Wednesday, November 30, 2005

VOIP

[2009 Edit:  Company went belly up and left a bunch of people in a bad situation with very little notice.  Have since moved on to Vonage and am happy enough with them.]

I've been using
Sunrocket now for about a month, and have been almost completely happy. Sound quality is consistently good. One or two occasions where there was a lost packet or something and the voice was garbled. Another occasion where I sounded fine but the other party sounded a bit like he was in a large auditorium (he was not). But overall fine. Worth the minor problems with the low price and abundant features.

There are no setup charges, and they even send you a cordless phone system (if you click on the phone under the bird on the homepage). They promise to refund any of the unused yearly fee ($199) if you cancel, and they even sent a pre-paid return label if I wanted to return the equipment after first trying it out. Overall, a good, clean, no BS service.

I had one experience with customer service, which was good. I had not signed up for the free additional phone number at first. Then I couldn't see how to do it on the website. Instead of calling, I opted to chat with a customer service representative. Other than the fact that he seemed to be an amazingly slow typer, he was helpful and it all worked out fine with no problems.

One other strange thing that I discovered. When I call a number (I was calling our current home phone) and hang up, the ringing continues for a long time. This could be annoying if I ever call somebody, and they see it is me and decide not to pick it up. It would keep ringingn and ringingn for them.

So, I'm going to cancel our normal land line. Will save around $40 a month by doing that (including long distance charges, fees, taxes, etc.). We are lucky enough to have broadband without DSL, so we don't need the phone line (or need to pay extra for naked DSL).

I make no money by writing this -- just a good product, and I hope the company does well. If you are a reader who knows my email address, let me know if you want to sign up and I can get some sort of credit for doing a referral.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Corruption

A break from the podcasts for a moment. I'm shocked that almost nobody has heard about the Republican Congressman (Randy "Duke" Cunningham) who just resigned and admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes. Shouldn't this be a big deal? The Washington Post seems to be reporting it on the front page, and also gave a good analysis of corruption generally also on the front page. However, I've been listening to Fox for the last hour, and no mention of it. CNN has not been much better. Bottom line is that most Americans who pay only a little attention to the news will have no idea that an important Congressman took millions in bribes and just resigned. What do they hear about instead? The Fox website is currently headlining a new panda bear at the National Zoo, and does not even mention the bribery resignation in its current headlines. Media Matters has a more detailed analysis of the lack of coverage.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Podcast for Satan

This podcast is dedicated to Satan. You're doing a heck of a job. For those of you listening, don't bother unless you plan on turning up the volume.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Country Podcast

A continuing subject of interest to me are the changes in country music through the years. Essentially, it is transforming into family-friendly fare for Republicans. Not always, but little by little. The theme of this podcast is religion in country music. Religion was an important part of country music for a long time. Then there came the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Kris Kristofferson, one of my favorite artists of all genres, is included with his "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Then on to the modern, retro religious cool with Allison Krauss, whose voice almost makes me wish I were still religious.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Podcast by Popular Demand

The demand for another podcast has been overwhelming. If you consider one request overwhelming. Maybe not overwhelming, but sufficient. So here you go!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Veterans Day

A special podcast for Veterans Day. A forgotten holiday for most, but less so these days.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Podcast

The premiere of the new Unwilted podcast. Episode 1. Enjoy.