January 2001 || Volume 01, Issue 06

Internet Telephony is Evil

Instead of my usual Mac sites this month, I'd like to tell y'all a story. [I was unaware that Canadians could say the word "y'all"... Dennis must've added that to his vocabulary on the way to the Caribbean - Ed.] It's a sad story with a sad ending, at least up to now. Sitting comfortably in front of the fire with a nice drink? Then I'll begin.

First I want to assure you that I wouldn't exchange my Mac for a Wintel machine for all the world. However, there's no denying that just occasionally the Pea Sears have an edge on us in application availability. Case in Point: IP telephony.

Here in this part of the Caribbean, the Netherlands Antilles, we pay a lot of money for phone calls to the outside world. A lot of people here get around this by using Net2Phone, an application that lets you use a computer's connection to the Internet to connect to an ordinary telephone elsewhere in the world. The connection isn't as clear as a normal phone call, but the cost is a lot less: just the net connection charge (also by the minute here), plus a few pennies per minute, depending upon where you're phoning, to Net2Phone.

http://www.net2phone.com

Unfortunately (and I'll bet you know what's coming) this app is available only for Wintel.

But hey, what's the Internet for except to find cool stuff on?

And there does seem to be a way of using the Net2Phone technology without getting into the Peecee world. Although it's not very apparent from the Net2Phone site, there's a standalone gizmo called the Yapjack that uses the same network and the same technology. You plug it into the phone jack in the wall, connect it on the other side to an ordinary phone, program it with your ISP information and such, and then bingo, you're making IP calls over the Internet at a rather small fraction of a normal phone call. And no computer (Wintel or other) needed -- there's a 56k modem inside this gadget. Exactly what I need.

http://www.yapgear.com

Good site. Lots of cool animated GIFs. And there's a Store Locator.

Oh... "Not available in Canada" means a drive to CompUSA in Syracuse to get one. Big display: a wall built out of Yapjack cartons, all with Yapjacks inside. Salesman very positive... $160 plus sales tax.

Back over the border to Canada, pay our two layers of sales tax on the Yapjack.

Down to the Caribbean, Yapjack proudly in hand. First one on this island, I should think. Shouldn't be a problem to connect up: the ISP has absolutely standard equipment, and the PowerBook connected up and got on at the first attempt. Connect the leads. Program Yapjack Account number and PIN, ISP phone number, logon, password...

Just one problem: it didn't work. Not just that it didn't work well, it didn't work at all. Failed to connect to the ISP.

OK, I did some of the programming wrong. Not that intuitive really, and easy to make an error. For example, to input "Dennis", you punch the following into the phonepad:

33333#333#666#666#4444#77777#
Get it?

Go back and check it all. Still no good. Do it all over. Still nothing.

OK, go to Yapgear's site. Hey, there's a place where you can describe your problem and have a techie get back to you. 24 - 48 hours, they say. Great; help is on the way.

48 hours: nothing. Oh well, the techies are helping all those other folks. Once they get around to me they'll know all the answers.

Wait for a week, a month: nothing. Try again, same sad story punched into the little box in the Yapgear site. Still nothing. Too bad there's no actual email address.

There's an 888 number. Well guess what... it doesn't work from here.

That was in September and October. So now here I am with the useless box, and nothing can be done about it. No-one to help. You live and learn. And you get poorer.

More Great Newspaper Sites

One of the most available newspapers around the world, especially in non-English-speaking countries is the International Herald Tribune. The New York Herald Tribune, published from 1924 to 1966, used to be one of the most respected of all American newspapers. Unfortunately the domestic edition was a victim of intense competition; the International Edition, though, had a good infrastructure, a large, affluent, and dedicated following, and not much in the way of direct competition. Accordingly, it was kept going by a consortium of other American newspapers. Published in Paris and aimed at American expats, it has a distinctly American outlook, but a much more cosmopolitan perspective than the usual American offerings. I've often wished I could get it when traveling in the U.S.

Its web edition is splendid as well, and well worth following.

http://www.iht.com

Many of the great European newspapers are unavailable to most of us, on account of their unfortunate habit of being written in foreign languages. Written in a somewhat-less foreign language are the British newspapers, and all the best ones have extensive websites.

The most famous one of all is probably The Times. Perhaps a little staid and safely to the right of centre, The Times is nevertheless a superb newspaper. Its news reports are as thorough and reliable as you'll find anywhere, and its editorial writing excellent. There's lots of domestic material, of course, but even if you eschew all of that, you have a very solid offering of international news, some of which you won't find anywhere else.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk

Next in line of venerability is probably the Daily Telegraph. In a former incarnation, the Tele was a creature of old-fashioned noblesse-oblige conservatism. Now it's owned by Canadian tycoon Conrad Black; like all his other properties around the world, the Telegraph now reflects faithfully his Con-Radical values and philosophy. Fortunately, this philosophy includes an emphasis on quality as well as on the bottom line and the espousal of a rather extreme form of free-market doctrinal beliefs. And no-one can accuse His Blackness of sneaking his biases in under any wires: everything is proudly and narcissistically upfront. So if you know what you're getting, it's a very worthwhile read. It also has what must be the best index and news search engine in the business.

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk

On the left is another venerable newspaper with a much-respected tradition, even amongst its political opponents. At one time, The Guardian was irreverently known as the Gnuardia on account of its less-than-perfect proofreading -- are you reading this, Marc, or are you gonna put misplaced apostrophes into my writing again? [I think adding one typo after fixing a dozen puts me ahead by far... unless those were all creative Canadian spellings on your part ;) - Ed.] However, now that machines perform these rather mundane tasks, the Guardian looks and feels what it is: a quality, irreverent, but fresh and thoughtful window on the world.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

The other newspaper seeks to represent a more balanced political view, and seeks with some success to eschew all the biases of the others' editorial content, while keeping their best qualities of objectivity in the news pages and quality of writing.

If you're at all serious about following world news, you owe to yourself to surf over to some of these sites. And if you want a fresh look at U.S. politics and concerns, you might just find more of it than what you'd expect, and a variety of fresh viewpoints to boot.

Well, that's enough for now. Please send all comments to dennis@macosjournal.com or use the super easy feedback form.

Dennis Field - dennis@macosjournal.com
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