The Not-So Magic Jack

Last night I was watching TV when an ad came on. The ad was designed to be like a sales pitch on some shopping network. The sales pitch was for the Magic Jack; a USB device that turns your PC into a phone and allows you to make "free" phone calls. After listening to this 5 minute commercial I decided to look it up. Hey, there wasn't anything else to do that late at night.

When I made it to the Magic Jack web-site I was less than excited. 100% Risk Free, 30 day free trial, free calls only to USA and Canada; all examples that threw up red flags for me. Further research revealed that you have to get a new number and it may not be in your home area code.

The whole time I was on their web-site there was a number indicating the number of people taking advantage of the free trial offer. More about this number later.

Enough of the Magic Jack web-site. I decide to do more looking around. So I checked Boing Boing Gadgets to see what they had to say. Boing Boing reports that the Magic Jack EULA (End User License Agreement) states: "You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to work ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads". Hmmm! Now about the number I mentioned earlier. You know, the one that is supposed to indicate the number of people taking advantage of the free trial. This is what Boing Boing has to say about that number:

Even the "look how many people came for a free trial" counter on the homepage is a fake, a javascript applet that increments itself automatically:

// the interval (ms) between new visitors
var interval = Math.round(86400000/perday);

As if targeted advertising, systematic privacy invasion and the signing away of your legal rights wasn't evil enough!

Thanks Boing Boing. Now let's go to Ooine.com and see what they have to say. Oh my! It's not good either. It seems that the Magic Jack uninstall program does not exist. Don't worry. Ooine.com has the help you need at "How To Uninstall Magic Jack from your PC". I guess I'll just keep my cell phone.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Get The Phone, It's For Me-The Unrelated Sequel #1

I was watching reruns on TV last night. I had recorded an episode of "I've Got a Secret" from the early 60's. I finally got around to watching it. Steve Allen was a guest and did a few telephone stunts. One of them was trying to get Bill Cullen to accept a long distance collect phone call. It made me think of how things have changed. When I was younger I remember when we always waited until after 10:00 PM to make long distance phone calls. if the phone rang after 10:00 it normally meant a relative was calling. I also remember when I would go out of town to visit family. My parents would tell to call collect person-to-person when I had arrived. They would usually say the person I was calling was not home and refuse the charges, but they knew I had arrived safely.

Nowadays, we don't think twice about picking up the phone and calling most anywhere. Here at the house we have unlimited long distance and even can call internationally on the cheap. Then there are the cell phones. Call anywhere, anytime, from anywhereand the long distance is included.

When I was younger we only had one phone. It was in the kitchen and I swear the phone cord was a mile long. I especially remember my sister talking on the phone and taking the phone, really the receiver, across the hall into her room. Before I went to junior high we moved. Our new house had a phone in the kitchen; and wow, phone jacks in the bedrooms. We got another phone and it was great. My brother and I could take the phone out of our parents room and take to our room and then talk. Wow! Those phones had long cords to. I guess the long cords made up for not many phones.

By the time I got married the phone business had been deregulated and you could buy phones instead of renting them from Ma Bell. When we lived in Irving the pharmacy at Kroger had a promotion that gave free phones with new prescriptions. That was really different. Now we were responsible for our own phones. If they broke, buy a new one. And we did. But these were corded phones. They were still stuck to the wall.

Hallelujah! Cordless phones! Finally, a phone that you could take anywhere and talk on it. As long as you were within range of your base set. They were great though. Freedom at last. You could have a phone in the kitchen and the bedroom and maybe the den and the garage. You could talk and talk and talk.

And then the cell phone. But that's a story for another day. Remind me to tell you sometime about Scott and the first cell phone he had.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Where's the Loop? I Need To Get In!

Technology is wonderful. Instantaneous communication. Cell phones, IM, e-mail, etc. The school district where I work relies on their e-mail system to disseminate information to all staff. The campus I work on relies on e-mail to inform staff of important meetings, deadlines, etc. I'm sure they do this to save paper and to communicate faster and more efficiently. I imagine another reason is to keep from having to interrupt classes by constantly making announcements. So I have one question. How come I never know what's going on?

Invariably, one of two things will happen. One thing is that I'll hear through the grapevine about a change or some other important event. I'm often told to check my e-mail later for details. I make a point to do something I generally do not do. I check the e-mail during class time - Nothing. I check again later - Still nothing. Time to go home so I check again - Still no message. Some time later I get an e-mail. This, of course, is after I've received the information from others that apparently are in the loop that I'm not in.

The other instance that occurs is when I'm late for an important meeting or I miss an important deadline. Then I'm asked, "Didn't you check your e-mail? We sent one earlier!" I reply, "No! I teach. I can't check my e-mail because I'm teaching. I check after the kids have gone home." By then it is often too late.

But remember, the district did save paper. Oh, and they did communicate faster and efficiently. I guess I need to find that loop. And just maybe check my e-mail instead of teach all of the time.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

It's 2007 And I Can't Wait For 1938

I was born in 1956. I am 51 years old. I enjoy using my computer, talking on a cell phone, and am still fascinated by spaceflight. I like to watch DVD's, listen to CD's, and other types of recordings.

Today, we take for granted things that were not common yet or would have only been a dream when I was born. Yes, computers were around when I was born. But they didn't sit on a desk or were small enough to carry. They were in a room. More precise, they were as big as a room. Think Univac. Space flight was in its infancy. Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957. Video recording was possible, but not by the general public as it is today. Recording on magnetic tape was still in its infancy in the 50's, having only been developed in the 1940's. Interesting side note here is that Bing Crosby was involved it's commercial development. DVD's and CD's were not developed until the 1980's. The concept behind cell phones began in 1947 but the technology was not developed yet.

Yes, we have that technology and more today. Through much of this technology I listen to CD's on the way to work and enjoy music from the 1940's and 1950's. I can listen to old radio shows from the 1930's - 1950's. I watch TV shows from the 1950's. I am able to retreat to a time period before I was born.

So why do so many of us spend so much money and time to use this modern technology in order to go back to a period of time when this technology was in its infancy? Is it because many of us are afraid of today's world and we search for a time that we think is safer, more secure? I suppose people see the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's as a safer more secure time compared to our world today. Why? In the 1930's we had the Great Depression and the rising threat of Nazism. In the 1940's we had World War II. And in the 1950's we had the Cold War. Presently we are faced with global terrorism.

Was that time any safer or more secure than today? Probably not! The difference is that we know how that time period ended and we survived it. I believe that the same thing will occur today. Then in 2057 our children will long for the "good ole days" of 2007.


© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.