other day - the 'force' is strong with Google.

We shall see - competition keeps the knife sharp.

Windows 7 expected in October

Per this article, Windows 7 is scheduled to be released October 22nd - so expext it to be in full gear by Christmas. 

New LED technology allows Asus laptops to run 9.5 hours

The new eeePC 1000HE has arrived from Asus packed with new LED backlit displays, this new low power technology allows the little netbook too run even longer with a claimed 9.5 hours of battery life on the standard battery.