vonage and usb headsets
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i tried a bluetooth headset, bur hey, the sound was choppy (both in and out), you always need to re-pair, and if you moved away a lil bit from the computer, it gets impossible to hear anything. what’s the use of a wireless connection if you can’t move?
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so right now i’m searching for USB Microphones, to try.
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technically the vonage works well in any connection, i can hear well, but people can’t hear me.
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time to time.

MEA convention @ rochester NY
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i’m in rochester, NY, near-near toronto, canada (i didn’t know it was so far away - it’s my first big travel thru USA), for the media ecology association convention.
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after being alone in the train station (1 dollar stolen from the phone booth, so i couldn’t talk with jeff, and jonathan still sleeping), i got a cab, to see a familiar face on RIT.
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and i found it. janet was there, i’m with my xxx right now, and a lot of papers, and a copy of exit strategy book (douglas rushkoff will be attending).
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i’ve been in a rush to finish my last project, and switch server providers (for nonlinearmatters.com), and switch telecoms (from sprint - expensive and confusing - to vonage - VOIP, and cheaper). technically, i got it (except that vonage calls are too choppy on softphone), but i can’t relax, my unconscious up and ready for more challenges.
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gotta tell it it’s over!

about vonage
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well, i don’t know about the actual service, i’m still only using their “softphone”, a program that permits you to make and receive calls from anywhere you have broadband connection.
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the service is kinda choppy, but i guess i’m doing something wrong, because ppl are talking wonders about it.
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i used it on hilton hotel, and it worked fine. i suppose that if the service gets popular, the wi-fi providers will start to get angry… coz it probably sucks too much band. or not.
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if i’m not available (computer off, program off, internet off, or the usual 3 rings after), the caller goes to a voice mail service, as usual and i receive a mail telling me i have a new voicemail. going on the website, i can hear (and download, think of the possibilities) the message. kinda neat.
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too bad their site is crammed with irrelevant information. i’d suggest something like:
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- a cookie to remember my login/password (kmon, write it everytime i want to hear a message is clunky)
- a link on the mail, so i could go to the message right away
- better integration with the OS (but i guess the mac version is really new). i tried to use an apple script that bridges vonage softphone with mac’s address book, but it didn’t work with me (everytime i try to call someone, it appears as if THEY are calling me. weird).
- and again with better integration, open the source for some other apps… i’d love to have a program that pops up a textfile for each person, so i could write down what i have to talk with someone, and then when they call me, i’m all prepared.

thresholds
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ITC is a telephone card that for $5 gives me 5+ hours to call to rio de janeiro. despite the buggy interface - you have to call the local company, type your digits, and then call the phone number - and my inability to automate it on my cell phone, i reached a threshold here.
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i mean, since then, i used to tell my brazilian friends that i wouldn’t be so available by phone because of the expensive bills. but in fact, it hurts my heart to be updated of my friends’ lives being unable to interact. i felt like a ghost.
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now i don’t have the money excuse, it’s plain avoidance, unmasked.

dear friends i left behind
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cecilia visited us for 2, 3 days. it was her first time in NYC, so she swallowed the more she could (not those fancy tourist traps, mind you, but in a soul-searching way).
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i didn’t comment about it earlier because I was busy finishing a project, and only now i figured it out how to drag the pictures out of my cell phone.

picture phone
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i now own a picture phone, so i decided to play a lil bit with it… below is a vase i found on a printer service, near union square.
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practical origami, making envelopes out of papers.
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and I have a cell phone with cam, I want to post those pics (stupid ones, artistic ones) here.