It appears now that Localphone.com has the lowest international mobile calling rates on a per-minute basis.
http://www.localphone.com/prices
Localphone.com is a SIP-based VoIP provider and can integrate with Asterisk. It should be possible to use many of the available SIP dialers, but Localphone.com recommends X-Lite from CounterPath and provides configuration instructions.
http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite.html
http://help.localphone.com/voip/devices/softphone/xlite
Vonage has announced a new plan, World Premium Unlimited, that includes calling to mobile numbers in most countries at no additional cost above the monthly rate.
http://www.vonage.com/world-calling-plans/premium-unlimited-international/
2011-07-25
Death of a young star
Her addiction to drugs, which includes alcohol, was public knowledge. Reports of the severity were traipsed out as entertainment. Did we enjoy hearing about that?
We paid her much money to sing "No, no, no" about rehab. We told her she was doing great!
While we might not have personally put the drugs into her body, can you, with a straight face, say that we played no part?
We have done it to others. You know who they are. Post a reply and name them.
The question at this point is, who are we doing it to now? Who are we supporting in their race to the grave? Post a reply and name them.
2011-07-16
Fraudulent announcement about Skype
I do not know what visiting the site below does. I am not going to find out. It is registered with the Russian NIC. As you can see in the whois information below, it was registered today. It will probably be gone tomorrow, or later today.
===
New Skype Has Been Releases ! Upgrade Now
from Skype newsletter@skype-update-center.com
sender-time Sent at 10:25 (UTC). Current time there: 5:25 PM. ✆
reply-to Skype
to myemail@address.com
date Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:25
subject New Skype Has Been Releases ! Upgrade Now
mailed-by b.e.rhapsody.com
unsubscribe Unsubscribe from this sender
hide details 10:25 (1 hour ago)
New Skype Has Been Releases
This is to notify that new updates have been released for Skype.
http://www.skype-news-center.net
Following are major new features :
* Up to 5-way group video call.
* Redesigned calling experience.
* Improved video snapshots gallery.
* Improved browser plugins performance on some websites.
* Reduced false positives on browser plugin phone number recognition.
* New presence icons.
* Improved handling of calling attempts made when the user has run out of credit.
* Improved access to sharing functionality
To download the latest version , go to :
http://www.skype-news-center.net
Start downloading the update right now and let us know what you think about it.
We're working on making Skype better all the time !
Talk soon,
The people at Skype
===
REGISTRY WHOIS FOR SKYPE-UPDATE-CENTER.COM
2011-07-09
BBC News - Arizona sheriff office pays out over migrant raid
BBC News - Arizona sheriff office pays out over migrant raid
While it is unfortunate that two people were held for three hours before being released, it is difficult for me to see this detention as an illegal action. In a situation where law enforcement is processing 60 people in this country illegally, three hours does not sound like a long time.
The fact that the two were employed by the company is not law enforcement's fault. I would find it difficult to believe that the two were totally unaware of the risks associated in working for a company employing so many others that are in the country illegally. Did they work at the company and not know anything about the citizenship or immigration status of their co-workers? Not likely. Is a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect with respect to citizenship or immigration status?
In the same way, I would not have wanted Ted Kaczynski, Saddam Hussein, or Osama Bin Laden over for dinner or to spend the night on their way through town. Even if I were to have supported their ideologies (which I do not), there is excessive risk of having my home raided or targeted by a missile.
No, I am not suggesting that an illegal immigrant is equivalent of a terrorist. In truth, I believe that most people in another country illegally are doing the best they can to work and provide for their family. For that I wish them well. However, they must abide by the law where they are. There is a reason that the term is "illegal" immigrant.
For anyone from anywhere who wants to do an honest days work and provide for their family, I do not begrudge the opportunity. However, being in country "illegally" and being an "honest" worker seem mutually exclusive.
2011-02-23
SCAM ALERT - www.skype-instant-update.com
This is not a legitimate site belonging to Skype.
-- http://www.skype-instant-update.com/
The whois record specifies the owner.
-- http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/skype-instant-update.com
-- http://www.skype-instant-update.com/
The whois record specifies the owner.
-- http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/skype-instant-update.com
2010-09-28
Internet disparity and competition
Americans like to think that they lead the world in most things (sometimes everything). There are many things that America does well, but it is far from universal.
In trying to assess my ISP speed performance issues, I learned about the Ookla speedtest. This is the source of many of the "speedtest" web pages around the net. Ya' gotta' wonder if you are paying for 3 Mbps and only occasionally getting above 1.5 Mbps.
http://ookla.com/
Ookla also produces stats for the Net Index site. This site shows download and upload speeds from around the world.
http://www.netindex.com/
The USA is not in the top 10 countries. The USA comes in at number 27.
One might think that the USA is a large country and that some of the slower, rural ISP providers could be dragging its numbers down. Surely, some of the major cities would be front runners.
The city ranking list shows its first USA city, Long Beach, California, at number 24.
The Google effort to wire pilot cities with high-speed, fiber optic Internet services is an experiment. What would people do or be able to do with availability of that much bandwidth?
http://www.fiberforcommunities.com/
What we must have is more people exercising their brain cells. I mean more than just public school students. If what we find from the Google experiment is that more people will be more entertained, then we can give up.
In trying to assess my ISP speed performance issues, I learned about the Ookla speedtest. This is the source of many of the "speedtest" web pages around the net. Ya' gotta' wonder if you are paying for 3 Mbps and only occasionally getting above 1.5 Mbps.
http://ookla.com/
Ookla also produces stats for the Net Index site. This site shows download and upload speeds from around the world.
http://www.netindex.com/
The USA is not in the top 10 countries. The USA comes in at number 27.
One might think that the USA is a large country and that some of the slower, rural ISP providers could be dragging its numbers down. Surely, some of the major cities would be front runners.
The city ranking list shows its first USA city, Long Beach, California, at number 24.
The Google effort to wire pilot cities with high-speed, fiber optic Internet services is an experiment. What would people do or be able to do with availability of that much bandwidth?
http://www.fiberforcommunities.com/
What we must have is more people exercising their brain cells. I mean more than just public school students. If what we find from the Google experiment is that more people will be more entertained, then we can give up.
2010-09-26
Links can be deceiving
Just because it looks like a URL does not mean that it is telling you where the link will take you. The text that is presented and the underlying URL are two separate things.
An email arrived that shows the following text.
The reason is that the URL specified for this text link will take you first to the icptrack.com domain to be counted. The email sender probably uses this to measure the effectiveness of their email advertising or it is perhaps how someone makes more points to get paid.
Here are the presented links and the underlying URL to which they will take the user.
Ok, so call me old-fashioned, but I do not particularly like this. The advertiser probably knows that if the presented text informs the user that the link will take them to, or through, the icptrack.com domain, that it will probably not be used.
To avoid this reluctance, the text presented makes the user think the link will take them directly to the info-mgmt.com and twitter.com domains. This causes the user to think they know what is happening, when the truth is that they are just believing what they perceive.
This is in the direction of, if not all the way toward, deception.
I am not trying to stop the advertiser from generating metrics about their work. I just want them to tell me what they are doing with the information they are gathering about me. This is not enough for me to make an informed decision about whether or not I should click on the link.
Am I over-the-edge on this one? Should I just click and move on?
An email arrived that shows the following text.
http://info-mgmt.com/dmradioHowever, if you have your browser status bar enabled, you can see that these will not take you to the info-mgmt.com or the twitter.com domains. At least, not directly.
http://twitter.com/briefing_room
The reason is that the URL specified for this text link will take you first to the icptrack.com domain to be counted. The email sender probably uses this to measure the effectiveness of their email advertising or it is perhaps how someone makes more points to get paid.
Here are the presented links and the underlying URL to which they will take the user.
http://info-mgmt.com/dmradio
http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=23525607&msgid=310849&act=HLZZ&c=247241&destination=http%3A%2F%2Finfo-mgmt.com%2Fdmradio
===
http://twitter.com/briefing_room
http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=23525607&msgid=310849&act=HLZZ&c=247241&destination=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbriefing_room
Ok, so call me old-fashioned, but I do not particularly like this. The advertiser probably knows that if the presented text informs the user that the link will take them to, or through, the icptrack.com domain, that it will probably not be used.
To avoid this reluctance, the text presented makes the user think the link will take them directly to the info-mgmt.com and twitter.com domains. This causes the user to think they know what is happening, when the truth is that they are just believing what they perceive.
This is in the direction of, if not all the way toward, deception.
I am not trying to stop the advertiser from generating metrics about their work. I just want them to tell me what they are doing with the information they are gathering about me. This is not enough for me to make an informed decision about whether or not I should click on the link.
Am I over-the-edge on this one? Should I just click and move on?
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