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Communication
The
internet is a great way to communicate, of course. If you don't
have ICQ, get it. It let's you know if your friends, who also
have ICQ, are online. Then you can communicate real-time. Perhaps
internet telephones (read internet radios) have gotten better
by now...
Try not to make overseas
calls. Good old fashioned letters make people happier, I think.
It's slower but lots cheaper.
Mobile
phones. The scorge of humanity. Well, maybe not that bad. If
you have one, use it in moderation and please don't check your
goddam messages while trying to go up or down stairs. It takes
me an extra 5 minutes to get to work these days because of phone
zombies.
"RSLCOM
now offers international prepaid telephone cards (their customer
service number is 0120-033-296). The price is competitive with
AT&T Jens @phone, which also offers prepaid telephone cards.
(The latter are available at Lawson convenience stores.)"
-from John B. Melby, March 1999
I used to be on
TTNet (Tokyo Denwa), which makes domestic calls cheaper. KDD is
now providing domestic service. You dial 001 + the number you
are calling. Anywhere in Japan is 1 yen for 6 seconds. That is
10 yen a minute, so... It's too confusing for me to try to decide
when it will be cheaper but they have the cheapest 6 second calls
around:) I've now switched to the cable company for my phone services.
It works out to be a little cheaper than TTNet.
"As
far as phone calls go, internet phone services are cheaper than
callback services (although calls on the Internet have lower quality
and worse security than standard international calls). Net2Phone
is a fairly decent service, but the cost isn't much cheaper than
(say) Telematrix's phone-to-phone Internet phone service (although
U.S. toll-free calls are free). If you're calling the U.S., AccessPower
(which requires Vocaltec's Internet Phone, downloadable for $49)
is a very good deal, at 7 cents a minute (of course, in addition
to the regular local phone and Internet connection charges). Of
course, PC-to-PC calls are even better, since they are completely
covered by local phone and Internet connection charges. When calling
from a PC, it is important to set the microphone cutoff to a reasonable
level, so that you're not transmitting continuously." -
from John B. Melby
"As
far as internet telephony goes, Iscom is now more affordably priced
than AccessPower. (Iscom can also be used with Vocaltec Internet
Phone.)" - from John B. Melby, March 1999
Get
to the library. Every library I've been to has english language
newspapers and magazines. If you use news articles for teaching,
it's better to spend 10 yen to copy an article than to spend 120
yen for the Asahi Evening News. Again, for news, you can check
online for Japanese newspapers (or international, of course) and
perhaps see an insightful letter to the editor or two by yours
truely.
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The
Tory "Blueprint" vs. Reality.
Debunking the Progressive Conservative
Party of Ontario.
News of the Evil:
Biotech
companies to farmers: "Buy our products or we'll sue your
ass!"
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