I've had perfect experience with Skype over NAT. We are heavily firewalled. Skype has an option to communicate over port 80 (which is always open, because it is used by browswers). Check that option, and you are good to go.
Echo problems are caused by feedback from the earphones or speaker to the microphone. Use a headset to prevent feedback.
For perfect sound quality, in Windows, do Control-Alt-Delete and select "Task Manager". Click twice on the CPU table heading to see what programs are using CPU time. Skype should be the only program using significant CPU percentage.
I make calls from Brazil to France, U.S., and Australia, with perfect sound quality. I'm using a Telex headset, the one approved by Dragon Naturally Speaking.
I checked Lingo to Brazil. It is more expensive than Skype or OneSuite. With Skype, calling from a computer with broadband connection, the sound quality is better than normal telephone service, and calling the U.S. from Brazil is 2.3 cents per minute, with no tricks.
Boss phone cards are apparently for use only around Massachusetts.
Phonecards-Prepaid says 1.67 cents per minute from the U.S. to Brazil, for land lines, and 6.67 cents per minute to cell phones, far cheaper than other ways I've found for calling to cell phones in Brazil, where the caller pays the cell phone minutes. There is a 69 cents per week charge, and judging from all the verbiage on the rates page, there must be other charges not openly listed.
I'm skeptical. I've found that when there are a lot of plans, and a lot of conditions on each plan, usually the cost is much higher than the web page would make you believe.
Any magnitude 9 earthquake 10 KM under the sea, as was the one that did the damage, must be presumed to cause a tsunami. Remember that a magnitude 9 earthquake is 10 times more powerful than a magnitude 8 earthquake.
Your point number 2 was already answered. Have a manager look at the USGS web site to verify that there was a huge earthquake.
If you are one of the people on the tsunami warning team, you would probably select your hotels in advance, and get to know the managers. You would teach them how to verify the size of an earthquake, and its location. Even my own friends are impressed when I call them from another country. It might go like this:
"Hi, Sandeep, remember me, it's Michael from the United States. Remember last year we talked about earthquakes? Well, there's been another one. If you don't have your notes, the site to check is http://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Remember we discussed the fact that all.GOV sites are official U.S. government web sites."
After more than 100,000 people have been killed, I think the people still alive would take a tsunami warning seriously. It should not be imagined that people outside your own country are irresponsible and have no education.
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:04:31 -0200
From: Futurepower [futurepower_usa (-AT-) yahoo.com.br]
To: "U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center" [sedas (-AT-) neis.cr.usgs.gov]
Subject: NEIC: Why didn't you warn about the Tsunamis?
Question:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could
warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves
arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life
have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
Michael
_____________
Reply:
Michael,
Phone calls were placed to the State Department operations center, the White House situation room, the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, as well as several other organizations within 90 minutes of the occurrance of this earthquake.
The problem is the absence of local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local populace.
Stuart Sipkin
USGS/NEIC
_____________
Stuart,
I have a suggestion for a local tsunami warning system. There continues to be an enormous amount
of earthquake activity in the area around Indonesia. It seems likely that there will be
another big earthquake. Next time there is an earthquake that is likely to
cause a tsunami, call me, any time of night or day. I will promise to
call at least 30 hotels within 2 hours. I will promise to get 10
friends involved. They will promise to call 30 hotels each,
also. We would each take a different country.
My suggestion is that we would use Google to find hotels, for example in Sri Lanka. This is one of the hotels I found there, a 5-star hotel with more than 400 rooms:
Galadari Hotel
The Businessman's Home in Sri Lanka
64, Lotus Road,
Colombo 1.
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 94-1-544544
Fax: 94-1-449875
E-Mail: galadari (-AT-) sri.lanka.net
"The Galadari Hotel is in the heart of the city in Colombo, over looking the
beautiful Indian ocean."
Big hotels answer their phones 24 hours a day. Presumably there
is a staff of at least 200 at that hotel, for three shifts. I think if one person were
told, everyone else would know soon. They don't want their family and
friends and neighbors near the water to die, and they know how to reach
them, even if they have to ride a motorbike to those who don't have
phones.
There are two easy ways to prove that a call about an
earthquake is not a hoax. I would tell the person who answered the
phone that it is an emergency and I need to talk to a manager. I would
tell the manager to check the USGS web site at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/.
Any 5-Star hotel, and most others of any size, have internet access. I
would also tell the manager that, if the water at the beach receded,
people had only a few minutes to get to safety. I would ask the manager
to get staff members to call radio and TV stations in their area.
You said in your message, "The problem is the absence of
local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.
There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local
populace."
It seems to me that this is a workable plan for a local tsunami warning system. It wouldn't cost much. Using Skype, a two minute call to any land line phone in Sri Lanka is about 40 U.S. cents, for example. Using iConnectHere's most expensive service, a two minute call is 80 cents.
Great research, finding out that there are millions of phones in Sri Lanka. Just use Google to find a hundred or so.
WELCOME TO THE GALADARI HOTEL
The Businessman's Home in Sri Lanka
64, Lotus Road,
Colombo 1.
Sri Lanka.
Tel : 94-1-544544
Fax : 94-1-449875
E-Mail : galadari@sri.lanka.net
"The Galadari Hotel is in the heart of the city in Colombo, over looking the beautiful Indian ocean."
Presumably there is a staff of at least 200. Tell one, everyone else will know soon. They don't want their friends and neighbors to die, and they know how to reach them.
Any magnitude 9 earthquake at sea, 10 KM down, can be presumed to cause Tsunamis. If I had known about it in time, 10 of my friends could have called 10 of their friends, and we would have had 100 person-hours of calling. We could have notified hundreds of thousands of people, assuming a little cooperation from the people in the nations we were calling.
It is easy to show that such a call is not a hoax. Tell anyone who will listen that, when the water recedes an unusual amount, there is only a very short time to get to safety. It doesn't take much to get to safety from a 20-foot wave, assuming there is higher land nearby, or a strong building behind other strong buildings.
Using Skype.com software, and a broadband connection, it would have been possible for a single person in the U.S., using SkypeOut, to call telephones in Thailand for an hour for just a few U.S. dollars. Would you save the lives of 5,000 people if it cost only $20 and an hour of your time? Of course!!!!
It is VERY easy to find the phone numbers of hotels and newspapers in Thailand, for example, using Google. Just tell everyone that, if they see the water receding, they have just a few minutes to get to safety.
Question to U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center,
sedas [-AT-] neis.cr.usgs.gov:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
It is easy to find the telephone numbers of newspapers in beach cities in Thailand, for example, by searching with Google.
Question to U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center,
sedas [-AT-] neis.cr.usgs.gov:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
It is easy to find the telephone numbers of newspapers in beach cities in Thailand, for example, by searching with Google.
To understand Microsoft's abusiveness, compare the Mozilla browser and any Microsoft product, such as Windows XP.
Mozilla is not perfect. Under some conditions it has huge memory leaks. (Yes, I have reported this to Bugzilla.) Under other conditions it will use 70% of CPU power when no new pages are loaded. It doesn't handle big bookmark files well. But a study of Mozilla shows that in many areas it is excellent. Overall, Mozilla is an honest attempt to build the best browser possible. The shortcomings are easily understood as areas that have not yet received sufficient attention.
Microsoft products are different. Windows 2000 was released while Microsoft's own database showed more than 63,000 areas that Microsoft employees said needed attention. When it was released, Windows XP reportedly had more than 100,000 areas that Microsoft employees said needed attention. There seems to be little idealism in the way Microsoft managers lead the development of products. Microsoft programmers are apparently not allowed to finish their work. Much, much more could be said about this, but, basically, I find stupid unnecessary shortcomings everywhere I look in Microsoft products. In Mozilla, there are large areas of continued excellence.
"And for the record, I think a new rocket motor qualifies as sexy . .."
I know you mean "sexy" as in "technically impressive". For the record, only sex qualifies as sexy.
Also, think of this: It is your tax dollars at work doing something you will not be told. It should scare you that you can't know what your government is doing.
Quoting your last paragraph: "That's a real shame. Have you thought about teaming up and taking a stand? Nothing will change if people aren't made aware of the problem.. If there are comments / flames that were posted to a public forum, bring them to light. "opengamegraphics.org" anyone?"
I agree with what you said in general. However, in my opinion, it does not take into account the effects of anger.
Many people involved with producing Open Source software are also using their involvement as a way of acting out their anger. Anger is a very serious mental disturbance, and even people with a sophisticated understanding of it might find that they could not interact positively with someone who is building such a barrier.
The United States is undergoing a social breakdown. For example, 67% of Americans are obese. That means they are eating when they aren't hungry. That means they are unhappy.
Somebody ought to start paying attention to the realities, before things get much worse, don't you think?
Slashdot Mirror
You're right, UDP. But port 80 is always open.
I checked http://www.phonecardsonsale.com. This bothered me: "Call time is deducted in three minute increments."
Phone companies typically give themselves many ways to take your money without giving anything in return.
I've found that many companies just cheat. They charge more than they say.
BroadVoice looks interesting. Unlimited calling to 35 countries for $25/Month, it says. I just discovered it.
I've had perfect experience with Skype over NAT. We are heavily firewalled. Skype has an option to communicate over port 80 (which is always open, because it is used by browswers). Check that option, and you are good to go.
Echo problems are caused by feedback from the earphones or speaker to the microphone. Use a headset to prevent feedback.
For perfect sound quality, in Windows, do Control-Alt-Delete and select "Task Manager". Click twice on the CPU table heading to see what programs are using CPU time. Skype should be the only program using significant CPU percentage.
I make calls from Brazil to France, U.S., and Australia, with perfect sound quality. I'm using a Telex headset, the one approved by Dragon Naturally Speaking.
I checked Lingo to Brazil. It is more expensive than Skype or OneSuite. With Skype, calling from a computer with broadband connection, the sound quality is better than normal telephone service, and calling the U.S. from Brazil is 2.3 cents per minute, with no tricks.
Calling through port 80, which Skype does, is a way of calling without hassling with opening ports in your software and hardware firewalls.
Boss phone cards are apparently for use only around Massachusetts.
Phonecards-Prepaid says 1.67 cents per minute from the U.S. to Brazil, for land lines, and 6.67 cents per minute to cell phones, far cheaper than other ways I've found for calling to cell phones in Brazil, where the caller pays the cell phone minutes. There is a 69 cents per week charge, and judging from all the verbiage on the rates page, there must be other charges not openly listed.
I'm skeptical. I've found that when there are a lot of plans, and a lot of conditions on each plan, usually the cost is much higher than the web page would make you believe.
Any magnitude 9 earthquake 10 KM under the sea, as was the one that did the damage, must be presumed to cause a tsunami. Remember that a magnitude 9 earthquake is 10 times more powerful than a magnitude 8 earthquake.
Your point number 2 was already answered. Have a manager look at the USGS web site to verify that there was a huge earthquake.
If you are one of the people on the tsunami warning team, you would probably select your hotels in advance, and get to know the managers. You would teach them how to verify the size of an earthquake, and its location. Even my own friends are impressed when I call them from another country. It might go like this:
"Hi, Sandeep, remember me, it's Michael from the United States. Remember last year we talked about earthquakes? Well, there's been another one. If you don't have your notes, the site to check is http://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Remember we discussed the fact that all
After more than 100,000 people have been killed, I think the people still alive would take a tsunami warning seriously. It should not be imagined that people outside your own country are irresponsible and have no education.
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:04:31 -0200
From: Futurepower [futurepower_usa (-AT-) yahoo.com.br]
To: "U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center" [sedas (-AT-) neis.cr.usgs.gov]
Subject: NEIC: Why didn't you warn about the Tsunamis?
Question:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
Michael
_____________
Reply:
Michael,
Phone calls were placed to the State Department operations center, the White House situation room, the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, as well as several other organizations within 90 minutes of the occurrance of this earthquake.
The problem is the absence of local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local populace.
Stuart Sipkin
USGS/NEIC
_____________
Stuart,
I have a suggestion for a local tsunami warning system. There continues to be an enormous amount of earthquake activity in the area around Indonesia. It seems likely that there will be another big earthquake. Next time there is an earthquake that is likely to cause a tsunami, call me, any time of night or day. I will promise to call at least 30 hotels within 2 hours. I will promise to get 10 friends involved. They will promise to call 30 hotels each, also. We would each take a different country.
My suggestion is that we would use Google to find hotels, for example in Sri Lanka. This is one of the hotels I found there, a 5-star hotel with more than 400 rooms:
Galadari Hotel
The Businessman's Home in Sri Lanka
64, Lotus Road,
Colombo 1.
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 94-1-544544
Fax: 94-1-449875
E-Mail: galadari (-AT-) sri.lanka.net
"The Galadari Hotel is in the heart of the city in Colombo, over looking the beautiful Indian ocean."
Big hotels answer their phones 24 hours a day. Presumably there is a staff of at least 200 at that hotel, for three shifts. I think if one person were told, everyone else would know soon. They don't want their family and friends and neighbors near the water to die, and they know how to reach them, even if they have to ride a motorbike to those who don't have phones.
There are two easy ways to prove that a call about an earthquake is not a hoax. I would tell the person who answered the phone that it is an emergency and I need to talk to a manager. I would tell the manager to check the USGS web site at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Any 5-Star hotel, and most others of any size, have internet access. I would also tell the manager that, if the water at the beach receded, people had only a few minutes to get to safety. I would ask the manager to get staff members to call radio and TV stations in their area.
You said in your message, "The problem is the absence of local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local populace."
It seems to me that this is a workable plan for a local tsunami warning system. It wouldn't cost much. Using Skype, a two minute call to any land line phone in Sri Lanka is about 40 U.S. cents, for example. Using iConnectHere's most expensive service, a two minute call is 80 cents.
Great research, finding out that there are millions of phones in Sri Lanka. Just use Google to find a hundred or so.
WELCOME TO THE GALADARI HOTEL
The Businessman's Home in Sri Lanka
64, Lotus Road,
Colombo 1.
Sri Lanka.
Tel : 94-1-544544
Fax : 94-1-449875
E-Mail : galadari@sri.lanka.net
"The Galadari Hotel is in the heart of the city in Colombo, over looking the beautiful Indian ocean."
Presumably there is a staff of at least 200. Tell one, everyone else will know soon. They don't want their friends and neighbors to die, and they know how to reach them.
You didn't read my post, or try to get phone numbers, using Google. It's very easy. Every hotel has a phone number. Put Phuket into Google.
It's shocking how easily the people who have replied in this thread accept the death of tens of thousands of other people.
What you said does not seem right to me.
Any magnitude 9 earthquake at sea, 10 KM down, can be presumed to cause Tsunamis. If I had known about it in time, 10 of my friends could have called 10 of their friends, and we would have had 100 person-hours of calling. We could have notified hundreds of thousands of people, assuming a little cooperation from the people in the nations we were calling.
It is easy to show that such a call is not a hoax. Tell anyone who will listen that, when the water recedes an unusual amount, there is only a very short time to get to safety. It doesn't take much to get to safety from a 20-foot wave, assuming there is higher land nearby, or a strong building behind other strong buildings.
Using Skype.com software, and a broadband connection, it would have been possible for a single person in the U.S., using SkypeOut, to call telephones in Thailand for an hour for just a few U.S. dollars. Would you save the lives of 5,000 people if it cost only $20 and an hour of your time? Of course!!!!
It is VERY easy to find the phone numbers of hotels and newspapers in Thailand, for example, using Google. Just tell everyone that, if they see the water receding, they have just a few minutes to get to safety.
Question to U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, sedas [-AT-] neis.cr.usgs.gov:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
It is easy to find the telephone numbers of newspapers in beach cities in Thailand, for example, by searching with Google.
Question to U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, sedas [-AT-] neis.cr.usgs.gov: I haven't seen this discussed anywhere. Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis? The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning? It is easy to find the telephone numbers of newspapers in beach cities in Thailand, for example, by searching with Google.
Which CD Burner would you recommend?
Category CD/DVD Burning:
Burn4Free - http://www.burn4free.com/ [burn4free.com]
Burnatonce - http://www.burnatonce.com/ [burnatonce.com]
CDBurnerXP - http://hem.bredband.net/cdburnerxp/ [bredband.net]
CDRDAO - http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
CDR Tools Frontend - http://demosten.com/cdrfe/ [demosten.com]
Deepburner - http://www.deepburner.com/ [deepburner.com]
DVD Decrypter: http://www.dvddecrypter.com/ [dvddecrypter.com]
Easy Burning, DropCD & Audio CD - http://www.paehl.de/cdr [paehl.de]
To understand Microsoft's abusiveness, compare the Mozilla browser and any Microsoft product, such as Windows XP.
Mozilla is not perfect. Under some conditions it has huge memory leaks. (Yes, I have reported this to Bugzilla.) Under other conditions it will use 70% of CPU power when no new pages are loaded. It doesn't handle big bookmark files well. But a study of Mozilla shows that in many areas it is excellent. Overall, Mozilla is an honest attempt to build the best browser possible. The shortcomings are easily understood as areas that have not yet received sufficient attention.
Microsoft products are different. Windows 2000 was released while Microsoft's own database showed more than 63,000 areas that Microsoft employees said needed attention. When it was released, Windows XP reportedly had more than 100,000 areas that Microsoft employees said needed attention. There seems to be little idealism in the way Microsoft managers lead the development of products. Microsoft programmers are apparently not allowed to finish their work. Much, much more could be said about this, but, basically, I find stupid unnecessary shortcomings everywhere I look in Microsoft products. In Mozilla, there are large areas of continued excellence.
"And for the record, I think a new rocket motor qualifies as sexy . .
I know you mean "sexy" as in "technically impressive". For the record, only sex qualifies as sexy.
Also, think of this: It is your tax dollars at work doing something you will not be told. It should scare you that you can't know what your government is doing.
Quoting your last paragraph: "That's a real shame. Have you thought about teaming up and taking a stand? Nothing will change if people aren't made aware of the problem.. If there are comments / flames that were posted to a public forum, bring them to light. "opengamegraphics.org" anyone?"
I agree with what you said in general. However, in my opinion, it does not take into account the effects of anger.
Many people involved with producing Open Source software are also using their involvement as a way of acting out their anger. Anger is a very serious mental disturbance, and even people with a sophisticated understanding of it might find that they could not interact positively with someone who is building such a barrier.
Portland already has liquid sunshine. Now you are suggesting liquid dirt?
MOD PARENT UP!!!!
4. In some cases, an Acrobat file will cause FireFox/Mozilla to crash.
I reported the crashing more than a year ago in Firefox, and more than 2 years ago in Mozilla. Recent builds of Firefox have been worse.
In Firefox:
bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222660
(Cut and paste the URL. Bugzilla doesn't like visits from Slashdot readers.)
MOD PARENT UP!!! Very interesting post.
Anyone have a link to research which shows elevated levels of heavy metals?
It is their problem, because he won't shop there again. And 200 people who read what he said will think twice, too.
What is your estimate of how much money this one Slashdot story lost Best Buy? Mine is $2,000,000.
No, I don't think that.
The United States is undergoing a social breakdown. For example, 67% of Americans are obese. That means they are eating when they aren't hungry. That means they are unhappy.
Somebody ought to start paying attention to the realities, before things get much worse, don't you think?
Acting out anger does not help.