Should I ditch my land-based home phone?

Go with the cheapest one without a contract. But before that ask yourself do you really need a home phone? Today most people have a mobile phone that caters to all there communication needs. Having different points of contact can lead to missed calls and is it practical to have more than one personal voice mailbox, plus there is the case of two bills. Most people today work a full 8hr day five days per week. They typically never really use the phone before work and when they get home from work they may have a small window for talking on the phone while they prepare dinner and prep for the following day before going to bed. On the weekends when free time comes, are you really in the home and on the phone that much? When you look at the advantages of your mobile it may be the best solution because you have access to a phone at all times, with the right plan you can talk free on weekends and evenings. Sure there is the argument that long distance is insane on mobiles but really the difference in price is only about 10% more than your current landline phone, when using the phone on your free time. I would recommend you do your research and weigh the pros and cons of having a home phone, but in today’s’ economy where we’re all looking for ways to cut cost and be the most efficient possible having two phones may be a move away from that mentality.

If you’re still considering a home phone, you must think of what type of home phone, VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) or the traditional dial tone phone system. Aside from thinking about the entrenched big companies that we all have come to love and hate, you’ll want to consider such companies that offer the same VOIP services, companies like Skype, Primus, VBuzzer, Vonage, VoIPGo or Brama Telecom, with a little research you can find a lot more of these types of services in your area.

I would say if you have shoddy internet service in your area VOIP may not be for you, because unlike traditional landlines VOIP calls are routed through broadband, so if your internet is down, so is your phone. The traditional landline is a dying work horse, as more and more people subscribe to VOIP much like the disappearance of dial up modems on the introduction of highspeed internet service, so too will the traditional landlines disappear. The reason is simple, with VOIP you can offer rich features such as video calling and more, traditional landline architecture just cannot handle the bandwidth and switching required for services and features that VOP can.

Really what it comes down to is your personal use and need. VOIP has been around since the 90s, but is still pretty sketchy when it comes to consistent reliability and quality, sure the rates are great and offers some really cool Jetson-esk features over traditional phone systems but sometimes service and quality just suck. This will get better, as the market cozies up to this new service vendors like Bell with seek to improve services like reliability and quality. I would recommend that if you decided to go with one of these VOIP companies see if you can get a no obligation trial period that will allow you to use the service and opt out in case you don’t like it.

Some things you should look for when choosing a VOIP company:
* Free Trial Period!
* Free Setup!
* No Activation Fees!
* No Cancellation Fees!
* No Cost or Low month fees for hardware
* No Contract to Sign
* Money Back Guarantee
Below I listed some pros and cons of having a Moble(Cell) over a LandLine(VOIP or Traditional)

Mobile
Pros
- mobility
- array of features
- free evenings and weekends
- status (cool factor)
- GPS locator service (for 911 situations)
- video calling

Cons
- Does not work on power failure
- cost of hardware (phone)
- misplacement of phone
- battery failure
- GPS locator service (for 911 situations) not reliable

LandLine
Pros
- works during power failure
- typical good long distance rates
- video calling (VOIP)
- cheaper monthly rates
- no per minute rates
- 911 calls locate exact address

Cons
- immobile
- poor features (traditional landline)
- subject to internet service (VOIP)

Detroit Could Be Completely Broke in Days

Date: Monday, September 21, 2009, 5:06 am
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com

DETROIT – The clock is ticking on the Motor City.

The City of Detroit is on the verge of going broke in 10 days unless Mayor Dave Bing can figure out a way to fix a $300 million deficit.

Bing set Oct. 1 as the deadline to get the city’s financial crisis under control or the city could fall into receivership. People are being laid off. Bus routes are being discontinued. Schools are closing. City employees – including public school teachers – say they fear for their jobs.

And to make matters worse, in a city where crime is spiraling out of control, even Detroit’s top cops are getting mugged.

Last weekend, one of Detroit’s deputy police chief’s was robbed of $300 – at gunpoint. Deputy Chief Herbert Moreland was off duty and robbed outside of his car around 3 a.m., said spokesman John Roach.

“At some point the deputy chief struggled with the suspect, and the deputy chief had his departmental-issued weapon with him and fired several shots at the suspect, who fled,” Roach said.

How bad is the situation in Detroit when the city’s cops are getting jacked?

Residents are understandably nervous when police, who are sworn to protect the citizens, can barely protect themselves.

In an odd example of how out-of-control the city’s motorists have become, the city has posted large signs on most major highways and roadways that say “Killing/Injuring” city workers on the road is punishable by a $7,500 fine and 15 years in prison.

Driving through parts of Detroit is a painful reminder of just how the economic crisis has devastated this city. Blocks of buildings are boarded up or gutted. The city has more than 80,000 abandoned buildings, which leads the nation.

A stretch of downtown along Woodward Avenue – once a bustling commercial corridor – is now a wasteland, while huge empty lots with broken glass once housed some of Detroit’s most profitable car dealerships. Some older black residents have been living for years behind bars on their doors and windows and say they are afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods.

Some claim that despite the current recession, black men continue to lose huge sums of money every week in Detroit’s three Vegas-style casinos.

And several black professionals who work closely with the city say they are weary of watching the continuing downfall of Detroit, a city that once had high hopes for former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned in disgrace a year ago.

But Bing has told officials that he’ll get it all under control, starting with managing the financial crisis. Even the city’s public transportation has been impacted as a number of bus routes have been eliminated.

“We will have a blueprint to fix the city of Detroit,” Bing said this week during a luncheon with women business leaders.

Bing plans to meet with top officials soon to create a strategy “on what we can do, what we can accomplish, in the short term, medium term and long term,” he said.

The mayor, 65, a professional basketball Hall of Famer who played nine NBA seasons with the Detroit Pistons, campaigned on a platform to run the city like a business.

And while Bing tells residents that no one is “protected” from potential layoffs, civic groups argue that crime in Detroit is spiraling out of control, maintaining that now is not the time to reduce the number of police officers who patrol the streets.

Bing handed over his annual salary of $176,000 to the police department recently and said tough times are ahead.

“Detroit, from a structural standpoint, is broke,” Bing said told reporters. “What we’ve had is failed leadership in the City of Detroit. Our City Council has been as big a disappointment as the mayor’s office has been.”

Tick-tock.

[SOURCE: Black America Web]

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-18

• Priscilla-Lopes-Schliep is attending RUN CLUB tonight at the Toronto Runners Lounge at 6pm, 110 Bloor west #silverpeanut #
• shoot I hashed silverpeanut i meant to use @silverpeanut #
• RT @baudbwoy: #Priscilla-Lopes-Schliep is attending RUN CLUB tonight at the Toronto Runners Lounge at 6pm, 110 Bloor west @silverpeanut #
• missed an important seminar today re:small business tax, really needed to go but I trained late last night and was really burnt this morning #
• is #Black Enterprise on twitter? #
• found them…hmmm didn’t come up on first seearch #
• @Yungdapoet love your work, I did a search for Korim and found you, is Korim on twitter I would like to follow him as well #
• @amirsulaiman I love your work, I got into your poetry after hearing you perform ‘Danger’ on Def Poetry, I used to blast it @ the office #
• liquidloop.com is offer websites for artists for ONLY $100 (contact info@liquidloop.com for details) #
• @silverpeanut I’m a run leader for the Nike lounge so yeh I’ll be there #
• black #
• @ThisisSmitty what is your business all about please let me know when you go live. #
• whats is wrong with the people in my building…no one knows what recycling means?…through that can in the BLUE fucking BIN not the trash #
• @silverpeanut ok I will…should i be lazy and take the blackberry or take the canon to get better pics…sometimes i hate to many gadgets #
• @endurancejunks thanks for following #
• @iluvblackwomen @Ratanaxp thanks for following #
• running tweetdeck 0.30.4 at a glance cool features, autoshorten links, drag pics into compose area, myspace column #
• you can not, not believe in something if you do not believe it in #
• in a really deep conversation with a friend about God…started off about gay people…a friends, friend switched teams and got a man & kids #
• listening to Korim the poet – Mothers Day. “call me like my first love that knows nothing about the person I am” http://bit.ly/A24Af #
• blogging using the Worpress blackberry app Beta 0.9.0.149 second try worked…kind…its in drafts…how do i publish from the blackberry #
• just preview my post from my berry, doesn’t look right…aaargh, will have to email it to myself and post conventionly #
• gone running #
• At the movie special screening of zombiland. #
• Spaces’ Natasha Eloi just walked in to the special screening of Zombieland #
• Zombieland was really funny #
• running Tweetdeckv0.30.4, wouldn’t let me post and said “there was a problem with Twitter…there was no problem with Twitter but with TD #

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Testing wordpress blackberry app

Testing wordpress blackberry app ver. 0.9.0.149. As you all know I’m a run leader at the Toronto runners lounge, well tonight Priscilla Lopes-Schliep will be at the lounge so I wanted to document and so decided to try the WP app.

This is my second attempt on posting from my Blackberry Bold, I lost a very amazing post when I attempted to add a second pic from my SD card. Ok so the test was a three parter:
(1) overall feel and intuitiveness of the app
(2) ease of use of features
(3) attaching images
(4) attaching video

Before I get into, I would recommend you save often and definitely before adding additional images. I have it set to save a draft to the server but you can choose to have it save locally too. I just checked the server after hitting save 3 times nothing there. I just changed it to ‘local draft’, and copy the article in case something happens. Today more and more apps are being released as BETA, vendors are cutting test and using use as the unknowing BETA tester, I blame google and they can blame Microsoft.

(1) overall feel and intuitiveness of the app
(2) ease of use of features (1and 2 are basically should have been one in the same)

As far as the look and use of this app I really like everything I see and have used. Its clean easy grasp on this my first use. Things are well laid out and easy to find. The only thing I don’t like is that when I searched for a pic on device it gave me a list of the images not a pictorial preview of images so you have to know the exact name of the desired file.

(3) attaching images
Like I said this is were I lost the first article that was amazing…yes amazing. Well I’ll try to take a picture and see what happens. I’ve first, not sure if that’s working but I hope so. I took a new pic(shadow of me hold a peace sign). When I took the pic I notice both the pic shot earlier of my tired football cleats and the pic of the kodak kiosk from my SD card that made me lose the first article that was amazing, are still there…could that be a bug, I’ll check the forums.

(4) attaching video
As I noted in my first article there are no provisions for attaching video so I’m going to look for a youtube app if any and will shoot the vid, upload then link it through my youtube account.

Conclusion
All finished and no crash…yet. The fact that you are reading this is evidence posting was successful. I like this app so far and since I find myself thinking of the most craziest things at the most inopportune times having a way to blog them on the go is a great thing for me. I hope they continue to improve this app and add more features in the future. And for myself I hop this helps me to blog more.

****UPDATE****
it actually didn’t work after I reviewed it I had to go in and repost using the web interface and recode the images to work properly.

NOTE
- limit on how many tags can be used
- lose all when adding image from SD card
- text list of images, a image preview would be better.
- when I tried submiting I received an error “Local Draft cannot be sended”
- add video or audio option
- my theme could be retrieved

My President is black

I was there.

For the first time in…forever, a visible black man is in the White House and he is not “the help”. The next election will be held on November 6th 2012 followed by the inauguration on January 20th 2013. Although I am a voting Canadian I’ve never been actively involved in the political scene because being Canadian there is no apparent black representation ever running for premier, the views portrayed on television during our elections is heavily white centric, there is never anyone that looks like me. This year during the American 08 elections for the first time in my 36 years on the planet I saw something new and exciting, I saw a visible black man running for President of one of the most powerful countries on earth, a country whose history is that of slave drivers, bigotry and intolerance towards black people and other people of visible ethnic diversity, and now there was black man running for president. In the past other black men have ran for the presidential seat but non that seem so capable and non that actually seem to have a real chance until Barrack Obama. I decided that this was my chance to be a part of my black history and give to my black people that have giving me so much, my chance to make a change. I watched the election as closely as I could and traveled to Detroit to volunteer my time and n the campaign. Myself and some friends canvassed houses in what seem to me to be badly degenerated areas in Detroit to encourage people to come out and vote and offer options to get them to the polls.

On Tuesday Nov 4/08 we drove to Chicago to volunteer for the last push and to make history and see if we could catch a live view of Mr. Obama. Admittedly I was a bit surprised when he won, I expected some sort of underhandedness by a system that was known for its sometimes questionable election process. When the ballots where all counted everyone was overwhelm with joy at Grant park, I first thank God and told myself to wait until the morning to really believe. And still I was cautious, I wanted to wait until Jan 20 when he was finally sworn in. Still what does this mean, a black man in the white house, man that has embraced technology, a man that is not afraid of change and seemingly wants to genuinely make life better for all people. The question remains in my head on how or when will I see the change because like many I need to see a tangible affects of a promise before I can believe.

A black man is the president of the United States of America, a black man, it blows my mind and gives me shivers, if America, a country steeped in hatred and intolerance can move towards change and vote in a descendant of black American slaves truly hope is alive. The feeling I get when I see or think about that beautiful black family in the white house is something I cannot put into words as yet. I wish were younger, younger so I could enjoy and live a life of more possibilities because now, its like the world has opened up even more, there are more choices now more opportunities available to all peoples. I envy my young niece and nephews because now they can not only dream to be president but they can be president if they so chose.

This election Barrack Obamas’ motto was ‘YES WE CAN’ I anticipate he will run again in 2012 I venture to guess his 2012 mantra will be ‘ONCE YOU GO BLACK YOU CAN’T GO BACK’.

Choosing the Right IT Service Provider

When you choose the IT service provider, you have to follow a few simple rules. The first one is that you have to analyze the need of your organization. If you are running a small company, you might not need help from a technical support person. But if the number of employees exceeds 40, then it is time to look for a good company for total computer support. A reliable network is must and you will also need good server architecture in order to store your files and protect your data from violation.

When you select a company for IT service, you should ask one basic question. How fast can they come for troubleshooting? The contract that you will be signing with the company will decide on the details. The time period specified should not be more than 4 hours. If they are taking more than 24 hours, it is better to rethink about your decision. The problem will not be specified in the allotted time, but the technician should at least start the process of troubleshooting within that specific time.

The reliability of the company can be ensured only by the clients or those people who have benefited from their services. You can always ask for references. It is always better to ensure beforehand that the company will respond on time in hours of distress. Be it the Christmas eve or in the middle of the night, the company should be at your service always. When you lose precious data because of hardware failure, you will not like the feeling. You can always talk with the representative of the company in details before you proceed to make the deal for IT service.

When you look at the contract papers, you should look for specifications, like if the service is prepaid or not. It is better if one person comes for computer support. He will know the details, will have the record of previous trouble tickets and as a result, it will be easier for him to locate the problem in order to fix it. If you are working with someone new, there will be a lot of time lost over explanation. The remote support control desk is a unique feature. If you are located in California and facing a problem, there will be an engineer who will log in and will save you from distress. While choosing the service providers, you can ask, if they have the provision of this particular service.

There is one company which will impress you with their customized computer support. ithelpcrew.com has the expertise and the knowledge. And as for the customers, there have been great responses. The satisfaction rating is indeed high. Along with the on-site service which is available in the GTA, the company also offers remote control service.

Contact www.ithelpcrew.com today for IT service.

Choosing the Right IT Service Provider by Colin Receveur

Article Source: ABC Article Directory