I just wanted to make a quick post this morning on the Jupiter Jack. It’s a hands free device that is for use in your car. Apparently they are doing a commercial blitz on this stupid product right now. I got a phone call from my brother who had got suckered into this thing. What an idiot! He thought he could save a few dollars over a Bluetooth device and it ended up costing him. He bought the device for 20 bucks and when he installed and tested it in his car was totally unhappy with the quality. It seemed to work fine when he was sitting in a parking lot motionless but the whole point of the Jupiter Jack is to talk while driving. When cruising at highway speeds the feeback was super annoying and did not work as advertised. He decided to send the product back. The company took the device back as promised but charged him for shipping the product back. He was all pissed off last night. I tried to be nice but all I wanted to say was, “told you so”. If any of you are looking for a hands free cell accessory then please spend the extra money on a bluetooth and don’t get sucked into the Jupiter Jacks cheap price.
Lesson Learned: Spend The Money On A Good Hands Free Unit Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:36:22 +0000
Does Magic Jack Pass The Geek Test? Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:49:08 +0000
What Is Magic Jack
Magic Jack is a USB telephone adapter that enables free telephone calls through an ordinary landline phone. Based on the VoIP technology and on its own telephony network, all that Magic Jack needs to work is a Windows-operated PC or a Mac and an internet connection. The phone is plugged into the telephone jack on the device, just like into any common landline telephone plug. It can work with normal phones, cordless phones or even headphones, if these are more convenient for you. Even though plenty of people have done their own MagicJack Review, I could just not resist.
The operating cost is of $19.95 per year, plus an initial one time $40 price for the gadget itself. Beyond these costs, all local or long distance calls are free, regardless the duration or the time of call. Receiving incoming calls is also possible, because Magic Jack comes with a free telephone number included. Other services that are available are voice mail, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting and three-way conference calling. International calls are also possible. They aren’t totally free, but the rates are very small, making Magic Jack a real money-saver for people who make a lot of international calls on regular basis. Moreover, when traveling abroad, calling from the Magic Jack from any country to US or Canada is free. Calls from MagicJack to MagicJack are all free, no matter in what countries the two parties may be when they make the phone call.
Another feature that may prove itself useful is the 411 Free Directory Assistance, either by telephone or on the internet. Keeping your original home phone number isn’t currently possible, but the Magic Jack officials claim that’s going to be available before the end of 2009.
Aside from the very low cost offered to all its customers, Magic Jack provides a great value for travelers, who can now use their phone via a laptop, wherever they may be in the world, at the same low cost, incomparably lower than other solutions such as mobile telephony roaming or other VoIP solutions that require an internet connection.
One small drawback of the MagicJack is that the PC needs to be switched on in order for the telephone to be operational for both dialing and receiving calls. However, vice mail can be taken even when the PC is switched off.
Being extremely easy to install and offering a voice quality comparable with any other wired phone line, Magic Jack had a successful launch, with almost half million devices sold in its first six months on the market. For making it work, all that’s necessary is to plug it into the USB port of a computer. The software then installs automatically, with no human intervention and calls can be made and received within less than five minutes from connecting the device to the computer.
The Magic Jack was invented by Dan Borislow and became available for the public in late 2007. It’s available all over the USA. Phone numbers are available in 80% of the area codes. For allowing consumers to see it for themselves how the Magic Jack works, a 30 days free trial is available.
There is a ton of information out there on the Magic Jack. It seem like just about everyone has written a review or has an opinion on the product. Just like about everything else on the Internet, a lot of the writing out there is either bad or inaccurate or both. One good resource I did find was the Magic Jack Guide. They have helpful information and it seems that answers get answered if you post a comment.
I may update this post from time to time so check back every once in a while. Also feel free to leave a question in the comments.
This blog has moved! Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:05:09 +0000
Yeah, I have my blog to http://freegeek.in/blog/
If you are one of the 2 or 3 people to have read my blog, please head to http://freegeek.in/blog/
Ciao!
Zed Shaw at CUSEC 2008 – The ACL is dead Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:59:39 +0000
Amazing keynote by Zed Shaw
Follow your twitter followers Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:30:47 +0000
Now you can follow back your followers on Twitter, thanks to
https://followtwits.appspot.com/
The oTeam Lunch Outing Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:59:29 +0000
DO NOT WANT! Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:50:11 +0000
Well the reason why I had to resurrect my old and unmaintained blog is that apparently, I have been nominated for the “Great Indian Developer Awards” in the “Top Committer” category.
I had no idea about this until now as I have received no communication from the organisers regarding the awards and I have no idea how I got nominated.
And I think this is completely Bullshit.
I don’t see any reason how I can get nominated even though I haven’t been active in the Free Software community since the last year or so.
I think there are many other people who deserve this much more than I do. Hell I don’t think I would even feature in the list of top 100 Indian Free Software developers.
To name a few, I would rather nominate the following (in no particular order):
- Gopal Vijayraghavan (PHP APC, DotGNU)
- Sayamindu Dasgupta (GNOME, OLPC)
- Kartik Mistry (Debian, OOo)
- Kumar Appaiah (Debian)
- Ananth Narayanan (Gentoo, PHP, Plan9)
- … and many others
So, the organisers, please don’t humiliate me like this and kindly take down my name from your God damned website.
I am just a Free Software enthusiast … I don’t need no award.
And in any case, I think this whole event is bullshit, just look at the other nominations and you will know. But that’s another story …
A reward from Sir Donald Thu, 17 May 2007 18:53:08 +0000
Dear Mr Ghose, Many thanks for your extremely helpful note. [...] I owe you the customary "reward check", because these corrections affect pages of The Art of Computer Programming. To what snail-mail address should the check be sent? Cordially, Don Knuth
w00t!
Update: I received the cheque today! Check my flickr page for a scan of the cheque.
![[FSF Associate Member]](http://people.ubuntu-in.org/~ghoseb/fsf-member.png){kind=small}
