Back during the Clinton impeachment fiasco, I was one of those people justifying the proceedings with "Well, it's about a trivial matter, but lying under oath is a crime."
I just wanted to say I was wrong. Nothing justified the way in which the GOP determined to topple a presidency by any means necessary.
I feel better now.
I've been playing with voice over IP (VoIP) lately, mainly because we're weary of cell phone hell out here in Boerne, and have decided we need a "real" phone once again. The fact that we're out of the 210 area code provides added impetus.
Going cell-only was a good idea in theory but didn't work out well in practice. Until radio coverage is truly ubiquitous it's not going to be a really viable option, either. In our new home location the thing doesn't ring half the time, though when it works the quality remains good. Digital service certainly has merits.
Since I have broadband at home and travel with modest frequency, I'm looking at VoIP. The choices have been narrowed down to Packet8 and Vonage; both provide flat-rate unlimited national calling. Vonage generally looks technically superior but doesn't yet have E911 services (they route 911 calls to local PSAPs, which isn't quite the same thing; however, E911 is supposed to be supported soon), and doesn't have numbers in my area code. Packet8 has my area code and E911 service, but doesn't support analog adaptors that do QoS.
In either case I've got a FreeWorldDialup number (503257 for anyone who cares), and can use that to dial home for nothing. Dialing to my FWD account from Vonage uses the international rates, which is annoying, while from Packet8 the same call would be free.
Back to the topic, there's an alternative service built by Kazaa (sans spyware) called Skype. Skype runs a VoIP-like protocl over a P2P network, which is very interesting from a technical point of view. Skype-to-Skype calls are free, of course, and they offer dialout to regular PSTN phones (called SkypeOut) at about $0.02/minute anywhere in the US/Canada/EU/Australia. The limitation is that PSTN users can't call you.
It does, however, sound freakin' awesome. Cross-platform (Windown, Mac, Linux), and it was perfectly plug-n-play; install the client, register and account, and off you go. Plays well behind a NAT, even with multiple instances running, which is a plus. My account there is "cerebusii."
So what I'm thinking is VoIP at home, (probably Vonage since I'm more worried about call quality than the area code issue, and E911 service will be in place eventually) and SkypeOut for calling while on the road, and FWD for calling home. Kind of a hodge-podge, but there you go.
In the meantime, if you see me on Skype, feel free to give me a ring.