It's all 1s and 0s -- Part 01

As early as 1995, I was railing against paper. In an early website I had, I declared war against paper documents, especially in a business. I had recently spent time working in the Microfilm industry, and digital equipment was starting to become more popular. One day, I will re-post that early thesis.

But like documents, voice and sound can easily be turned into 1s and 0s. Then they can be sent across the internet.

For now, though, I am beginning an experiment. It's not earth shattering; several thousand people have apparently been doing it successfully, at least according to the commercials. I'm trying out Vonage.

For those who don't know, Vonage is an internet telephone company. For years, people have been having voice conversations over Instant Messaging application and other software, bypassing the local Telcos. Vonage is different. It let's you use a regular telephone and to make and receive calls over the internet, regardless of whether the person you are calling has a traditional phone system, cell phone, or internet phone service.

It appeals to me for a couple reasons. I like the portability of it. I like easily moving voicemail to the computer. It seems well designed for those who travel extensively. It also means I can have a phone number in any area code assigned to me. Plus it offers flat rate billing for long distance.

The main reason I really like it though, is that I don't have it yet.

I just ordered the service yesterday, and the hardware is due to arrive while I'm at the airport. It will be a couple days before I'm actually able to try setting it up.

Once I do set it up, I'm sure I will be extremely frustrated with it because I won't read the directions and will think I know better than whoever developed the product. Finally, I'll follow the directions out of frustration and get it to work about 90% right.

Fortunately, I'm only switching over one of my phone lines to start.