Communications
Centralized calls with web-based recording
Referring to the Mini Phone Recorder and the request for web-based recording solutions, I've been using Grand Central and Free Conference Call to record calls for a few months now. Both are free services, with Free Conference Call giving you the option to record calls between many many callers (up to 96 callers at the same time!). It works great, like FreeConference.com, and registration is open to all. However, I really prefer Grand Central (owned by Google). The service's main benefit is that you can route multiple numbers through one line. But it's rather easy to record calls; you simply press 4, either from the moment you pick up or at specific times for parts. The call archives to your Grand Central Inbox, and you have the option of forwarding it on via email and also downloading it as an mp3. I prefer Grand Central because they provide you with an actual number people can call you at, and allow calls to that number to be forwarded to any other phones you have. This is especially useful in business situations or when you need to give out a number online. I mostly give the number to friends and family so that when they need to find me they just call that number and it will ring the places where I mostly am (home, cell phone, etc.), but I also use it when dealing with merchants who ask for a phone number so as to not give away a personal number. The added appeal of Grand Central is that you get email and/or SMS notifications whenever you have voicemail messages in the unlikely event that you miss the call. There's also a "webcall" feature that allows you to initiate a call from the Grand Central web site and display that number (instead of your home/cell/work line) as caller ID to the person you are calling. The only downside is Grand Central is in beta and invite only last time I checked, but you can go online and request a number, and they'll usually get you one in a few days.
-- Ed Fonseca
When I requested a number from Grand Central, I received one the very next day. Once you're in, you can invite 10 friends. I sent it to a few writer/journalist colleagues. Documenting interviews via cell phone on the fly is a truly remarkable development for any reporter, especially those used to being tethered to a desk with an old-fashioned phone tap. From the interviewee's perspective, you always know when you're being recorded because a voice prompt interrupts the call each time the interviewer presses 4. Grand Central has plenty of jazzy features -- centralizing all your numbers alone is the main selling point -- but eliminating the gray area of what's on and off the record ranks high on my list. Also, just a reminder, the laws about recording on the phone vary by state in the US.
-- Steven Leckart
Grand Central
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Calisto Pro Hands-Free Phone System
Goog(le) 411
RadioTime
Cheap, dependable phone tap
For the last seven years, I've used the Mini Recorder Control to document every 'phoner' I've done as a freelance writer. Like the Recorder Control from Radio Shack, it acts as the go-between for a land line headset and any recorder with a 1/8" mic jack. However, this one's about about half the price. Since it's light and compact, mine is always with me in a little pouch stuffed with a notebook, pens and a Griffin iTalk Pro that allows me to record direct to my iPod. Over time, I've upgraded from a desktop dictation machine to a handheld mini-cassette recorder to two different versions of the Griffin. The only item in my "bag of tricks" that hasn't become obsolete or pooped out is the Mini Recorder Control. Interestingly, I found many of my colleagues in journalism school had independently discovered this exact gadget.
-- Steven Leckart
Mini Recorder Control
$18
Available from Radio Shack
Previously available from Amazon
[Recently I've been playing around with a web-based service called RecordMyCalls; you call an 800#, enter your account info and the # you wish to dial, and the call will be recorded and accessible online shortly after; it's $5 a month for 500MB of storage (at $0.20/min. for U.S. calls), but you can also download the file and own it forever; the sound quality is reasonable, so if you need to record in a pinch or from a cell phone or remotely where there's no web access or Skype, this seems like a viable option; I haven't used it enough to write a proper recommendation, but it seems promising; if you have used it OR if you have an even better solution, please let us know. --sl]
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Radio Journalism Production Tools
Broadvoice
ZYB
Free directory assistance
Directory assistance has always wanted to be free. Since it launched six months ago, Google's foray into phone-based information for business listings has become the easiest, quickest, most efficient free 411 I've used. I'm amazed more people don't have it programmed into their phones. Best part: there are no pre-roll ads. Another well-known option is 1-800-FREE411, but it can take 20 seconds before the "What city and state?" finally arrives. With GOOG-411, the same prompt is delivered in 4 seconds. Time is precious, but even more so if you're on a conservative plan with limited minutes. For that same reason (read: frugality), I'm less inclined to use SMS-based 411 or Google SMS. GOOG-411 also connects your call to the business for free, so there's no need to jot down or memorize any digits. Dialing "411" and paying $2 is like flipping through one of Ma Bell's analog phone books when you've got a connected laptop right in front of you -- an easily-remedied symptom of a bygone era.
-- Steven Leckart
1-800-GOOG-411
Available from Google
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
ZYB
Dual USB Charger
ARC Freedom Antenna
Graphic novels deconstructed
Comic books, comics, graphic novels, or whatever you call them are not a genre, they're a medium. Wolk emphasizes this from the outset of this vivid examination of the form and many of the geniuses and misfits of the American mainstream and avante-garde. Always frank, always insightful, Wolk, a former comic book store clerk, covers a lot of ground: pregnant moments, metacomics, parallel Earths, disposable Sunday strips, and, of course, how the world of comics can be "annoyingly male." The first half of the book tackles history along with an overall assessment of what comics mean and how to read them. There are great bits about what makes a "superreader" and how the form blossomed despite the economics of limited shelf space. The second half is a series of precise essays on specific artists, including Chris Ware, Alison Bechdel, Art Spiegelman, Charles Burns and Steve Ditko. Critics often disparage contemporary artists or cite a myriad of ways their work could never compare with the classics of yesteryear. Wolk doesn't pull punches, so that makes his optimism all the more appealing: he believes the next generation of cartoonists, currently coming of age with Manga, animation and those 'classics,' will soon be doing amazing work. Until that happens, this is the book to catch you up and understand much of where they'll be coming from.
-- Steven Leckart
Reading Comics
Douglas Wolk
2007, 371 pages
$16
Available from Amazon
Sample excerpts:
No matter how far back you go, though, there's always going to be something comicslike - if a bit less so with every step. There's not much to be gained from that kind of ancestor seeking, other than a kind of validation that salves nothing but insecurity. Better, perhaps, to wave vaguely at the past and say that, yes, comics have been around for a good long time, and a lot of the formal conventions associated with the medium's current state were solidified (although probably not created) in the early twentieth century. No genius gave birth to the form; it just coalesced.
*
Nostalgia, especially nostalgia for childhood, is a heavy burden for a medium to bear, and comics have been carrying it since the culture around them began to coalesce. The comics collecting market was called the 'nostalgia market' at first; The Comics Journal was renamed from The Nostalgia JournalÅ As far as thinking about what makes comics interesting, though, nostalgia is poison - no just because it makes people overvalue the stories that fueled their childhood fantasies but because it makes them misunderstand the reasons why the good stuff or even the resonant crap affected them so strongly, and what exactly might have been messed up about it, or the way it made them feel the first time around.
*
Once you've seen Steven Ditko's hands, it's hard to forget them. Not the hands of the famously private cartoonist himself - not many people have seen those. The hands he draws on his characters, though, are unmistakable: expressively gesticulating, fingers pointing in all directions, casting spells or shooting webs or passing judgment. Ditko doesn't have as big a name outside comics' inner circles as his reputation among cartoonists would suggest - there'll never be an awards ceremony named after him - and his deliberately low profile has a lot to do with it. Insisting that his work speaks for itself, he's refused to be photographed or interviewed since the early '60s, and his prickly, loopy individualism has kept fame at bay. Still, he's the ghost haunting the last forty years of American comic books. Over time, his incandescent drawing style darkened, clotted, and shriveled into something much less easy to like, but more like a product of the art-comics world to which he's never suggested he feels any kinship. If his work has a single constant theme, it's I'm Not Like Everybody Else.
*
Until the late '60s, virtually all American comic books were published by a handful of large companies, because that was the only way they could claw their way onto the limited rack space at newsstands; no matter how expressive and creative a comic book was, it also had to be broadly commercially viable or there was no sense publishing it. The fact that unsold comics were returned to the publisher meant that a not-especially-successful issue could be a financial disaster. And a print run of five thousand or ten thousand copies of a comic was unthinkable - there would have been no where to sell it. That began to change in the '60s, as the counterculture created an informal network of head shops and record stores that were prime outlets for selling 'underground comix' - mostly black-and-white, artist-driven comics that mainly showed off their countercultural credentials by being as transgressive as possibleÅ In the mid-'70s, largely as a result of the efforts of a guy named Phil Seuling, comics 'direct market' came into being. Distributors made deals with comics publishers to sell comics to specialty stores earlier than newsstands got them and for a deeper discount than newsstands got, but on a nonreturnable basis. Newsstands and drugstores, the traditional venues for comics, had no use for old issues once the new ones came out, so they'd tear the covers off comics that didn't sell and return them to distributors for credit, as with any other magazine. Comics stores, which knew their market, could order exactly as many copies of each title as they figured they could use, and whatever didn't sell before the next issue appeared could always be sold later for a bit of a markup. The direct market transformed the comics industry, although it took a few years before cartoonists figured out how to use it to their advantage.
*
People talk about 'graphic novels' instead of comics when they're trying to be deferential or trying to imply that they're being serious. There's always a bit of a wince and stammer about the term; it plays into comics culture's slightly miserable striving for 'acknowledgment' and 'respect.' It's hard to imagine what kind of cultural capital the American comics industry (and its readership) is convinced that it's due and doesn't already have. Perhaps the comics world has spent so long hating itself that it can't imagine it's not still an underdog. But demanding (or wishing for) a place at the table of high culture is an admission that you don't have one; the way you get a place at the table of high culture is to pull up a chair and say something interesting.
*
There's a certain kind of rain that falls only in comics, a thick, persistent drizzle, much heavier than normal water, that bounces off whatever it hits, dripping from fedoras, running slowly down windowpanes and reflecting the doom in bad men's hearts. It's called an 'eisenshpritz,' and it's named after the late Will Eisner, one of the preeminent stylists of twentieth-century comics, who never drew a foreboding scene that couldn't be made a little more foreboding with a nice big downpour. Eisner deserves his veneration in the comics world. He was one of the most gifted, innovative storytellers American comics have produced, and his work has had a lasting impact on the aesthetics and the economics of the medium. The comics industry's annual awards are named after Eisner; until his death in 2005, its honorees had the thrill of being handed an Eisner Award by Eisner himself. (I was one of the award's judges in 2001 an have never been starstruck as badly as I was meeting him.)
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Making Comics
The 911 Report: A Graphic Adaptation
Cartoon History of the Universe III
Short digital installments of long books
DailyLit sends you bite-sized chunks of public domain books (including many classics) daily, on weekdays, or three times a week via email or RSS -- for free. Each serving takes less than five minutes to read, and if you want, they'll send you the next installment right away if you click a link. So far, I've read "Bartleby, the Scrivner" -- 18 segments over the course of 3 weeks or so -- and I just signed up for Crime and Punishment - more than 240 segments! Yes, it may take 9 months to read, but I'm certainly more likely to finish it this way. I read them in my email reader (Thunderbird) and don't print them out. The whole idea is to read short segments for a few minutes in your spare time. I'd imagine it would work well on a PDA or Blackberry if you have one (I don't); if you have a long cab ride or something you can get the next segment immediately.
-- Jonathan Fromme
DailyLit
World news unfiltered
SCOLA is a non-profit that rebroadcasts television programming (mostly news) from around the world in original languages (everything from Albanian to Vietnamese). It's intended as a language learning aid -- and it's great for that -- but you don't necessarily need to speak the language in order to get something out of the broadcasts. You can understand a lot about what's being discussed -- and sometimes how it's being discussed is interesting in itself -- even if you don't understand a word of what's being said. It's a great way to get a sense of a country you don't know much about. My brother-in-law said his image of Nepal as a backwater was forever changed after he saw their nightly newscast, complete with sophisticated commercials.
When I was at university in the early nineties, they ran SCOLA on the closed circuit cable system in the dorms. I'd forgotten all about it until a few years ago when I visited my mother-in-law in Omaha, where it's on the cable system (SCOLA is based in neighboring Council Bluffs, IA). I wanted to keep watching SCOLA at home, but at that time, online streaming was only available to institutional subscribers. I went back to Omaha again recently, rediscovered SCOLA, and was excited to discover they now offer individual subscriptions (it's also available on free-to-air satellite and from some cable providers).
The individual subscription allows you to stream SCOLA live or download individual programs. Downloading is ideal; you don't even need to TiVo the broadcasts you want. I recently downloaded news from Cuba, Spain, Kurdistan, Burma, and Egypt. I don't even speak Kurdish or Burmese, but where else are you going to get a chance to watch this stuff, or even hear what those languages sound like? I got a "Level 1" subscription which means that for $10 I get 15 hours of SCOLA per month, either via streaming or download. This is cheaper than satellite radio, and besides, Sirius and XM aren't going to give you the news in Kazakh.
-- Rob Ryan-Silva
SCOLA TV
$10 - 30*
Available from SCOLA
[*$15 (Level 2) gets you 25 hours per month; $20 (Level 3) gets you 40 hours per month; as it turns out, my Comcast cable package includes SCOLA and I didn't even know it until now --sl]
Quick online guide to charts & diagrams
If you've ever wondered how to model something, or were looking for new ideas for segmenting and presenting complex concepts, this is an incredible online resource. A neat graphical explanation and example of each "element" (ex; a cycle diagram) appears as soon as your cursor scrolls over them. What I like most is that the categorisers have thoroughly sliced the categorising! For instance, they've color-coded their categories: data, metaphor, concept, strategy, information, and compound visualisation techniques. As if that were not enough to spark your brain, the creators also provide clues as to whether the model works best for convergent or divergent thinking, and whether it is more for an overview vs. detailed perspective. So far, I have used it mostly for inspiration, especially the metaphor models, but this resource has given me ideas and structure and the appropriate language for my work as a process designer and facilitator. I also passed this onto a 7th grade teacher friend of mine who is using it with his entire class!
-- Jodie Engleberg
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Free
Available here
Created by Dr. Martin J. Eppler & Ralph Lengler, University of Lugano, Switzerland
Example "elements":
Access to human help
When you need a problem-solving human on the phone, try these numbers and their short cuts. This is the best list I've seen of 800 numbers with humans at the other end. Even better are the voice mail short cuts for each number that take you to the warm brain the quickest. Searchable with cntrl-F.
Get Human
Cheap international phone calls
 
I've had my OneSuite phone account for a few years and I use it to call friends in China (2.2 cents a minute) and Europe, quite conveniently. Onesuite is a prepaid "phone card" without the card. You get a PIN based on your phone number so it's easy to remember. You add funds to your account via the website. I like the feature that allows you to add "frequently called from" phone numbers to your account so you don't have to enter your PIN when calling.
There are several advantages OneSuite has over Internet calling systems such as Skype. With OneSuite you can use a regular phone, including a payphone -- you don't have to be connected to a computer. In all the times I've used OneSuite I've never experienced the distracting delays during the conversation which I have experienced with Skype and some other calling services (where you don't hear the what the other person says until 1-2 seconds after they've said it. OneSuite claims it does not use Internet telephony so I guess that's why.
Just as important, some, though not all, of OneSuite rates are often cheaper. I haven't checked all of them but the two I looked at -- China-Beijing and India-Hyderabad -- are cheaper with OneSuite. Italy is cheaper to mobile phones but slightly more to land lines.
There's no per-call surcharge and the per-minute rates are generally quite low. Your account "expires" after six months of non-use (where use includes adding funds). But you actually don't lose your funds when it expires--you just need to add $10 and you'll have your previous funds reactivated. (There's no excuse to let it expire, though, as you can make domestic long-distance calls with the service too--2.5 cents/minute.)
It's best calling from the U.S. to other countries, but they're starting to add additional countries you can call from. They also offer voicemail and other services which I haven't tried, but just the long-distance service is worth it for me. Basically, the prices are comparable and often cheaper than Skype, and you don't have the worry about the reliability of Internet telephony (and don't need a computer on the calling end).
-- Maria Blees
OneSuite
How to communicate visually
Magnificent! A work of genius. The best how-to manual ever published. I could keep piling on the superlatives because this book is simply a masterpiece. At one level, it is a comic book about how to make comics, and for that it is supreme; the best. It will walk you through every step of making a comic, including how to make them on the web, digitally, or in pen and ink. I've been working on a near-completed graphic novel, and every page has told me something important and spot on. With brilliant graphics, Scott McCloud combines the most profound insights from his two previous books, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. But in this book he raises your understanding of graphic communication further by making every lesson utterly practical and useful for both novice and expert. I can't imagine anyone ever doing a comic manual better.
However, even if you are not planning on making a graphic novel, this book is a gold mine. McCloud's section on constructing facial expressions and emotions is astounding, and worth the price of the book alone. The clever way McCloud arrays human expressions in one chart reminds me of the first time I saw all the colors arranged in a color wheel; it's the same aha! The insights McCloud extracts from comics and presents so vividly here are useful to novelists, sociologists, film makers, artists, roboticists -- anyone interested in human expression. That's probably you.
Indeed, even if you have no interest in comics at all, this charming book will win a place in your life because ultimately it is about communication and stories -- and those are the foundations of all cultures. Making Comics teaches you the visual elements of stories. If I had to re-title it, I would call this book Making Visual Stories.
Finally, as an example of communication itself, this comic book has few peers. I read, review and use hundreds of how-to books every year. I can't think of any instructional manual in any subject that is clearer, more thorough, more honest, more user friendly than Making Comics.
As I said, it's a classic. You can expect to find marked-up copies on bookshelves (or on hard drives) a hundred years from now.
-- KK
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
Scott McCloud
2006, 272 pages
$16
Available from Amazon
Scott McCloud's website, featuring chapter 5½
Sample excerpts:
*
*
*
Free mobile phone backup
Here's a cool tool that I stumbled upon. It's called ZYB (quite uninformative name, but typical web 2.0 lingo I guess). It's a free backup service for your mobile phone. Quite impressive what you can do on that site -- back up contacts, etc. and actually it's a bit strange that they even can get the backup to work over the mobile's GPRS connection. I've used it for a month now and I'm impressed that it's even possible to make a backup of your mobile that way. I don't know how they do it or why it hasn't been done before!
-- Roar Nilsen
ZYB
Free phone 411
The number is 1-800-Free 411, and it's pretty self-explanatory. It's free directory information. Works on cells and land lines. The other day I was about to call a store, and my sister shouted 1-800 Free411 at me as I pulled down her driveway. I dialed it on my cell phone, and gave the name, town, and city. Somewhere in there they air a 12 second commercial, but then they give you your requested number, and even repeat it twice. I haven't experimented yet, but you MAY even be able to circumvent the commercial by pressing "2" on your keypad.
Cell phone companies in MOST parts of the world only charge you for calls you place; incoming calls are free (as they SHOULD be), so I'm annoyed enough when I return to the USA. If I can find a way to keep large corporations from taking more $$ outta my hide, I do it. When cell phone companies charge you up to $2.50 for a directory information request, I'll listen to 12 seconds of blather instead.
-- Duffy Franco
1-800-Free 411
1-800-373-3411
Free411
Speech transcription that works
I have been sampling speech recognition tools for a long time (e.g., earlier Dragon versions, Microsoft Office add-ins) and they have always come up short. They required extensive training time, they were sensitive to background noise, they were only 80% accurate; for at least one reason (frequently several) they were not ready for prime time use. Nuance's Dragon 8 changes that. I was blown away by the speed and accuracy of the transcription. I am using a 1GHz laptop with 512MB of memory - not a screamer - and it can keep up with me just fine. (Hint: don't wait for it to catch up word by word, just keep talking; it analyzes context.)
The initial setup (including preliminary training) takes less than an hour - and that includes an analysis of your email and documents to better understand your writing style. I have been amazed at the things it picks up out of that analysis.
I had Dragon 8 installed for only a week when I used it to process large volumes of dictation (I was reading what others had hand written). One of the participants observed me dictating material and assumed I was using a $4,000 setup because of the speed and accuracy.
When you first use it, be sure to take the time to correct the early "misunderstandings" using Dragon itself (although you can use the mouse and keyboard concurrently with Dragon). Making corrections with Dragon adds to its learning -- and the speed with which it picks up nuance (no pun intended) is amazing. The command syntax is fairly good and can be customized. For example, saying the word "select" followed by a word or phrase will result in the selection of that word or phrase. "Cap That", "Bold That", "Cut That", are all valid commands at that point. It's fairly sophisticated and only sometimes confuses words for commands.
The preferred and professional versions come with software support for a number of digital recorders (so you can send your recorded dictations through to be transcribed) but since the training is voice specific it would likely require additional training for interviews with others to be successful.
The Preferred edition is the best choice for general use - it comes with a good headset/microphone and is available from Amazon for $120, with rebate.
Amazing!
-- Durwin Sharp
Dragon Naturally Speaking 8
Preferred Edition
$170
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Nuance
How to tell stories
It's a small joke, but it works. A graphic artist embedded herself at the legendary radio show This American Life and created a comic book (all pictures) on how to make great narrative radio (no pictures). Well, at least how to make radio like This American Life makes it, which in my opinion is the best radio being made. There's less on recording techniques and more on how radio narratives work (or don't). It's not about news radio, nor talk radio, but story radio. In this respect, this slim, 32-page comic book will help anyone telling stories, and also make you a better radio listener, too.
-- KK
Radio: An Illustrated Guide
Jessica Abel and Ira Glass
1999, 32 pages
$4
Available from Amazon
Dashboard for the hive mind
Recently I surveyed the emerging web filters which rely on consensus methods (see the CT review) as a way to quickly read what was happening in the world. I hypothesized that soon there would be a meta-site that would aggregate all the consensus filters into one. The next day Thomas Marban from Austria wrote me to say that he had already written one, called PopUrls. I've been using it daily for the past month and its great.
This single page now replaces my need to directly read Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Furl, Slashdot, BoingBoing, NewsVine, Metafilter and all the others that I subscribe too. This one page encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from 15 consensus filters, and top thumbnail images from the social sites Flickr, YouTube, and Google Video. The hive mind on one screen.
Here's how I use it. On one page I can scan the latest headlines of what the web collectively thinks is either popular or interesting. A simple mouse over the headline will cleverly reveal a small box of expanded text on the article. If I want even more, a click will open the original entry in the filter. In five minutes I can scan 18 social site sources thoroughly. I get an excellent feel for what is new and what is worth following up (a small amount of overlap between sources helps).
The design of PopUrls is brilliant. There's two flavors, black on white or white on black. Function drives form, buttons are minimal. It feels like a well-designed command post for a concise debriefing. Even on a large screen, like the 21-incher I use, there's a bit of scrolling. But I've come to realize that I MUCH prefer this single fixed sheet to endless RSS feeds in a reader. In fact, the page is essentially an improved interface for multiple RSS feeds, which keep PopUrls constantly updated. The dashboard doesn't move, while all the streams flowing into it keep it lively.
There's no better way to watch the hive mind.
-- KK
PopUrls
Abuse-Resistant Cell Phone
 
I don't go out of my way to destroy phones, but my absent-mindedness makes it seem as if I do. Also, I want a phone to be primarily a practical device, not a fetish object loaded with gimmicks. Hence my enduring affection for the humble Motorola v.60.
Protected by a metal clamshell case, this phone has survived more abuse than any other that I've owned. I have dropped the v.60 on wood floors, kitchen tiles, and concrete parking lots (many times). Once, while I was in a distracted frame of mind, I dropped it, then trod on it (hard), and then kicked it inadvertently across the room. When it hit the wall its back panel flew off and its battery fell out, but after reassembly, everything still worked. The phone is now scuffed, scratched, and dented (see photos) but I think its battle-scarred look adds character.
Also I like its unfashionable retro functionality: It doesn't take photos and has only a small monochrome screen with limited backlighting (thus a long battery life). It lacks an extensible antenna yet performs better than my friends' phones in marginal reception areas in Northern Arizona. It does have speakerphone built in. Motorola doesn't make them anymore but you can still buy them on eBay--in fact they're so cheap, I bought a second one to keep as backup, pending the day when my inconsiderate treatment finally destroys the first one.
If 1960s cars can be fashionable in Hollywood, surely late-1990s phones must stage a comeback at some point. When people look with surprise at my "piece of junk," I tell them I'm just ahead of my time.
Motorola v.60
$30 approx.
Available from eBay
Indoor cell phone booster
Thanks to several dozen Cool Tool readers, I received many suggestions for boosting the strength of my cell phone signal indoors. Basically, the suggestions broke down into four major categories:
1) Use call forward system to forward cell calls to my land line.
2) Use a VOIP solution that would ring to both my cell number and land line number.
3) Use a wireless indoor antenna booster. This requires mounting an antenna outside the house and running cable to a smaller antenna in the room. Typical cost of this solution starts over $400.
4) Use a wired indoor antenna booster. This requires having a cable connect from the phone to an indoor antenna. These solutions range from about $40 to $100, depending on the size of the antenna.
I ended up going with option 4, as a low cost "good enough" solution. I bought an ARC Freedom Antenna. The antenna comes with a three foot cable attached, with a female adaptor at the end. You then have to buy a cable specific for your phone. I have the Palm Treo 600 and got the cable from http://www.MaxMost.com for $12 plus shipping. (Note that Radio Shack apparently also sells this same antenna, but they have a unique cable terminator which requires you to choose only from their limited assortment of phone cables.) The antenna itself is encased in black plastic, about 4 inches wide by 7 inches high and very thin. It has a small detachable stand for table top use, or also comes with suction cups if you want to mount it to a window or wall. (This antenna can also be used in your car.)
In my case, I am in a windowless basement with poured concrete walls. Without the antenna I had 1 bar on my Treo with Verizon service, and with the antenna I now have 2 bars. For $52, I can at least now consistently dial out, receive calls and move around the office, although I am now tethered to the antenna. (Hey, maybe I'll rig up a way to connect this antenna to my belt!) Anyway, problem solved.
-- Bob Cooper
$40
Available from
WPS Antennas
Manufactured by
ARC Wireless Solutions
Cheap phone tap
I've used this little gizmo from Radio Shack for 20 years now. It's the cheapest way I know to record a phone conversation. I use it for doing phone interviews. Some folks use it to record teleconferences, or some to archive their voice mail. (The laws about recording on the phone vary by state in the US.) You can buy expensive gadgets that do the same, but no better than this one. Radio Shack still makes it, and it is still cheap at $26. You can plug it into a tape recorder, or digital recorder, or even your computer -- anything that will take a standard 1/8 inch input plug.
-- KK
Recorder Control
$30
Available from Radio Shack
Cheap global satellite phone
Cheap satellite phone service. $50/month for 120 minutes of satellite phone time throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia. It's a normal cell phone too, so you don't have to use your satellite minutes when you're in a city or near a cell tower. Oh, and it's also a 9.6kbit/sec modem, even in satellite mode.
The phone, a Qualcomm GSP-1600, lists at $650 new, but you can find them used for as little as $450. They are a favorite with back-country hikers.
-- Patrick Tufts
Globalstar GSP-1600 Trimode Satellite Phone
$475 new from Colorado Discoveries
Cheap portable wireless voice
Cheaper than cell phones; indispensable when outdoors. The most inexpensive mobile communications for short distances--up to two miles. If you are putting on a conference, an outdoor event, or traveling with a team, these rugged units are the things to have. They are inexpensive enough to ensure everyone on a team has one.
-- KK
Motorola TalkAbouts
$37
Amazon
Cheap unlimited internet phone service
This phone over the internet works wonderfully and cheaply if you have a high speed internet connection. You go to the Broadvoice website and subscribe. You select a new phone number (out of the numbers they list as available) in almost any area code you prefer (you can get your own number transferred but that's supposed to take a month)...then you wait a few days till they send you a little box. You also need to buy a router ($40-$50)... follow the simple installation noted on their website, then plug any phone (wired or wireless) into the phone box. You get a dial tone and voila, call anywhere in the US, as long as you like, for $20 a month. Just amazing.
I have been using this phone about 10-15 times a day and audibility seems fine; not one person has remarked about any difference in sound quality. I have experienced no outages, but I guess they are certainly possible. If I am online I can make and receive calls with no interruption of internet service. And the phone works with your PC shut down as well.
Also when you travel, you can take this little 4"x4" box with you -- your new number goes where the box goes! -- and if you can connect to a hi-speed internet line anywhere, and then plug a phone into it, you make and receive calls at the same number. Broadvoice even offers a mobile phone, called the Wisip, that taps into WiFi hot spots to make calls.
 
The initial set up charge is around $70 for box and start-up; thereafter flat $20 month, although a cheaper and more restricted program is available. That is still a third less than Vonage - the leader in net phone-to-phone services -- who just dropped their price to $30/month. Broadvoice advises keeping your original phone service until you're comfortable with the net phone (which has a very few limitations such as no 911 calling, but a lot of nice freebies such as call forwarding, etc).
-- Vincent Crisci
Broadvoice
Wisip Internet WiFi phone
Voxilla is a good site that compares various internet phone services.
Guide for the perplexed home sys admin
All the really smart computer people I know back off when it comes to keeping a network up. Maintaining a healthy home office network is no one's idea of fun. Neither is wiring it up to begin with. Their reluctance means more and more it's gonna be up to you. And don't think twice that wireless is going to give you a free pass. It's just as gnarly. For a bonus challenge, try mixing up Macs and PCs on the same network. Into this mess a new breed of entrepreneurs rushes offering home networking skills. (At a rate of $60/hour, if you've got the know-how, you've got a steady job.) I've hired a few and they were worth it. Yet, after they leave there are a hundred questions and things still need attention, and darn it, why is it always going down? The Little Network Book - the best of a small set of books - is a clue for the clueless. Without dumbing things down, it simply explains what's going on in those mysterious routers, switches, hubs, and protocols. It's helped me keep the visits from the experts to a minimum.
-- KK
The Little Network Book
For Windows and Macintosh
Lon Poole & John Rizzo
1999, 260 pages
$14
Peachpit Press
Berkeley CA
Also from Amazon
Excerpt:
Dynamic vs. Static IP Address: With some types of Internet accounts, you won't use the same public IP address every time you connect, because the ISP dynamically assigns address from a pool of reusable addresses. This type of address is called a dynamic IP address. It's fine to use for most small networks. But if you ever decide to serve Web pages or provide other services to the Internet from any of your computers, your ISP will need to assign you a static IP address - one that doesn't change - so Internet users can find your site.
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First, you don't need to turn on file sharing on every computer to move files back and forth. If you enable file sharing on your kids' computers (for instance) but not on your home office computer, you'll be able to move files back and forth from your computer, but the kids won't be able to accidentally open your investment portfolio (or other personal data) from their computers.
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Theory behind file sharing
Peer-to-peer is a hot buzzword, but nonetheless, there is something there there. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology means you can connect a lot of dumb things together — without a center — to make something smart. Most web pages are pretty dumb yet the web as a whole is ingenious. Napster and the other music sharing systems are good examples. Many observers believe peer-to-peer systems are destined to prevail throughout the net and beyond. Since these systems are very decentralized, very open, and very vague, no one knows how such networks will make money. Maybe they won’t, maybe they will just become ubiquitous. This anthology from O’Reilly has gathered the first round of hard thinking on the subject. If beta versions don’t interest you, you can skip this; it’s nerdy and technical. If, otherwise, the hard-core edge of the things to come is a siren call, you won’t get a better fix then here.
–KK
Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies
Edited by Andy Oram
2001, 432 pages
$30
O’Reilly
Amazon
Less weight than another charger
Little known fact: the USB peripheral ports on your computer (the cables going to printers, cameras, etc.) carry low-volt electrical power. This means you can use the big battery in your lap as a big recharger for a gadget. Globetrotting road-warriors have discovered they can carry one less adapter/recharger by packing this small cable. Plug one end into the USB port and the other into the cell phone. As long as you have power in your laptop, you can recharge your phone.
-- KK
USB Cell Phone Power Adaptor
$9
ThinkGeek
703.293.6299
888-433-5788
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