Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!peregrine!elroy!spl1!laidbak!att!rutgers!mailrus!ames!coherent!mailcom!postmaster
From: postmaster@mailcom.FIDONET.ORG (Bernard Aboba)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT sound
Message-ID: <8677@spl1.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 88 19:26:53 GMT
Sender: news@spl1.UUCP
Organization: MailCom Message Center, Palo Alto CA (415) 855-9548
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I am afraid that I do not understand the usefulness of putting a CODEC on 
the motherboard of a workstation, without also putting the other 
circuitry needed to do voicemail on there as well.  Right now, I can buy 
for $200-300 a card for an IBM PC that will do REAL voice mail, in the 
background.  Two that come to mind are BIGMOUTH, and the COMPLETE 
ANSWERING MACHINE.  There are at least 5 others.  What the cards and 
software do NOT do, is notify someone by ELECTRONIC MAIL over the network 
that they have a voice message available on the voice server.  With the 
current NeXT hardware, I believe that you will still need an additional 
card to implement voicemail, which given the cost of design, etc. will 
probably come to at least $200-$300, negating any advantage of putting 
the CODEC on the motherboard.  
The big advantage of putting the CODEC on the motherboard, is I suppose 
the ability to have a voice message delivered to another workstation, 
input via a microphone.  However, this eats up network bandwidth like 
crazy, and makes very little sense when an electronic mail message would 
be much more efficient in terms of bandwidth, and probably more 
understandable as well.  
By the way, via use of software like CARBON COPY, you can check for voice 
messages on a voice serving IBM PC without calling it.  



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