I have read the book Asterisk now by Nir Simionovich, published in March 2008. The book was a big disappointment, the reason is that the book do not cover the software used in AsteriskNOW today. The book cover the Asterisk GUI but AsteriskNOW is using FreePBX instead which is totally different. One main reason to use AsteriskNow is to avoid the sometimes cumbersome task to install Linux or a similair operating system, download, compile and configure Asterisk using cryptic text files. So an accurate description of the GUI used is essential for a book like this and unfortunatly the book is to old. I do not intend to install an old version of AsteriskNOW just for a bookreview so I cannot tell how accurate the book is. So my recommendation is to wait for an updated version of AsteriskNow book.

Links

• A sample chapter Chapter-7-For-Annoyance-Press-1-Voice-Menus-and-IVR
• Link to the book AsteriskNow

In situations like this I recommend a USB SATA/PATA interface i.e. Plexgear at Kjell&Company, the adapter looks like it is OEM:ed so there probably several with different brands.

Features:

• USB-SATA
• USB-PATA 2.5"
• USB-PATA 3.5"
• Power Supply for normal devices and SATA devices

The only thing I miss is that it does not contain a SCSI interface aswell

I have used it to backup files on a LVM disk, transfer files from old disk to a new when upgrading, reinitialize a disk that refused to install Windows 7, attach a DVD-Rom to a blade server and so on.

In my opinion every geek and sysadmin should have one.