I have re-enabled our home phone line. Nancy is back to answering your calls. I have also re-configured how her VM works., All of our VM was tied into an IMAP mail box for storage. This allowed us some pretty cool integration with other devices, like our mobile phones, and our answering machine.

Basically, when we get a message at the house, it stores the message in a special email box. Both Cassandra and I have access to this email box as a sub-folder of our normal inboxes, but for all the server knows this is a separate extension with its own VM box to use. We can then use an email client, pick up a public phone, or use a hand set in the house and check the VM. If any of these methods sets the VM to “listened to,” the email becomes “read” as well. It kinda works like a poor mans visual voicemail from the iPhone, except a lot more flexible and configurable. Not to mention full of a lot more awesome.

Handy trick when using Maildir storage, if you symlink a users mail store from a sub directory in a different account, it suddenly becomes a shared inbox! Woot!

So now that Gretchen is handling all of our email duties, I had to re-configure all of the phone system voice mail storage to use her instead. Hack hack pound pound and it is all online again.

Tricky dick I know!