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Termyn8or -> magicJack (7/23/2008 8:44:59 AM)
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I didn't know these things existed, someone told me they are somewhat like Vonage or something, with which I am not familiar.
For forty bucks, something like that you get a box that plugs into a USB port, and that includes a year of service, it's a telephone jack. You have to have highspeed internet, but it includes longdistance to anywhere in the US and Canada, plus if you install it say on a laptop, if you can get on a broadband connection anywhere in the world you can phone home for free.
Twenty bucks a year is like $1.66 a month. And I can tell you the thing works. It also has features like caller ID, voicemail, all that, and I am pretty sure that you do not have to have your PC on for the voicemail to work.
So we were thinking. Although we live seperately, we do share a phone line, but we very very rarely butt heads on the phone. By that I mean it is extremely rare that one wants to use the phone when the other is on it.
So, in light of this, he has talked abut cable TV from time to time. And we also know about Feb 2009. With cable, all convertor boxes will be supplied by the cable company. Somebody told me there was a law, but I don't believe that. There is no reason for a law, if they want you to continue paying the bill they will do it of course. Plus the fact that the FCC regulates the airwaves, regular cable is not on the air so they do not have to switch over.
But we have avoided cable, but now things have changed. A basic cable bill including broadband internet now costs what ? Well the phone bill itself is about forty something, so for a minor investment, twenty bucks a year per line, we can tell Ma Bell to go to hell. It might not be a net savings, but network TV really does suck. The only good thing about that is that not much time is spent in front of the boob tube. Cable might well have something more stimulating.
So the math has changed. And with the cost of new PCs so low, we could literally buy one, stick it in the basement and run the house phone wires to it and pretty much have our own telco in the basement. Hell once it's up and running we can even grab up the monitor, keyboard and mouse, just let it run forever.
From what I've heard this thing does not care about IPs or how it is you get on the net. Also, IIRC it does not even come with a disk. It downloads the software automatically.
I think it's pretty cool.
T
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