Re:A reason to really like Google Voice
on
Goodbye, Google Voice
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The Obihai boxes (I have one which I use for Google Voice) use XMPP for Google Voice.
Google is killing XMPP support and the Obi boxes will no longer directly support Google Voice at that point.
Fortunately, the Obi boxes also do standard SIP. You can get a SIP account from a VOIP provider and a DID. Point your Google Voice number at the DID and you'll get incoming calls.
For outgoing calls, most decent VOIP providers will allow you to set your outgoing caller ID after verifying that the number is valid.
It's not free, but it works and it's relatively inexpensive.
I have a good number of 5.25" Apple DOS 3.3 & ProDOS disks (143K) from 1982 - 1988 that still work. There are some with errors, but the majority of them work fine. My Apple 3.5" disks (800K) haven't survived nearly as well.
I gave up on my collection of DOS (as in FAT) floppy disks of any variety years ago. They never seemed all that reliable even when newish.
I enjoy having a smartphone. I also enjoy my collection of big old phones with big old speakers in the handsets at my house.
In fact, I do prefer talking with a big old phone rather than my smartphone. That's why I have an OBi110 device that allows me to use my Google Voice number on my 1941 Western Electric 302 rotary phone. It sounds great and I can even dial out with a DialGizmo between the phone and the OBi.
The Obi110 is an incredible device. I got it for $49.99 from Amazon about a month ago during a brief window when they had them in stock.
If you follow Obihai on Twitter or keep an eye on their forums, you'll see announcements of when Amazon will have them for $49.99 again, but you've got to be quick.
The call quality with GV on the Obi is much better than my POTS line.
Or better yet, get a Google Voice account and number, tell everyone that you have a new number and use GV's call routing system to control how people contact you.
Have you ever used a HP LaserJet P2015 or P3005? Great printers until just after the warranty expires and you start getting solder joint problems with the formatter board. A quick bake for 8 minutes at 350F in an oven may give you a few more months of use until the problem reappears.
Older HP printers are fantastic. I've got a LaserJet 4 and a couple of 4000's still running fine.
Hmmm.... All the different versions of Microsoft Office out there, law firms still using some version of Word Perfect, Open Office, iWork, Google Docs, etc.
Anyone who's taught concepts rather than the specifics of one particular version of Microsoft various products should have no problems using any GUI based software written in the last 25 years.
I am the IT director of a school in the US. I can see first hand that the only thing the "educators" are interested in is training students to use application software. Not only that, it must be the absolute latest version of a certain company's office package. It's so the students will get "real world" training. WTF?
While it indeed is important for students to learn to use these tools, by the time some of these students make it into the workforce, the software that students are trained on (and cost so much money to 'license') is 'obsolete.'
What happened to the concept of teaching concepts? How to produce a document using a word processor and not Microsoft Word 2007? I learned word processing with AppleWorks on an Apple//e. I can churn out a basic document in minutes with any word processor I use. How many kids 'trained' in the exclusive world of Microsoft software will ever be able to do this?
I'm very lucky. The administration in the school I work at is not like this. The administration mostly use Windows machines, but the students and teachers all use a mix of Linux thin clients (LTSP!) and Macs. The office package we use is Open Office.
I have lots of old Apple II floppies (both 143K 5.25" and 800K 3.5") from the early - mid 80s. The vast majority of them still work even though I've done nothing to properly store them.
I think the reason older floppies like mine still work while nearly new ones have tons of defects is due to both the media being better manufactured and the much lower storage density.
I just installed it on my rooted, custom ROMmed and overclocked Motorola Droid.... and it worked! I played with it for about 10 minutes. It didn't crash my phone, reboot my phone or damage my phone in any way.
It's absolutely alpha quality software at this point, so don't expect much from it. But it has lots of potential and I'm absolutely confident this will turn into a great browser on Android.
I have a small garage in my house that I converted to a man/tech/beer/doctor who cave. No, I don't live with my parents.
It contains (mostly on wire rack shelving):
My Linux machine and iBook.
And old iMac I just picked up. Works.
5 Apple//e computers, an Apple II+, two Apple IIgs machines, three monitors for the machines, an assortment of floppy drives, craploads of floppies, and boxes of parts including cables, various cards, manuals, etc. Most of the hardware is from eBay, some is mine from the 80s. It mostly all works.
A working Commodore 64.
An Atari 2600.
A collection of computer magazines I had in the 80s & 90s.
A collection of my 80s & 90s computer books & manuals. Some I picked up off eBay as well.
A Vector Graphic Vector-1 computer system with manuals a friend's dad built in the late 70s. Doesn't work, but I can't part with it.
Two Magnavox Odyssey2 game systems. One is mine from 1978 and the second from eBay. Both work.
10 old rotary and touch tone phones. 8 work, four are hooked up and working. There's a few more scattered about the house which my wife tolerates.
Plastic crates full of old IBM Model M and other keyboards, assorted cables.
A real IBM AT system board that works.
Beer related stuff.
Doctor Who related stuff. And Star Trek & Star Wars...
What's left of my LP collection and a bunch of CDs.
Over the couple of years few years, I have given away or tossed the following due to needing room because of kids:
2 Mac SE machines. Regret this.
A Lisa 2 that I tossed. Still have the keyboard and a few parts. The electronics were extremely corroded.
Some old desktop 486 boxes.
Two SGI machines. I got rid of a bunch of Sun machines before I moved to this house.
A few hundred LPs that I gave to a collector friend who has about 10,000 LPs.
Slashdot Mirror
The Obihai boxes (I have one which I use for Google Voice) use XMPP for Google Voice.
Google is killing XMPP support and the Obi boxes will no longer directly support Google Voice at that point.
Fortunately, the Obi boxes also do standard SIP. You can get a SIP account from a VOIP provider and a DID. Point your Google Voice number at the DID and you'll get incoming calls.
For outgoing calls, most decent VOIP providers will allow you to set your outgoing caller ID after verifying that the number is valid.
It's not free, but it works and it's relatively inexpensive.
Why *do* I need to worry about GV becoming part of Hangouts? I'm looking forward to it.
If your drive cost $88 for 88 megabytes in the late 80's, you got an insane deal. I think your math may be off a bit.
My 16 November 1987 IBM Model M keyboard does not have a "start" key, you insensitive clod!
You could get into the Mini Assembler the same way on an Apple //e.
Here's a screenshot I just made of a DOS based Apple II emulator running in DOSBox.
http://i.imgur.com/6Y5c1.png
I have a good number of 5.25" Apple DOS 3.3 & ProDOS disks (143K) from 1982 - 1988 that still work. There are some with errors, but the majority of them work fine. My Apple 3.5" disks (800K) haven't survived nearly as well.
I gave up on my collection of DOS (as in FAT) floppy disks of any variety years ago. They never seemed all that reliable even when newish.
Um, that article is from 2009:
"By Phil Villarreal on September 28, 2009 2:10 PM"
I'm sure Best Buy is still doing this, but why are you digging up things that are nearly two years old?
Why does it have to be either / or?
I enjoy having a smartphone. I also enjoy my collection of big old phones with big old speakers in the handsets at my house.
In fact, I do prefer talking with a big old phone rather than my smartphone. That's why I have an OBi110 device that allows me to use my Google Voice number on my 1941 Western Electric 302 rotary phone. It sounds great and I can even dial out with a DialGizmo between the phone and the OBi.
This isn't really that difficult.
Here's a screenshot I just made of DOS 3.3 / Windows 1.01 running under QEMU under Ubuntu 11.04.
http://i.imgur.com/lrEf3.png
It may even run under DOSBox, but I've not tried anything earlier than WFW 3.11 in that environment.
I was rather impressed with myself recently getting this running:
Ubuntu 11.04 > VirtualBox 4.0.something > OS/2 Warp4 FP15 > WinOS/2.
That was a challenge!
The Obi110 is an incredible device. I got it for $49.99 from Amazon about a month ago during a brief window when they had them in stock.
If you follow Obihai on Twitter or keep an eye on their forums, you'll see announcements of when Amazon will have them for $49.99 again, but you've got to be quick.
The call quality with GV on the Obi is much better than my POTS line.
Or better yet, get a Google Voice account and number, tell everyone that you have a new number and use GV's call routing system to control how people contact you.
Works.
It's a typical crap Flash design (why use Flash for menus???), but it works fine on my Moto Droid w/ Flash.
At least Android users have the choice to install and view Flash content if they choose. iPhone users aren't allowed that choice.
I have Flash installed on my Moto Droid and have found performance quite lacking as well.
Have you ever used a HP LaserJet P2015 or P3005? Great printers until just after the warranty expires and you start getting solder joint problems with the formatter board. A quick bake for 8 minutes at 350F in an oven may give you a few more months of use until the problem reappears.
Older HP printers are fantastic. I've got a LaserJet 4 and a couple of 4000's still running fine.
You wouldn't be wrong. I am the IT dictator. I get my way about 99% of the time.
Hmmm.... All the different versions of Microsoft Office out there, law firms still using some version of Word Perfect, Open Office, iWork, Google Docs, etc.
Anyone who's taught concepts rather than the specifics of one particular version of Microsoft various products should have no problems using any GUI based software written in the last 25 years.
I am the IT director of a school in the US. I can see first hand that the only thing the "educators" are interested in is training students to use application software. Not only that, it must be the absolute latest version of a certain company's office package. It's so the students will get "real world" training. WTF?
While it indeed is important for students to learn to use these tools, by the time some of these students make it into the workforce, the software that students are trained on (and cost so much money to 'license') is 'obsolete.'
What happened to the concept of teaching concepts? How to produce a document using a word processor and not Microsoft Word 2007? I learned word processing with AppleWorks on an Apple //e. I can churn out a basic document in minutes with any word processor I use. How many kids 'trained' in the exclusive world of Microsoft software will ever be able to do this?
I'm very lucky. The administration in the school I work at is not like this. The administration mostly use Windows machines, but the students and teachers all use a mix of Linux thin clients (LTSP!) and Macs. The office package we use is Open Office.
Root & overclock. Problem solved.
I have lots of old Apple II floppies (both 143K 5.25" and 800K 3.5") from the early - mid 80s. The vast majority of them still work even though I've done nothing to properly store them.
I think the reason older floppies like mine still work while nearly new ones have tons of defects is due to both the media being better manufactured and the much lower storage density.
I just installed it on my rooted, custom ROMmed and overclocked Motorola Droid.... and it worked! I played with it for about 10 minutes. It didn't crash my phone, reboot my phone or damage my phone in any way.
It's absolutely alpha quality software at this point, so don't expect much from it. But it has lots of potential and I'm absolutely confident this will turn into a great browser on Android.
I have a small garage in my house that I converted to a man/tech/beer/doctor who cave. No, I don't live with my parents.
It contains (mostly on wire rack shelving):
My Linux machine and iBook.
And old iMac I just picked up. Works.
5 Apple //e computers, an Apple II+, two Apple IIgs machines, three monitors for the machines, an assortment of floppy drives, craploads of floppies, and boxes of parts including cables, various cards, manuals, etc. Most of the hardware is from eBay, some is mine from the 80s. It mostly all works.
A working Commodore 64.
An Atari 2600.
A collection of computer magazines I had in the 80s & 90s.
A collection of my 80s & 90s computer books & manuals. Some I picked up off eBay as well.
A Vector Graphic Vector-1 computer system with manuals a friend's dad built in the late 70s. Doesn't work, but I can't part with it.
Two Magnavox Odyssey2 game systems. One is mine from 1978 and the second from eBay. Both work.
10 old rotary and touch tone phones. 8 work, four are hooked up and working. There's a few more scattered about the house which my wife tolerates.
Plastic crates full of old IBM Model M and other keyboards, assorted cables.
A real IBM AT system board that works.
Beer related stuff.
Doctor Who related stuff. And Star Trek & Star Wars...
What's left of my LP collection and a bunch of CDs.
Over the couple of years few years, I have given away or tossed the following due to needing room because of kids:
2 Mac SE machines. Regret this.
A Lisa 2 that I tossed. Still have the keyboard and a few parts. The electronics were extremely corroded.
Some old desktop 486 boxes.
Two SGI machines. I got rid of a bunch of Sun machines before I moved to this house.
A few hundred LPs that I gave to a collector friend who has about 10,000 LPs.
I think I need help...
This is great news to hear. I've been using LTSP at a school for all teachers and students since 2003 with excellent results.
Nobody thought to wait until the end to state it wouldn't support 3G??? The thing does indeed support 3G on AT&T.
Would it really be that hard to know what you're talking about before posting? Search on the Droid is by Google. It's a Google phone, FFS!