Wednesday, November 09, 2005

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

Anyone wanting unlimited phone access should check out VOIP. You may be able to cap your total local and long distance phone bill at under $20/month. The features that phone companies like to add for an extra cost all come free as a part of the service...voice mail, caller id, 3-way calling, call forwarding etc...free!

The main requirement is broadband internet, either DSL or cable, and a location in a covered area.

My first experience was with Vonage starting a couple years ago. We have cable broadband, so when the Vonage modem came I was eager to get our entire phone service switched over. All phone companies are required to give up your phone number so you can roll it over to a new service provider. For us, that was taking an existing number with Qwest in Seattle and rolling it over to Vonage. Vonage was the "receiving" company in this transfer so they were responsible for the number transfer process as follows: You give them authorization, they obtain the number from Qwest and notify you when the transfer will occur.

When we received our notification
  1. I called Qwest to discontinue our land-line, copper-wire service
  2. I went to the phone box on the outside of our house and physically disconnected our internal house wiring from the Qwest overhead telephone wires
  3. When I connected the Vonage modem to one of the phone jacks inside our house, all of our phones became active on the new VOIP service with our old phone number.
Now here is a real gee-whiz feature. When we moved to a new house across town I had the cable broadband connected right away. Then instead of calling the phone company to have our number moved I simply unplugged my broadband, ethernet network and the Vonage modem in the old house and reconnected them in our new house. Voila!!! Our phone service with our normal phone number was up and running. Oh yes, I also disconnected Qwest in their phone box on the outside of the new house.

Alternates. The Vonage modem can easily plug into one of the ports on my ethernet router. I have also tried VOIP service from LINGO. Lingo is slightly less expensive, it is available in more states, and it provides more extensive free long distance coverage than Vonage, however, it did not work for me. The quality was lower and there were more disruptions where I would lose service. Specifically, the Lingo modem must be outside my network firewall in order to work; this requires setting up a fixed network IP address for the modem in the DMZ (outside the firewall). When a power failure, reset or any other event occurs, this delicate balance fails and Lingo goes offline. Lingo technical support was accessible, but who wants to be calling for tech support, and how do you do it when your phone system is off-line?

My friend, Ken, uses VOIP from SunRocket (http://www.sunrocket.com/) and he has been very satisfied. Their modem, called a "gizmo", is easy to set up, the service is only $199/year, it includes two free phones and some international calling in addition to the usual free calling in the US and Canada. What a deal!

Of course the phone and cable giants ATT, Qwest, ComCast, Bresnan etc have their johnny-come-lately, me-too, more expensive offerings for the uninformed customer and those with inflated brand loyalty.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Snookered about Mars!

Did you get an email about Mars lately? Did it read something like this?

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.

Well at least that last line is absolutely true. That is because this event happened back in August 2003!
Thanks for the tip from Alex Kahl's Virus and Hoax Alert.

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Compare this to my previous blog. As with politics, religion, relationships and health care there are sometimes multiple plausible versions of reality. ...Steve

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Earth is catching up with Mars -- Once in a lifetime event

MARS SPECTACULAR! The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649 589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

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Courtesy of Lanny Rounds and Gary & Cecilia Helming

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Father's Day 2005 has been great

My older son called yesterday to see whether I would be available for a little outing. It turns out that when he was growing up his mother would take our two boys to a place called Moose Creek Campground about 10 miles west of town. She would have a blanket and a book while the boys were free to investigate, catch frogs, play in the small stream and generally enjoy the outdoors in Montana. Now our son, the FATHER of two boys himself, is looking for places where his own sons can roam.

He picked me up at 8am this morning so we could go to early worship service (father's day is on a Sunday this year!) and we headed out to investigate some places up towards the mountains East of Seattle.

It may take some more investigations but in the mean time it is very heart-warming to have a loving son who takes both his father and son responsibilities seriously.

Catching frogs paid off. His major endeavor these days is organizing National Science Decathlon so other youngsters can also have fun with science. The first ever national competition was earlier this year and organizational/fund raising efforts are gaining momentum.