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Your own London phone number on your mobile

Posted by Rob (#1) on May 8, 2008 22:31 CEST

Modern technology has brought me a step closer to the Anglosphere. UK friends and readers can now call me at a London number (see contact details on this site) at landline rates. US friends and readers can call me at a San Francisco number. I'll get the call right on my mobile. I can call UK landlines and any US/Canada number for less than a pence a minute (peak-rate) and UK mobiles for less than 10 pence a minute (peak-rate). But.. I live in the Netherlands, so how do I do it?

It's simple, really. My new Nokia N82 phone, for free with contract renewal, has built-in WLAN. This means it can connect to wireless networks. It also has built-in SIP/VOIP support, which means it can make and receive Internet calls.

VoIPtalk is the VOIP service I'm using. If you have a modern WLAN and VOIP compatible phone such as the Nokia N82 (or N95) S60 models or some Sony Ericsson UIQ models, you can enjoy all this:

You can get an account, VoIP number and special UK VoIP number for free. Just sign up and you can start receiving calls.
Their pre-pay rates are competitive and much lower than, for example, SkypeOut.
You'd be making and receiving calls from your mobile - you won't have to sit behind a laptop.
For just a few pounds or euros a month you can get your own landline number in hundreds of cities in the UK, Europe and North America. This number is forwarded to your VoIP number for free. This means you you be reached on your mobile at local and national landline rates for the regions and countries of your preference!
Caller ID will show the number of your choice.

Sure, it's not entirely free. But for the price of one international text message it is now possible to have two up to fifteen minutes of international airtime! If this is what Anglosphere globalism brought us, I love it!

PermaLink: Your own London phone number on your mobile
Tags: London, Internet, San Francisco, UK, telephone, VoIP, SIP, US, Nokia, Skype, calls
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Warped Tour plan

Gigs

Posted by Rob (#1) on July 29, 2006 21:23 CEST

It's been four years since I've been to the US. It's about time I'm going again, so hereby I announce the plan to go back next summer - ten years after first setting foot in the New World.

I'll be trying to visit some Warped Tour dates and visit the Bay Area again (San Francisco rules!). I'm going to save up a bit of money upfront, I can do a quick Eurotrip on the fly but for a long US vacation it's a good idea to set some money aside.

Anyone who wants to tag along? Sure, I know everybody is skint but I'm sure we could work something out. No idea who'll be playing at Warped but it will be much fun!

PermaLink: Warped Tour plan
Tags: USA, San Francisco, Warped Tour, 2007
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Old pictures back up

Personal

Posted by Rob (#1) on July 19, 2006 07:13 CEST

I used to have tons of tagged pictures on-line at capzilla.net. I've copied those pictures to my laptop and will occasionally upload a few - first the ones from 2002 and onward because they already have EXIF data required for the import. First to have been restored: some of my pictures of San Francisco.

PermaLink: Old pictures back up
Tags: San Francisco, photography, Capzilla.net
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Bonds cheating after all?

Sports

Posted by Rob (#1) on June 21, 2006 08:23 CEST

Reading about sea-based X-band radar and noticed something funny:

Her radar is described by Lt. Gen Trey Obering (director of MDA) as being able to track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco from the Chesapeake Bay (approximately 2900 miles). The radar will guide land-based missiles from Alaska and California, as well as in-theatre assets.

As of 2006, the system has undergone six successful intercept tests (since 2002).

Of baseballs over San Francisco? Maybe Barry Bonds has been cheating after all!