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Saturday, April 24, 2004
Messaging About Messaging
Can you send text messages internationally on your mobile phone, and if you can, are they cheap or expensive?
My cell is not a full featured service. I have a 'pay as you go' and only use it for emergency (to have in truck in winter) and for student contact. I don't really know.
No matter.
Many of my students have photo phones that play mp3 files and can practically mow the lawn. It all seems silly to me.
Yeh, my students and friends have mobiles that do everything except make toast. I'd like to have a photo phone and one so that I could text message.
Too cumbersome for me.
I used to ba able to text message from my computer and it was free but now they charge. I would pay but it's only available to ------- Mobile Plus service and most of my friends don't have Mobile Plus.
You need something like a Blackberry.
I've heard about the Blackberry, but too expensive and technology more than I need or could handle. Text messaging is possible from even the cheapest phones.
Okay, but keying in is way too slow.
The Philipinos here are real adept at it. Most of the world except North America do lots of it. In Thailand even, everybody is always text messaging.
Why not just talk?
The Philipinos I used to work with text messaged all the time to the Philipines, back and forth all day long. Each texted message only costs 50 fils - 12 cents from here. My friend is in Dubai. If I call his mobile, it is a long distance call for him to receive it.
Still seems like a stop gap measure, til we use messenger on wireless net devices.
Or if some one is away from the mobile or can't answer it, instead of just seeing a number of someone who called they can read a message when they get a chance. It's actually real handy.
Yeah, all right. I will take your word for it.
i thnk U wll B 2 bsy 2 gt bck 2 me so i snd u a txt mssg. This is the way my students are starting to write.
I think how most people use cell phones is also stupid and they are always chatting and never saying anything. Too bad more people don't know where the off switch is.
But like when I'm at work or out in the cinema, somebody can send me a txt mssg and I can read it in the cinema without the phone ringing or when I get back to my office. It would be great if they put answering machines in mobiles, but it seems txt mssging has precluded that.
Voice messaging is available on my cell. If I switch it .. it informs me .. but I turn that off too. If I can't answer then, I don't want to have to 'catch up' later.
I agree. Most mobile calls are useless, but then on the other hand, i was a the gym yesrterday and then went to the car wash and supernarket. By the time I got home and checked my message machine, it was too late to go to the cinemas with my friend Richard. If I had had a mobile with me, I would have not gone to the car wash and supermarket and met him at the cinema.
Very few businesses require such immediate, in-one's-face connections ... almost no ordinary people should.
Most don't but the example I just gave was one of those times when a mobile would have been handy.
No wonder half the world is on medication. People complain about stress .. then think of all sorts of ways to invite it into their lives! Good conversation ... dinner is ready now though.
Bye.
My cell is not a full featured service. I have a 'pay as you go' and only use it for emergency (to have in truck in winter) and for student contact. I don't really know.
No matter.
Many of my students have photo phones that play mp3 files and can practically mow the lawn. It all seems silly to me.
Yeh, my students and friends have mobiles that do everything except make toast. I'd like to have a photo phone and one so that I could text message.
Too cumbersome for me.
I used to ba able to text message from my computer and it was free but now they charge. I would pay but it's only available to ------- Mobile Plus service and most of my friends don't have Mobile Plus.
You need something like a Blackberry.
I've heard about the Blackberry, but too expensive and technology more than I need or could handle. Text messaging is possible from even the cheapest phones.
Okay, but keying in is way too slow.
The Philipinos here are real adept at it. Most of the world except North America do lots of it. In Thailand even, everybody is always text messaging.
Why not just talk?
The Philipinos I used to work with text messaged all the time to the Philipines, back and forth all day long. Each texted message only costs 50 fils - 12 cents from here. My friend is in Dubai. If I call his mobile, it is a long distance call for him to receive it.
Still seems like a stop gap measure, til we use messenger on wireless net devices.
Or if some one is away from the mobile or can't answer it, instead of just seeing a number of someone who called they can read a message when they get a chance. It's actually real handy.
Yeah, all right. I will take your word for it.
i thnk U wll B 2 bsy 2 gt bck 2 me so i snd u a txt mssg. This is the way my students are starting to write.
I think how most people use cell phones is also stupid and they are always chatting and never saying anything. Too bad more people don't know where the off switch is.
But like when I'm at work or out in the cinema, somebody can send me a txt mssg and I can read it in the cinema without the phone ringing or when I get back to my office. It would be great if they put answering machines in mobiles, but it seems txt mssging has precluded that.
Voice messaging is available on my cell. If I switch it .. it informs me .. but I turn that off too. If I can't answer then, I don't want to have to 'catch up' later.
I agree. Most mobile calls are useless, but then on the other hand, i was a the gym yesrterday and then went to the car wash and supernarket. By the time I got home and checked my message machine, it was too late to go to the cinemas with my friend Richard. If I had had a mobile with me, I would have not gone to the car wash and supermarket and met him at the cinema.
Very few businesses require such immediate, in-one's-face connections ... almost no ordinary people should.
Most don't but the example I just gave was one of those times when a mobile would have been handy.
No wonder half the world is on medication. People complain about stress .. then think of all sorts of ways to invite it into their lives! Good conversation ... dinner is ready now though.
Bye.
Labels: Don, technology, telephone
Friday, April 23, 2004
A Half Dozen Cheap Shots
I was at the mall so I picked up a SmartMedia reader, thinking that maybe my camera's USB cable had gone wonky. I unplugged the card from my camera, inserted it, and the photos were all available. I've put a total of a half dozen on two seperate pages. If I want to include pictures on this page, they have to be made very tiny. Even compressing to 800x600 never does a digital picture much justice, but feel free to take a look:
Click here ----> Photo Set One
Click here ----> Photo Set Two.
Click here ----> Photo Set One
Click here ----> Photo Set Two.
Labels: camera
SmartMedia is Not So Smart
Hum, I have 46 super-high quality photos sitting in my camera but when I plug it in, WinXP isn't recognizing the device. Eventually, I'm sure that I'll get it sorted out so as to add some visual representation of our recent circle trip to Washington state. The differences in geography were stunning. We saw temperate rainforest, a moutain pass where there's snow in July, dry desert grasslands, and prductive farms and meadows. The trip was was only 700 miles (1100 km).
It was a nice time. Oh and thank you, Thomas family, for a nice evening, good dinner and a great hike up your front-yard mountain!
It was a nice time. Oh and thank you, Thomas family, for a nice evening, good dinner and a great hike up your front-yard mountain!
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
The North Cascades Highway
We've travelled on thousands of kilometers of road in this province. British Columbia is huge but there are, relatively speaking, very few highways here. So, past journeys mean we've already been to most every place that is a comfortable two or three day drive.
We find ourselves with a few days to spare and will, therefore, drive to Washington state again. A few weeks back we headed down I-5 to WA Route 20 and headed over to Port Townsend to catch a ferry to the peninsular. Today, we'll go back to Route 20 and travel eastward. Just a few weeks ago, the North Cascades Highway reopened after its annual closure for the winter.
The weather is not supposed to be very good but maybe it'll get drier when we get out to the semi-desert. We could try to stay near the Grand Coulee Dam. Then, we will also stay with the Thomas family on Wednesday night. We've not visited them for years!
We find ourselves with a few days to spare and will, therefore, drive to Washington state again. A few weeks back we headed down I-5 to WA Route 20 and headed over to Port Townsend to catch a ferry to the peninsular. Today, we'll go back to Route 20 and travel eastward. Just a few weeks ago, the North Cascades Highway reopened after its annual closure for the winter.
The weather is not supposed to be very good but maybe it'll get drier when we get out to the semi-desert. We could try to stay near the Grand Coulee Dam. Then, we will also stay with the Thomas family on Wednesday night. We've not visited them for years!
Monday, April 19, 2004
Old But Not Forgotten!
DVD's are a great storage medium; not just for new Hollywood Blockbusters, but increasingly for entire seasons of television programming. In addition, because the of the vast improvement and convenience over tape, studios are releasing old movie classics which never made it onto VHS.
It was merely a few years ago when one of the only ways to see a foreign or an older film was to live near a city that had an art-house theatre. Trying to catch a showing on television was difficult and the commercials annoying. Now, a trip to the video store opens almost the entire world of cinema for personal, watch-anytime viewing.
I've been on a Hitchcock kick recently viewing:
It was merely a few years ago when one of the only ways to see a foreign or an older film was to live near a city that had an art-house theatre. Trying to catch a showing on television was difficult and the commercials annoying. Now, a trip to the video store opens almost the entire world of cinema for personal, watch-anytime viewing.
I've been on a Hitchcock kick recently viewing:
There are so many more! Also, I've started to research Tennessee Williams and have selected to rent A Streetcar Named Desire from DVDFLIX.CA.Rear Window (1954) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) Birds, The (1963) .
Labels: movies
Sunday, April 18, 2004
If you're reading this in British Columbia, you can check anytime to ensure that you are registered for organ and tissue donation upon your death. I cannot imagine any reason that would prevent someone from choosing to give life.
BC Organ Donor Lookup
BC Organ Donor Lookup
Locate additional information at the my eJournal and images blog site.