These neoliberal politicians seem to live in an entirely different country, and Frenk is no exception; no wonder he's now run as far away from Mexico as possible and is now teaching elsewhere, standing, no doubt, on his alleged achievements while being the secretary of public health in Mexico.
As any mexican will tell you, his boasting is far from the truth; while he may have instituted a program that supposedly provides coverage for people not otherwise under any sort of health care plan (i.e. those who are not, as workers, covered by the mexican institute of social security (IMSS), or as government workers, covered by ISSSTE), he did so without increasing health spending significantly (from 2003 to 2005 it only increased 0.2 percent and it has remained constant ever since: http://corta.me/7mz). So how can you cover 50 million more people without increasing spending? very poorly, that's how. Understaffed and underequipped hospitals, lack of medication, soul-sucking bureaucracy and hoops to jump through, I don't think that's anything to boast about; as befits his neoliberal lineage, Frenk instituted these policies for the macroeconomic "bottom line".
IMSS is supposed to provide coverage for workers and their families. However this entails people working on a stable, formally constituted company which has the obligation to cover fees for employee coverage. It's not a privilege, it's a right that companies must provide to their employees. However, since Mexico has had near zero growth in the past two decades or so (and more so since 2000, when the disastrous, conservative PAN party arrived in power), job creation has stagnated, and even receded in some cases. Millions of people have to resort to the "informal economy", since there's no company through which they can have access to IMSS, this popular insurance thing was created to give some semblance of health care coverage to the 50 million poor and underemployed in Mexico. But make no mistake; this is not the glowing achievement that Frenk would have the world believe. It's really the government hastily trying to fulfill, in a half-assed way, their constitutionally mandated obligation for health care (Mexican Constitution, 4th Article). This has been there since 1983, so actually Frenk's implementation means a 20-year lag for the government to fulfill its obligations.
Bottom line is, they *have* to want to change. If, as you say, they will latch onto any differences to decry the fact that Linux is not *exactly* like Windows, then, well, you're screwed and may as well not waste your time, because the fact is, Linux *is* different from Windows (the very reason why e.g. I use it).
One thing I've always found funny is that these same people have possibly gone through many changes in Windows and MS Office, always without complaint, because it was fed to them by Microsoft as "the next step". It will probably be the same once they get Windows 8 on a computer; they may think "this is hard to learn" but they will learn it without complaint. But put them in front of Linux and they'll cry foul and refuse to use it because "it's different". This mentality is very hard to beat; I stopped trying a few years ago and just let them writhe in their malware-infected sewers while I continue being able to work on Linux.
When I need to set up a self-hosted project and bug tracker, I normally use Redmine, which is very easy to use. It's written with Ruby on Rails, and so should be relatively easy to get a local SQLite-backed copy running on Mac OS using Rails' built-in mini web server.
This post is overly complicated but some of its information may be useful:
I was actually a KDE 3.x user under Debian. I then tried updating to KDE 4.something and the system became unbearably slow and unusable. At that point it was easier for me to just install Ubuntu with GNOME (which I hadn't used in years), and it was good enough so I stayed there.
Recently I had a chance to use a more-recent KDE desktop and I found it cluttered and confusing. I'm sure that given a couple of days I'd get used to it and not have any problems. But I won't migrate just for the sake of migrating, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with my current (Ubuntu 12.04) desktop, Unity and all (yes, I actually like Unity!).
I dislike video. I can read articles at my speed/leisure, skim over them while I'm doing other stuff. Video has a fixed duration, and sucks up my attention for the whole duration.
Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I dislike this tendency of the Internet turning into... TV.
Most people in my organization telecommute, and we mostly use Google+ hangouts (with extras) whenever we need some face time with people elsewhere. It's worked well for us, but it has some limitations and it *is* controlled by a third party. We also use Google's Docs and Calendar tools heavily, so Google hangouts were a natural evolution. This works well in Linux and in both Firefox and Chrome.
That is on a technical level; in reality you are the one who needs to adapt. If you can dictate a solution, the one I propose is not bad. But you may have little choice because it's easier to change *you* than the rest of the organization if need be.
I'm not so sure about this. I enabled the fix as proposed by Phoronix and saw a 15% battery life improvement; I'm now getting almost 5 hours, which is pretty good for this system.But 15% was not "significant" really. So "to regain much of their battery life" seems like an exaggeration in par with the alarmist tone of the articles in Phoronix. Sure, there's a problem, and I certainly appreciate Phoronix's efforts to pinpoint the cause and offer a workaround, but it's certainly not as bad as they've been making it look.
In my experience, the easiest way to get a consistent and stable printing experience is by generating PDF. I have yet to have stability problems if this is done properly. As you're working with Ruby on Rails, using Prawn and Prawnto might be useful. However, if you absolutely positively must NOT use PDF for printing, then this probably won't help you.
" the simplest tools for producing drop-dead gorgeous Websites".
This here is the dangerous part; thinking that the tool makes the designer. Anyone can produce crap with Flash tools, and all it takes is a stroll through the Web to witness first-hand how much damage Flash can do in the wrong hands.
However I agree that the "designer" will have the last word. And, for as long as Flash allows a graphic designer with no knowledge whatsoever of web practices, standards, and a minimum background in actual computing, to build and "just upload" a website, instead of collaborating with someone who knows what he's doing, we'll be doomed to suffer crap like this.
You can whip up a quick GUI with Ruby and WxRuby, and when you're happy with it, create a single executable file with rubyscript2exe. I see two problems: files tend to be large (~10MB) and thus a bit slow to run, but once running they're quite snappy. Ruby is a very easy language and WxRuby is also quite easy to use (not to mention cross-platform but I guess that's not high on your wish list).
From the point of view of a serious organization, I don't think it was such a good choice - a large part of Google's audience are people who just use the computer to work, can barely use it, and any deviation from standard behavior prompts panic and a call to help desk (us!) to ask why the hell did the computer start making noises and playing games by itself, and how we should run there to run an antivirus check and preferably take the computer outside and burn it with a flame thrower lest the nasty virus spread through the network and wreak havoc in the organization.
From the point of view of a geeky videogame addict, I'd say it kicks ass. And people who get too concerned with it should get a life. Or maybe play a game or two:)
Work properly? from Microsoft? the company that made "Microsoft Works" an oxymoron? I don't think so.
On the Desktop OS arena, one always has to have SOME degree of MSFT compatibility. On smartphones there's plenty of choice and Microsoft is but a small player. So why even bother? let's keep them relegated to a corner.
Actually it misses the point, since "significanty more dead space between keys" is only a feasible solution if you have a physically larger screen. He's effectively making the keys smaller, thus harder to hit, and the "dead space" is just space where nothing happens = confused users.
Next thing we know, someone will be inventing a "capacitive stylus" touting "higher precision" while using your iPhone. Well yes, but that's SO not the point of a capacitive, finger-friendly touchscreen.
Unfortunately, we rely on a web-based system that doesn't play well with IE7/8 or Firefox. So until the vendor upgrades their browser support, we're stuck.
This is enormously amusing. Many posts say that "hey, as a development firm, I can't afford not to support IE6 because I'll lose customers". Then there's those, like your vendor, who play the opposite game and have you on an outdated browser because their app sucks rocks.
Someone needs to stand up to this mess. If we assume that the economy is as sucky as they say it is, then you might give the vendor an ultimatum. Either get your mess working with a decent, modern browser, or we take our business elsewhere. Ask any of those companies who need to hold on to clients even if they run IE6. I bet they'll be happy to replace your current vendor. It's a win-win situation and then your IE6-centric vendor can go work for the IE6-centric customer and they can live the rest of their IE6-centric lives happily together.
Was going to post about how J2ME does exactly what they complain about: "Creating subsets of the core classes in the Java platform was forbidden", well, Sun itself did it and let me tell you, it makes Java's already convoluted API a nightmare to work with, and is ridiculous when programming on a device such as a Blackberry.
RIM had to provide alternatives to some useful Java classes that are just not present in J2ME, turning Blackberry development into an incompatible and horrendous mess, negating all the benefits of using Java in the first place (not that there are many anyway).
over the past 20 years I've been amazed at how the IT world first started scorning command lines (IE the rise of Mac, Windows and GUIs in general) only to come back to them (IE Mac OS X / spotlight / Quicksilver, Windows / launchy, smart address bars, and the increasing amount of people who started using Linux with Ubuntu and are nwo flocking to the command line).
This just proves what i'd known all along: command lines are more efficient, and although the learning curve might be a bit steeper, they just kick ass for things you have to do repeatedly. You of course learn the commands and then whiz by all those people whose motor skills barely allow them to use the mouse, yet they insist in their clickety-clickety ways.
Many operations are easier with a GUI but getting rid of the command line altogether (mac OS 1.x-9.x, I'm looking at you) is/was never a good idea.
I'd like to have a policy of NOT even beginning to watch a show if it's on Fox, due to their history of destroying good shows (I'll never forgive them after what they did to Firefly). So why am I watching Sarah Connor and Fringe? because I get them from P2P (Yeah, I'm also not about to wait for Mexican cable carriers to bring over an already-cancelled series as they always do). So, I like those shows but didn't know they were on Fox (I just download them). Had I known, I probably would have refused to watch them in the first place: what's the point on getting hooked on them and then having the rug pulled from under your feet.
And shame on J.J. Abrams for doing business with Fox.
Nintendo needs to realize that there's no way piracy will stop in Mexico unless they lower their prices. A Wii is almost twice as much in Mexico as it is in the USA, costing the equivalent of over 350 dollars here. Games aren't much cheaper. And Wii Points cards are also twice as expensive here.
It's also pretty hypocritical of Nintendo. Wiis are plentiful in Mexico, even at times when news of shortages elsewhere were common. The reason is that, since the Wii is so heavily marked up, Nintendo does profit more by selling here in Mexico than in the USA (similar to how they diverted shipments to Europe because higher prices there gave them more profits). However, while there are those mexicans (like me, sadly) who would indeed pay twice the price for the console, which is very convenient for Nintendo, the vast majority of the population can't afford those prices. So they resort to piracy in order to get their games; buying stolen for their consoles; and (worst of all) buying an XBox instead, because the XBox is 60% the price of a Wii here in Mexico.
This will continue, however hard Nintendo tries to push mexican authorities, because they don't care; Mexico is a land of impunity, where drug dealers get away with murdering and torturing, often in broad daylight. Obviously the authorities have their hands full and no time for a game company crying wolf because their products are getting pirated. And anyway, it's too easy for the "pirates" to bribe the police officers who come to seize their goods and try to arrest them; they, too, are starving and would welcome a few thousand pesos in bribes (or, why not, a shiny new stolen Wii for their kids).
So if Nintendo wants to reduce pirating of their products in Mexico (they can't stop it altogether), they need to make sure their prices are more in line with what they charge internationally (The USA, specifically). That way more people can afford them legitimately, and there will be less incentive for piracy. However, culturally, legally and politically, the complete erradication of piracy in Mexico is an impossibility. Just ask Microsoft.
Don't let Python's weird indentation turn you off. Try it and you'll either like it or hate it. I know the indentation gives me brain cramps, but I also know that I'd learn it quickly should the need arise; and also, I'd rather learn Python from scratch than become proficient in Java.
Ruby is an awesome language to learn and work with, and is my current favorite; but you'll struggle a bit with the documentation, you'll live under Rails' shadow all the time, and its raw performance is still a bit on the slow side.
Both Ruby and Python cover a wide range of applications, from command-line scripting (where Perl would usually be the tool of choice) to GUI programming to web programming (think Rails or Django, the usual domain of PHP). I'd be wary of tackling a massively parallel programming project in either one of these two, though.
Other than those two, your C# and Java background will come in handy should you wish to learn C++ or C, which are powerful, if unforgiving languages that require more elbow grease to get things done than Ruby or Python.
I second that, i've been a Linode customer for years and their service is great. I haven't used the DNS api but you might want to look into it; as long as it does what you want, I highly recommend the company itself.
Guys, wait... you get charged for INCOMING SMS? what kind of country do you live in?
Anyway, here in Mexico we have some of the highest cell phone rates in the world, at least for voice; my plan for instance gives me a paltry 200 minutes air time. However, you only get charged for SMS you send, and they run 85 mexican cents (about US $0.08) per message. You can buy them in bulk in which case they're even cheaper.
I'm such a heavy texter that it made more sense to pay for blackberry internet service and use blackberry messenger instead. I probably send over 100 messages *DAILY* this way and I only pay a flat rate for BIS. Downside is, it's limited to blackberry users...
Our monopolistic telco (Telmex/Telcel) may suck, but they realize there's more money to be made in volume sales.
Slashdot Mirror
These neoliberal politicians seem to live in an entirely different country, and Frenk is no exception; no wonder he's now run as far away from Mexico as possible and is now teaching elsewhere, standing, no doubt, on his alleged achievements while being the secretary of public health in Mexico.
As any mexican will tell you, his boasting is far from the truth; while he may have instituted a program that supposedly provides coverage for people not otherwise under any sort of health care plan (i.e. those who are not, as workers, covered by the mexican institute of social security (IMSS), or as government workers, covered by ISSSTE), he did so without increasing health spending significantly (from 2003 to 2005 it only increased 0.2 percent and it has remained constant ever since: http://corta.me/7mz). So how can you cover 50 million more people without increasing spending? very poorly, that's how. Understaffed and underequipped hospitals, lack of medication, soul-sucking bureaucracy and hoops to jump through, I don't think that's anything to boast about; as befits his neoliberal lineage, Frenk instituted these policies for the macroeconomic "bottom line".
IMSS is supposed to provide coverage for workers and their families. However this entails people working on a stable, formally constituted company which has the obligation to cover fees for employee coverage. It's not a privilege, it's a right that companies must provide to their employees. However, since Mexico has had near zero growth in the past two decades or so (and more so since 2000, when the disastrous, conservative PAN party arrived in power), job creation has stagnated, and even receded in some cases. Millions of people have to resort to the "informal economy", since there's no company through which they can have access to IMSS, this popular insurance thing was created to give some semblance of health care coverage to the 50 million poor and underemployed in Mexico. But make no mistake; this is not the glowing achievement that Frenk would have the world believe. It's really the government hastily trying to fulfill, in a half-assed way, their constitutionally mandated obligation for health care (Mexican Constitution, 4th Article). This has been there since 1983, so actually Frenk's implementation means a 20-year lag for the government to fulfill its obligations.
I'd start by reading this (and if possible, having them read it as well):
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
Bottom line is, they *have* to want to change. If, as you say, they will latch onto any differences to decry the fact that Linux is not *exactly* like Windows, then, well, you're screwed and may as well not waste your time, because the fact is, Linux *is* different from Windows (the very reason why e.g. I use it).
One thing I've always found funny is that these same people have possibly gone through many changes in Windows and MS Office, always without complaint, because it was fed to them by Microsoft as "the next step". It will probably be the same once they get Windows 8 on a computer; they may think "this is hard to learn" but they will learn it without complaint. But put them in front of Linux and they'll cry foul and refuse to use it because "it's different". This mentality is very hard to beat; I stopped trying a few years ago and just let them writhe in their malware-infected sewers while I continue being able to work on Linux.
When I need to set up a self-hosted project and bug tracker, I normally use Redmine, which is very easy to use. It's written with Ruby on Rails, and so should be relatively easy to get a local SQLite-backed copy running on Mac OS using Rails' built-in mini web server.
This post is overly complicated but some of its information may be useful:
http://www.redmine.org/boards/2/topics/2768
I was actually a KDE 3.x user under Debian. I then tried updating to KDE 4.something and the system became unbearably slow and unusable. At that point it was easier for me to just install Ubuntu with GNOME (which I hadn't used in years), and it was good enough so I stayed there.
Recently I had a chance to use a more-recent KDE desktop and I found it cluttered and confusing. I'm sure that given a couple of days I'd get used to it and not have any problems. But I won't migrate just for the sake of migrating, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with my current (Ubuntu 12.04) desktop, Unity and all (yes, I actually like Unity!).
So that's why I'm not using KDE.
Yes, set LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0.
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-disable-overlay-scrollbars-in.html
Hope it helps!
I dislike video. I can read articles at my speed/leisure, skim over them while I'm doing other stuff. Video has a fixed duration, and sucks up my attention for the whole duration.
Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I dislike this tendency of the Internet turning into... TV.
Most people in my organization telecommute, and we mostly use Google+ hangouts (with extras) whenever we need some face time with people elsewhere. It's worked well for us, but it has some limitations and it *is* controlled by a third party. We also use Google's Docs and Calendar tools heavily, so Google hangouts were a natural evolution. This works well in Linux and in both Firefox and Chrome.
That is on a technical level; in reality you are the one who needs to adapt. If you can dictate a solution, the one I propose is not bad. But you may have little choice because it's easier to change *you* than the rest of the organization if need be.
I'm not so sure about this. I enabled the fix as proposed by Phoronix and saw a 15% battery life improvement; I'm now getting almost 5 hours, which is pretty good for this system.But 15% was not "significant" really. So "to regain much of their battery life" seems like an exaggeration in par with the alarmist tone of the articles in Phoronix. Sure, there's a problem, and I certainly appreciate Phoronix's efforts to pinpoint the cause and offer a workaround, but it's certainly not as bad as they've been making it look.
In my experience, the easiest way to get a consistent and stable printing experience is by generating PDF. I have yet to have stability problems if this is done properly. As you're working with Ruby on Rails, using Prawn and Prawnto might be useful. However, if you absolutely positively must NOT use PDF for printing, then this probably won't help you.
" the simplest tools for producing drop-dead gorgeous Websites".
This here is the dangerous part; thinking that the tool makes the designer. Anyone can produce crap with Flash tools, and all it takes is a stroll through the Web to witness first-hand how much damage Flash can do in the wrong hands.
However I agree that the "designer" will have the last word. And, for as long as Flash allows a graphic designer with no knowledge whatsoever of web practices, standards, and a minimum background in actual computing, to build and "just upload" a website, instead of collaborating with someone who knows what he's doing, we'll be doomed to suffer crap like this.
You can whip up a quick GUI with Ruby and WxRuby, and when you're happy with it, create a single executable file with rubyscript2exe. I see two problems: files tend to be large (~10MB) and thus a bit slow to run, but once running they're quite snappy. Ruby is a very easy language and WxRuby is also quite easy to use (not to mention cross-platform but I guess that's not high on your wish list).
From the point of view of a serious organization, I don't think it was such a good choice - a large part of Google's audience are people who just use the computer to work, can barely use it, and any deviation from standard behavior prompts panic and a call to help desk (us!) to ask why the hell did the computer start making noises and playing games by itself, and how we should run there to run an antivirus check and preferably take the computer outside and burn it with a flame thrower lest the nasty virus spread through the network and wreak havoc in the organization.
From the point of view of a geeky videogame addict, I'd say it kicks ass. And people who get too concerned with it should get a life. Or maybe play a game or two :)
I've been bitching about Flash for years now. And no, I don't care about the lack of Flash on my iPhone; actually I consider it a feature.
Work properly? from Microsoft? the company that made "Microsoft Works" an oxymoron? I don't think so.
On the Desktop OS arena, one always has to have SOME degree of MSFT compatibility. On smartphones there's plenty of choice and Microsoft is but a small player. So why even bother? let's keep them relegated to a corner.
Actually it misses the point, since "significanty more dead space between keys" is only a feasible solution if you have a physically larger screen. He's effectively making the keys smaller, thus harder to hit, and the "dead space" is just space where nothing happens = confused users.
Next thing we know, someone will be inventing a "capacitive stylus" touting "higher precision" while using your iPhone. Well yes, but that's SO not the point of a capacitive, finger-friendly touchscreen.
Unfortunately, we rely on a web-based system that doesn't play well with IE7/8 or Firefox. So until the vendor upgrades their browser support, we're stuck.
This is enormously amusing. Many posts say that "hey, as a development firm, I can't afford not to support IE6 because I'll lose customers". Then there's those, like your vendor, who play the opposite game and have you on an outdated browser because their app sucks rocks.
Someone needs to stand up to this mess. If we assume that the economy is as sucky as they say it is, then you might give the vendor an ultimatum. Either get your mess working with a decent, modern browser, or we take our business elsewhere. Ask any of those companies who need to hold on to clients even if they run IE6. I bet they'll be happy to replace your current vendor. It's a win-win situation and then your IE6-centric vendor can go work for the IE6-centric customer and they can live the rest of their IE6-centric lives happily together.
Was going to post about how J2ME does exactly what they complain about: "Creating subsets of the core classes in the Java platform was forbidden", well, Sun itself did it and let me tell you, it makes Java's already convoluted API a nightmare to work with, and is ridiculous when programming on a device such as a Blackberry.
RIM had to provide alternatives to some useful Java classes that are just not present in J2ME, turning Blackberry development into an incompatible and horrendous mess, negating all the benefits of using Java in the first place (not that there are many anyway).
over the past 20 years I've been amazed at how the IT world first started scorning command lines (IE the rise of Mac, Windows and GUIs in general) only to come back to them (IE Mac OS X / spotlight / Quicksilver, Windows / launchy, smart address bars, and the increasing amount of people who started using Linux with Ubuntu and are nwo flocking to the command line).
This just proves what i'd known all along: command lines are more efficient, and although the learning curve might be a bit steeper, they just kick ass for things you have to do repeatedly. You of course learn the commands and then whiz by all those people whose motor skills barely allow them to use the mouse, yet they insist in their clickety-clickety ways.
Many operations are easier with a GUI but getting rid of the command line altogether (mac OS 1.x-9.x, I'm looking at you) is/was never a good idea.
I'd like to have a policy of NOT even beginning to watch a show if it's on Fox, due to their history of destroying good shows (I'll never forgive them after what they did to Firefly). So why am I watching Sarah Connor and Fringe? because I get them from P2P (Yeah, I'm also not about to wait for Mexican cable carriers to bring over an already-cancelled series as they always do). So, I like those shows but didn't know they were on Fox (I just download them). Had I known, I probably would have refused to watch them in the first place: what's the point on getting hooked on them and then having the rug pulled from under your feet.
And shame on J.J. Abrams for doing business with Fox.
and it will happen again.
Nintendo needs to realize that there's no way piracy will stop in Mexico unless they lower their prices. A Wii is almost twice as much in Mexico as it is in the USA, costing the equivalent of over 350 dollars here. Games aren't much cheaper. And Wii Points cards are also twice as expensive here.
It's also pretty hypocritical of Nintendo. Wiis are plentiful in Mexico, even at times when news of shortages elsewhere were common. The reason is that, since the Wii is so heavily marked up, Nintendo does profit more by selling here in Mexico than in the USA (similar to how they diverted shipments to Europe because higher prices there gave them more profits). However, while there are those mexicans (like me, sadly) who would indeed pay twice the price for the console, which is very convenient for Nintendo, the vast majority of the population can't afford those prices. So they resort to piracy in order to get their games; buying stolen for their consoles; and (worst of all) buying an XBox instead, because the XBox is 60% the price of a Wii here in Mexico.
This will continue, however hard Nintendo tries to push mexican authorities, because they don't care; Mexico is a land of impunity, where drug dealers get away with murdering and torturing, often in broad daylight. Obviously the authorities have their hands full and no time for a game company crying wolf because their products are getting pirated. And anyway, it's too easy for the "pirates" to bribe the police officers who come to seize their goods and try to arrest them; they, too, are starving and would welcome a few thousand pesos in bribes (or, why not, a shiny new stolen Wii for their kids).
So if Nintendo wants to reduce pirating of their products in Mexico (they can't stop it altogether), they need to make sure their prices are more in line with what they charge internationally (The USA, specifically). That way more people can afford them legitimately, and there will be less incentive for piracy. However, culturally, legally and politically, the complete erradication of piracy in Mexico is an impossibility. Just ask Microsoft.
Maybe the "ohnoitsroland" tag should be retired in his honor?
Don't let Python's weird indentation turn you off. Try it and you'll either like it or hate it. I know the indentation gives me brain cramps, but I also know that I'd learn it quickly should the need arise; and also, I'd rather learn Python from scratch than become proficient in Java.
Ruby is an awesome language to learn and work with, and is my current favorite; but you'll struggle a bit with the documentation, you'll live under Rails' shadow all the time, and its raw performance is still a bit on the slow side.
Both Ruby and Python cover a wide range of applications, from command-line scripting (where Perl would usually be the tool of choice) to GUI programming to web programming (think Rails or Django, the usual domain of PHP). I'd be wary of tackling a massively parallel programming project in either one of these two, though.
Other than those two, your C# and Java background will come in handy should you wish to learn C++ or C, which are powerful, if unforgiving languages that require more elbow grease to get things done than Ruby or Python.
I second that, i've been a Linode customer for years and their service is great. I haven't used the DNS api but you might want to look into it; as long as it does what you want, I highly recommend the company itself.
Locutus! so, do you find that people get startled by the cyborg red-eye or is the hose going into the back of your skull what tips them off?
j/k ok ;)
Guys, wait... you get charged for INCOMING SMS? what kind of country do you live in?
Anyway, here in Mexico we have some of the highest cell phone rates in the world, at least for voice; my plan for instance gives me a paltry 200 minutes air time. However, you only get charged for SMS you send, and they run 85 mexican cents (about US $0.08) per message. You can buy them in bulk in which case they're even cheaper.
I'm such a heavy texter that it made more sense to pay for blackberry internet service and use blackberry messenger instead. I probably send over 100 messages *DAILY* this way and I only pay a flat rate for BIS. Downside is, it's limited to blackberry users...
Our monopolistic telco (Telmex/Telcel) may suck, but they realize there's more money to be made in volume sales.