Well after some 8 months a new version of Open Bill has been released on Java.net. This version includes bug fixes and some new features such as:

• Reporting with graphs,
• Emailing of credit notes to customers,
• Ad-hoc line items on contracts,
• Improvide UI for contract management

Future Plans include:

Although there is a sql ansi standard each database vendor has its own proprietary extensions and MySQL is no different. These changes, although small, are frustrating enough to cost hours of lost time and productivity. One of the issues I lost some time on was how to do an "if exists ... then ...else" statement in a stored procedure, basically to have some dynamic sql execute an update or an insert query depending on whether the record already existed or not.

Parsing CSV files is one of those routine tasks that can end up taking an inordinate amount of time for a programmer to handle, especially once you discover the CSV file is not clean. Often CSV files come with extraneous headers and footers like, page numbers and distribution information. This is especially true if they are user generated, from spreadsheet applications like Open Office, or are effectively screen scraps of reports from some mainframe or AS400 reporting application.

On Reuben Goldberg's "Internet Economy" radio show on the 15 May 2009, the spokesman for the Business Software Alliance (BSA), claimed that the software piracy rate in South Africa has increased by 1% from 2008. The main reasons given for this where:

Darlene Parker and I have done another podcast for Hacker Public Radio titled "Open Source Business Models ". More of a discussion and trying to generate ideas. It such a complex issue sometimes. I find I am always deepening my understanding around how to base a business on providing Open Source applications or services based thereon.

Our Linux server and desktop virtualisation podcast has been released on Hacker Public Radio . Any feedback welcome.

Darlene Parker from Userful and I did a podcast recently on Asterisk, IP-PBX server . It was released today on hacker public radio. I hope others find it informative. Any feedback welcome.

I co-hosted another Hacker Public Radio podcast with Darelene Parker about Webmin a few weeks ago. The podcast discusses webmin and when it is handy to use.http://www.hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=0324

In today's world their is a concerted drive to reduce computer power consumption. This is an imperative both from an ecological point of view and a cost saving view. One of the ways people are doing this is via server virtualisation, but there is also the area of Desktop virtualisation.

We have setup a separate division to supply asterisk servers and support at www.ip-pbx.co.za. One of our goals is to provide the business community, especially the small and medium business community, with information about asterisk and to help make business more efficient and productive by using open source based solutions!

How can Asterisk VOIP/IP-PBX save your business money?

So how can an Asterisk server save you money?