I was lucky and got an invite to Google Voice back when it was GrandCentral. It’s a free service that gives you a phone number that you can forward to your cellphone or home number. (I guess the plan to make money off of this by charging a low fee for outbound international calls. Otherwise, the service is free.) Your voice mails are emailed or available via a web interface. The best part was you could have the GrandCentral (now Google Voice) number forward to a few phones at a time, which made it a nice number to have instead of handing out separate home and cellphone numbers.
Google took it over and has made some improvements, but in the process has taken away some other features that I liked, such as the fun custom ring chimes that you could attach to your ringer. Bummer. The interface has also gone all “Google,” which is that very scrunched up minimalistic Google email look that I’m not totally keen on.
On the positive, they’ve added voice transcripts, which are pretty buggy but still somewhat useful. Generally speaking, you can get a gist of the message from the transcript, even though the names don’t come through well. On one of my messages, Google translated the name of my friend Craig to Chris Dodd. I was wondering what Senator Dodd might be doing calling me!
You can also send SMS messages through the web interface, which is handy to have if you have text-happy friends and a phone without a keypad. (Wish I had this before I got my Blackberry!) Inbound calls can also be recorded, but I haven’t tried this feature yet.
If there’s one thing blatantly missing it’s fax capability…I would love to have that…I got rid of my JFax number last year because with all the new technology, it was a waste to pay $15/month for a voice mail and fax number that had no forwarding or email capabilities.
I have been using my Google Voice number now for business calls, so I don’t have to worry about people getting my cellphone (if I don’t want them to have it) or changing landline numbers when I move. Once in a while, when Google Voice was still Grand Central, I had a few problems with dropped calls but it was few and far between.
So why is Apple doing this bone-headed thing of blocking the Google Voice app? I don’t know if they’ve figured this out yet, but the Google Voice number does not replace a cellphone! You still need some sort of outside cellphone or landline to use it when away from the computer.
Apple…starting to act like Microsoft…stupid stupid stupid…meanwhile, Google is out taking over the world.
So what is worse for the environment? Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader, which ends up creating e-waste when all is said and done? Or paper books, which obviously use up a heck of a lot of paper?
I’m not entirely certain an electronic book reader is all that much better than paper books environmentally speaking. I’m sure the statistics on book-making are staggering when it comes to trees and whatnot, but what about the batteries, electronic ink, plastic, and other toxic goodies that go into a Kindle? At least when you are done with a book, you can give it to someone else to read. When your Kindle is done, i.e., the thing has fried and no longer works, it’s off to the landfill, no easy way to recycle.
Mike Adams over at Natural News has another gripe with Kindle – Amazon.com can control the content and delete your books for whatever the reason. And you know, that is enough of a reason to have a hardbound copy of books that are truly important to you.
Mike’s solution to the problem, however, is to buy up books, rip them apart, scan them in, and create your own e-books. But really…this is not a good environmental move…just look at what’s involved:
I have a much better solution for consumers: Just buy the books at a local bookstore, chop off the binders, scan them and OCR them into text files. Then you can read them on any device (such as a Sony Reader, or your laptop, or whatever).
Of course, it’s a big operation: A good book binding chopper costs $1500 – $2000. A good double-sided scanning machine that can handle large books costs another $3000 or so. Decent OCR software costs another $300, and then you have to go through the song and dance of actually OCRing the files on a Windows computer somewhere. Not many people are willing to go through this trouble to read some books. But I am. Of course, I have other uses for the same equipment, so it’s easier for me to justify. Today, I have more than 1,500 books that I’ve scanned into text files. They all fit on an SD card that plugs right into a Sony Reader. (This is what I carry with me when I travel.)
OK, Mike, that is total overkill! You know, I don’t travel that much, but generally, one book or two is sufficient. Certainly not 1,500. Your mileage may vary.
I have seen Kindles in action and they do look pretty tempting though. If they can come up with one that’s not perpetually tethered to the mother company, I might be interested for certain types of books and other applications. Otherwise, I am happy with my old-fashioned hard-bound books, seeing as I’m not sure that going either way is environmentally “better.”
The following message from Clint Richardson popped into my email box and I thought I’d share it…
I’ve driven the almost 400 mile stretch of Interstate 5 from L.A. to Sacramento dozens of times. Quite honestly, it’s as boring as it gets. with only the usual gas stations, mini-marts, fast-food, home-cookin’ restaurants, and strangely a newer batch of Starbuck’s Coffee shops sprouting up everywhere. In between… farms, orchards, cattle, and dirt.
On July 15th, as I began my trip to Utah, I came off the Grapevine decline and hit the flat 250 or so mile stretch of interstate which begins the farming belt in the valley. Almost immediately I noticed what I had only heard about on the radio and in the papers. Where once there were vast fields of green, now there where empty, barely recognizable rows of unplanted dirt and growing weeds. Only sporadically at first, but once I passed Bakersfield and for about a 200 mile stretch, I could not believe my eyes. Field after field laid fallow. And not really fallow, but unattended… as if it was not going to be planted in the near future either.
Signs were staked in the ground on almost every patch of barren farmland. The most common one, which was yellow and obviously a group effort to wake up the sleeping travelers of thier future plight, read:
“CONGRESS CREATED DUST BOWL”
Others, which looked more homemade were posted on non-operational farm equipment parked as close to the freeway as possible, stated things like:
“FOOD ONLY GROWS WHERE WATER FLOWS” -and-
“NO WATER = NO JOBS = NO FUTURE”
At one point, after 150 miles or so of seeing this horror, I broke down in tears and had to pull over to the side of the road. I saw the aqueduct, which followed Interstate 5 most of the way, and large fields of dead trees which were planted just a few feet from the flowing cement river. I imagined how those trees would feel, imprisoned in the dying dirt by their own roots, if they could indeed comprehend that their source of life was just a stones throw away. It was like some horrific story-book come to life; science fiction in real time. I was thinking of the farmers and their families and wondering what would become of them and their land. I was thinking about the consequences of hundreds of miles of food no longer being grown, and adding together the other states like Campo, Colorado which have the same situation… only planting 60% of their crops this year.
This deadness went on untill the brink of civilization once again began to show. When I approached the Stockton/Modesto highway interchange area the carnage seemed to stop, and the fields appearded to be healthy an bountiful. I can only guess that this is because more people drive on that stretch of the freeway, and so the powers that be are trying to keep up apearances. No other explaination came to mind.
To the readers of this, I can only say that living in the city has literally blinded me to the truth, even though I knew it was happening. I wonder how many other things I ignore? Many economists and trends predictors have called for food shortages and food riots in the fall, and with what I saw last week, I have new reason to believe them.
But then, that’s the real problem isn’t it? Belief…
If you believe that the food will continue to flow (magically appearing on store shelves in a grocery store near you) and just dismiss the very real claims of shortages worldwide, including a severe wheat shortage in this country due to a harmfull fungus, then I might boldy say that you deserve whatever fate befalls you.
I challenge you all to take a drive up the 5 and see this for yourself. Please! Don’t let this go unseen. If you are camera or video savy, I think it would be a really great photo exibit or website showing the true nature of our common problem. And you better believe, as you take your daily shower, flush your toilet, and water your fertilized-non-edible grassy yards, that this is indeed a Congress created crisis. So please tell as many people about it as possible.
Lastly, if you haven’t already… buy storable food! Go to the dollar store and buy rice and beans. Buy pasta, caned and jarred foods, or anything with a shelf-life of more than 6 months.
What’s the worse that can happen? You’ll have food in 6 months.
What’s the best that can happen? You’ll have food in 6 months.
Take care. Spread this information. Get mad. Fight tyranny. And…
Don’t be a sheep.
Clint Richardson
introspector48@yahoo.com
Monday, July 20, 2009
One of our most challenging and scary environmental problems is the safety of our water supply. People are flushing so many drugs down the toilet – from the actual pills to the residue in urine – that drinking tap water often means you’re getting a slight homeopathic dose of anti-depressants. Now we have pollutants in the water creating mutant fish and “intersex” fish (meaning, what should be male fish now turning into females):
So, where do these estrogen enhancers that are creating intersex fish come from? Seems there are a wide variety of sources, from materials used in agriculture and industry to women’s urine flushed down the toilet, with the strongest dose from women taking estrogen pills. (Stephen Colbert recently suggested that women now just “have to hold it.”)
Estrogen disruptors appear to have their strongest impact on the developing male fetus. Nicolas Kristof is taking the big leap (based on real data summarized by the National Wildlife Service) by suggesting that sexual organs of human boys are already trending towards “intersex.”
Read more here…scary!
Fascinating warning coming from physicist Michio Kaku on how we’re in danger of losing our communications due to the next solar “flare-up” around 2012 (what is it about that year anyway?):
I consider myself to be a moderate environmentalist; meaning, I am pragmatic and think we need to compromise in order to achieve things. I always felt that Palin was a somewhat moderate conservative – while she’s not a proponent of global warming, she has seemed all too willing to try to reach out and say, “hey, let’s come up with solutions we can all benefit from.”
This is why I never got the extreme animosity towards Sarah Palin by many people on the left. I believe a lot of it is sheer sexism (she’s pretty, doesn’t speak like an Ivy-League snob, and must therefore be a moron), a good portion of it is outright hate towards anyone labeling themselves conservative, and then the rest is classism. (She’s a “snowbilly” and eats mooseburgers instead of tofuburgers.)
So that said, I’d like to take a look at precisely what it is that Palin is proposing, without resorting to knee-jerk reactions. I’ll comment on a few excerpts from her piece:
American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.
This is true, our prosperity has been built upon cheap oil. Without cheap energy, we would not have the lavish lifestyles we do.
Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.
The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.
The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will “necessarily skyrocket.” So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
I have to admit, I am not happy at the prospect of paying more for my electricity. It is already my most expensive utility bill. And as a small business owner, I have seen – much more so than my friends with steady jobs – how bad the economy truly is. It is very bad out there. So I am concerned about cap-and-trade causing inflation at a time where we really can’t afford it. This is where my environmental pragmatism comes in – yes, we should cut carbon emissions, but if it ends up stalling our economy and creating havoc in people’s lives, maybe we should find another way to do it? Or a better time to do it?
I’m one of those folks who feels that environmental awareness is a by-product of prosperity. In other words, it’s my richer friends who have the luxury of shopping at Whole Foods. Poor people with no jobs aren’t going to be buying the more expensive recycled toilet paper. They aren’t going to be buying organic vegetables that sometimes cost twice as much when they are short on cash and have to feed their kids. Now, I have no statistics to back this up, but my feeling is, the more people struggle, the less time, energy and money they have to live a more “sustainable” lifestyle.
In other words, the only people I know with solar panels on their homes are rich people. Deepening a severe recession and putting people out of work just ends up creating tent cities – where people are using ravines as toilets. Not good for the environment.
Let’s continue:
In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.
Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.
I am all for the natural gas pipeline…I think it is a good idea, and I’m glad she’s pushed for it. I am not a fan of off-shore drilling and drilling in ANWR. I would like to see Palin push more for alternative energy sources. That said, my pragmatism tells me that we might need to engage in off-shore drilling and whatnot because we’re on our way to a peak oil catastrophe. America turning into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max world of energy wars is certainly not going to help the environment either. We may need to drill. It’s either that or we could see the collapse of Western Civilization as we know it.
We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.
My pragmatism comes up here and I will agree with her – I think it is probably better that Americans drill for oil here in a more environmentally controlled environment than simply purchase oil from other countries that might not be so mindful. Let’s not forget the human cost of the wars going on in the Middle East because we need to secure our oil supply!
If you had a choice – America fully out of Iraq and the Middle East, but that meant we had to engage in off-shore drilling here, which would you choose? And let’s say, we set up guidelines to make sure the drilling here had the least amount of impact on the environment as possible? I’d say, take us out of Iraq and drill, baby, drill.
See, these questions aren’t so cut and dry in my mind.
My biggest beef with Palin is that she has not latched onto alternative energy sources. But given that we as of yet have no alternative source that can replace cheap oil, I do think an “all of the above” approach may be our only energy option for the foreseeable future.
My hope is that, instead of extremism on the right and left causing us to fight over these issues without giving some thought to compromise, we can find a middle ground that works for America. The fact is, most Americans are going to care more about their wallets more than the environment. I know, I grew up in the Midwest. I get where average people are coming from. If you push them too hard and too fast on environmental laws that hurt their wallets too much, then people are going to backlash. And then going green could be as “out” as pet rocks.
Throughout my week using the Walkman, I came to realise that I have very little knowledge of technology from the past. I made a number of naive mistakes, but I also learned a lot about the grandfather of the MP3 Player. You can almost imagine the excitement about the Walkman coming out 30 years ago, as it was the newest piece of technology at the time.
Perhaps that kind of anticipation and excitement has been somewhat lost in the flood of new products which now hit our shelves on a regular basis.
Personally, I’m relieved I live in the digital age, with bigger choice, more functions and smaller devices. I’m relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born, as I can’t imagine having to use such basic equipment every day.
Having said all that, portable music is better than no music.
Geez oh pete. I’m a dinosaur! I still have a Walkman lying around as well as a portable CD player! And those CD players are actually bigger than the tape players.
I’ve kept a Walkman because I do have some cassettes I like to listen to once in a while. (At this point, mostly self-help things, as my audio as moved to MP3 for the most part.) The “Walkman” in question is actually a Panasonic cassette player, a “sports” version, in bright yellow with black rubber grips. It’s one of those you could throw into a pool and it would still work.
So I guess I have some nostalgia for those rugged Walkmans and clones that were designed to withstand places like the beach and your neighborhood pool. iPods are almost too slick and technological. I’ve dropped that darn Panasonic cassette player 50 times or more and it still plays 15 years later. I seriously doubt my iPod would survive such a beating.
So should we just chuck our old electronic portable devices out the window and fill up more landfills? Or gift them to our progeny, giving them a taste of electronics gone by?
The Onion came out with this hilarious satire on Taco Bell, touting a new “green” menu that would recycle garbage and reconstitute it into “tomorrow’s lunch”:
What’s truly funny is the comments for this video on YouTube – a lot of people took the video seriously and were righteously offended at the thought of eating recycled junk.
I actually like Taco Bell (guilty pleasure), though I think recycling garbage into food is where I might draw the line. Thankfully, that technology does not exist yet.
