What do you get if you link an Asterisk PBX to a pLog blog? The answer is Classcaster.org!

Even though Classcaster is not a public service (it is restricted to members of the CALI schools) we think it's really worth mentioning it here because of its potential for other applications. Users can call a certain phone number and posts are automatically published to a pLog blog via the XMLRPC interface, and there's even a demo blog for you to test.

It's take its time, but the second bugfix release of the pLog 1.0.x series is now available. In case you were wondering, the reason why it took so long is because 1.0.2 was not as critical as 1.0.1, so we wanted to get as many bugfixes as possible before releasing. This beta is probably what will become pLog 1.0.2 but since it has so many fixes, we wanted to get some help testing before calling it stable (we are not expecting any major issues)

Packages are available via SF.net in .zip and in .tar.gz form. Also for the first time and because this had already been requested countless times, upgrade packages from 1.0.1 are available. These packages include only the files that were changed or added from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2, so you can use those instead of the full packages. But remember that this package will not work if upgrading from 1.0 to 1.0.2!:

pLog 1.0.2-beta (ZIP)
pLog 1.0.2-beta (TAR.GZ)
pLog 1.0.2-beta-1.0.1-upgrade (ZIP)
pLog 1.0.2-beta-1.0.1-upgrade (TAR.GZ)

For those upgrading from 1.0 or 1.0.1, there is no need to run the wizard.php installer script again, just upload the files in the 1.0.2 packages and overwrite the old versions. For those of you installing pLog for the first time, please follow the instructions available in the wiki, and for those of you upgrading from 0.3.2, follow the upgrade instructions.

Please keep reading if you would like to know more about the improvements and bug fixes in this new release!

Alex wrote to inform us that German media group Stern has launched a blogging service for their journalists based on pLog at Stern Blogs. Stern joins the growing group of well-known German sites that are using pLog for their blogging service such as the FDP site, Gamestar or the Axel Springer group.

Stern.de seem to be using a slightly customized version of pLog, but this is just another example of how powerful and flexible the pLog architecture is, and how blogs (and pLog!) have become a suitable choice for on-line journalism. We wish Stern success!