VoIP vs Landline

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:56:28 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"


It's certainly in common use here, to distinguish it from a wireless
(mobile/cell) phone.

Becoming common here too, though perhaps more so among those of us who
are into comm.s anyway. I still think some - especially elderly - folk
(especially if they only have a landline 'phone) might not know it.
[]

I use VoIP on my landline for speaking to my daughter in Greece through Skype,
which doesn't seem to need to know numbers at all.

No, not if both of you are at a computer. Some companies who provide
VoIP, however (I _think_ Skype do this too), offer a number (sometimes
for a charge, sometimes free) which you can give that can be called by
anyone from a normal landline (or mobile for that matter) 'phone, which
connects to your VoIP.
[]

Ah, yes I've seen that Skype does offer to connect to someone's cell phone (I
didn't notice a landline), but I've found that conversations are so much
easier to hear on a computer that I wouldn't have thought anyone would want
to.

Perhaps I'm getting hard of hearing in my old age.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I know; most people do the same sort of thing. I don't.

I play a Martin D-35.

To me, there are two kinds of such instruments: guitars and electric
guitars.

(Arbitrary placement of reply...)

Modern culture has left me behind in another area:

When someone says "bass" I *still* expect to see a jumbo-sized acoustic
'cello-like thing held vertically and played by a standing musician, who
is plucking or bowing it. But these days I end up seeing something more
like a slab on a stand connected to lots of electronics and sounding
rather unlike any kind of plucked string instrument

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I still own a sopranino, two sopranos, two altos, a tenor, a bass, and
a great bass.

Only a couple of sopranos and altos and a tenor here.

I have, but can't play, a kaval, a Bulgarian end-blown flute, which
sounds great in the hands of a real musician.

Kavals also exist elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, not always
with the same name.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It was Bob and Ray, and the correct quotation is "*Write* if you get
work." I'm a big Bob and Ray fan, and I own a couple of books
containing some of their skits. The dust jacket on one of them
contains the words "Write if you get work."

Oh, good. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

But then I have question: what term can be used to describe all kinds
of plugged-in telephones (landline or VoIP) to distinguish them from
cellular phones?

This thought just occurred to me: "fixed phone".

Prediction: it will never fly

 

[Ken Blake]

Modern culture has left me behind in another area:

When someone says "bass" I *still* expect to see a jumbo-sized acoustic
'cello-like thing held vertically and played by a standing musician, who
is plucking or bowing it. But these days I end up seeing something more
like a slab on a stand connected to lots of electronics and sounding
rather unlike any kind of plucked string instrument

Just as a matter of interest, if you don't know, that "jumbo-sized
acoustic 'cello-like thing held vertically" is a *double* bass.

The bass member of the violin family is a cello (full name
violoncello).

But these days I end up seeing something more
like a slab on a stand connected to lots of electronics and sounding
rather unlike any kind of plucked string instrument

Yep!

 

[Ken Blake]

Only a couple of sopranos and altos and a tenor here.

I have, but can't play, a kaval, a Bulgarian end-blown flute, which
sounds great in the hands of a real musician.

I also have a ney, a Turkish end-blown flute, which I also can't play;
I can't make a sound on it at all. I *think* a ney and a kaval are
either the same or very close. I've heard neys played and yes, they
are wonderful.

And I have a krummhorn and a rauschpfeife, both of which I can play,
but nowhere near in tune, so I never play them.

And to make my list of instruments complete, I have a couple of penny
flutes, four guitars (one of them twelve-string), a five-string
banjo, two mandolins, an Appalachian dulcimer (which I built), a pipa
(a Chinese lute-like stringed instrument, which I can't play, but it
makes a nice wall decoration), and an electric piano (which my wife
plays, but ! barely can). I used to have a harpsichord (which I had
built), but it died twenty years ago when a window washer pushed it
out of his way.

 

[Ken Blake]

Oh, good. Thanks for the correction.

You're welcome. Actually (correcting myself) "Write if you get work"
is the title of the book.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Just as a matter of interest, if you don't know, that "jumbo-sized
acoustic 'cello-like thing held vertically" is a *double* bass.

Ok, now I have to choose among three mental pictures whenever I hear
'bass'

However, under "bass" in the household's /The New College Encyclopedia
of Music/, definition (3) says "short for double bass, also (in military
bands) for bass tuba".

I meant the former of those two senses.

The bass member of the violin family is a cello (full name
violoncello).

Did you notice the apostrophe I wrote in front of "cello" above?

BTW, please realize that no matter what it might seem like, I do *not*
mean the fish

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I also have a ney, a Turkish end-blown flute, which I also can't play;
I can't make a sound on it at all. I *think* a ney and a kaval are
either the same or very close. I've heard neys played and yes, they
are wonderful.

Yes, ney is the Turkish name. In Romanian, naï, which I believe to be a
cognate of ney, is their word for panflute. Their name for the flute is
spelled caval.

IIRC what a ney looks like, it's more like the Macedonian kaval, i.e., a
bit slimmer than, and decorated differently from, the Bulgarian version.

And I have a krummhorn and a rauschpfeife, both of which I can play,
but nowhere near in tune, so I never play them.

I have a krummhorn, which I can't play effectively, and a zurna, a very
loud shawm-like thing, which I can hardly get a note out of (luckily for
anyone nearby).

A Chinese fried of mine once showed us a picture of a shawm-like
instrument. I said "That's a zurna", so he told me it's called a "suo
na" in Chinese. We concluded that suo na is obviously derived from the
Turkish name, and that it doubtless got to China over the Old Silk Road.

And to make my list of instruments complete, I have a couple of penny
flutes, four guitars (one of them twelve-string), a five-string
banjo, two mandolins, an Appalachian dulcimer (which I built), a pipa
(a Chinese lute-like stringed instrument, which I can't play, but it
makes a nice wall decoration), and an electric piano (which my wife
plays, but ! barely can). I used to have a harpsichord (which I had
built), but it died twenty years ago when a window washer pushed it
out of his way.

I haven't got the pluck to try all of those instruments.

I once built a mountain dulcimer from a kit. It wasn't a great kit, and
on top of that, it suffered mightily from my carpentry skills. I tossed
it ages ago.

I hope you didn't hire that window washer again :-(

 

[Ken Blake]

Ok, now I have to choose among three mental pictures whenever I hear
'bass'

However, under "bass" in the household's /The New College Encyclopedia
of Music/, definition (3) says "short for double bass, also (in military
bands) for bass tuba".

I meant the former of those two senses.



Did you notice the apostrophe I wrote in front of "cello" above?

I did! But, to me, correct though it is, it's an almost archaic
spelling, so I left it out.

 

[Ken Blake]

Yes, ney is the Turkish name. In Romanian, naï, which I believe to be a
cognate of ney, is their word for panflute. Their name for the flute is
spelled caval.

IIRC what a ney looks like, it's more like the Macedonian kaval, i.e., a
bit slimmer than, and decorated differently from, the Bulgarian version.


I have a krummhorn, which I can't play effectively,

We're the same!

and a zurna, a very
loud shawm-like thing, which I can hardly get a note out of (luckily for
anyone nearby).

I like shawms, but I've never heard of a zurna before.

A Chinese fried of mine once showed us a picture of a shawm-like
instrument. I said "That's a zurna", so he told me it's called a "suo
na" in Chinese. We concluded that suo na is obviously derived from the
Turkish name, and that it doubtless got to China over the Old Silk Road.

I've never heard of a suo na, either.

I haven't got the pluck to try all of those instruments.

I can try almost anything (even instruments that are blown into, not
plucked). I only wish I could succeed more often.

I once built a mountain dulcimer from a kit. It wasn't a great kit, and

Same here.

on top of that, it suffered mightily from my carpentry skills. I tossed
it ages ago.

Mine turned out OK. Not great, but OK.

I hope you didn't hire that window washer again :-(

That's for sure!

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Steve Hayes

I use VoIP on my landline for speaking to my daughter in Greece
through Skype,
which doesn't seem to need to know numbers at all.

No, not if both of you are at a computer. Some companies who provide
VoIP, however (I _think_ Skype do this too), offer a number (sometimes
for a charge, sometimes free) which you can give that can be called by
anyone from a normal landline (or mobile for that matter) 'phone, which
connects to your VoIP.
[]

Ah, yes I've seen that Skype does offer to connect to someone's cell phone (I
didn't notice a landline), but I've found that conversations are so much
easier to hear on a computer that I wouldn't have thought anyone would want
to.

[]
No, other way round. What if someone wants to call _you_, and they only
have a landline or cellphone, no computer, and you _don't_ have a
landline or cell, only the computer? That's where the number comes in.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I did! But, to me, correct though it is, it's an almost archaic
spelling, so I left it out.

But I was trying to create an excuse for myself!

Same thing with the "bass" controversy

 

[Buffalo]

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message

This thought just occurred to me: "fixed phone".

Prediction: it will never fly

Fixed? Why? Did you break it?
Always fun and educational reading your posts.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message

Fixed? Why? Did you break it?
Always fun and educational reading your posts.

No, I just wanted to keep it from breeding.

"Fix" is a rather versatile word

And thanks for the other remark...

 

[Ken Blake]

Hi, Ken.

I don't want to sidetrack this interesting discussion, but.... Did you see
this headline today?
AT&T?s Sales Miss Estimates Amid Decline in Landline Business

No, I hadn't, thanks.

As I think I said earlier, I use Google Voice for my Home phone, at no
charge, and my cell phone provider (prepaid, not a monthly charge) is
T-mobile. So my total telephone charges come to $10 a year. AT&T gets
nothing from me.

By the way, I still have the landline that I got 22 years ago when we first
came to San Marcos - and didn't get a cell phone until my son got me a
simple TracFone about 6 years ago so I could call home from the MVP Summit.
Had two landlines for several years: one for me and one for my computer,
pre-ADSL, etc.

I did too.

Then I could actually TALK and COMPUTE at the same time! On
a single POTS line! ;<) !!!

Thanks to Microsoft's insistence, I now have a Skype account, but I've never
used it.

Same here. I've never used Skype either.

 

[Char Jackson]

When a landline is used purely for ADSL, and no voice service
is wanted, that's called a "dry loop".

I more often hear it referred to as 'naked DSL', but either term works.

 

[Paul]

I more often hear it referred to as 'naked DSL', but either term works.

The nasty thing about the dry loop option here, is the
fees for using a Bell phone line, are variable.

http://dialupusa.net/canadadsl.html

Dry Loop - Rate band A $ 5.00
Dry Loop - Rate band B $ 7.00
Dry Loop - Rate band C $ 7.50
Dry Loop - Rate band D $ 8.25
Dry Loop - Rate band E $13.25
Dry Loop - Rate band F $14.25
Dry Loop - Rate band G $23.00

So you can't even figure out in advance, what kind of
money you'll save by dropping the Bell phone service.
If I was paying $50 for phone, and had ADSL, I save
$50, then pay say $23.00, for only a net saving of $27.00
per month. If I switch over to cable broadband, then I
save the entire $50.

I don't know how Bell arrives at those charges. I don't
even know what "band" I'm in. But those are the fees
for running ADSL through an otherwise dead phone line.

The VOIP of my ISP, is $10 a month, and three cents a minute
for North America long distance, so I should be able to save
something. But the dry loop fee, just for the phone
line, can be pretty significant. Maybe the $23 is for a rural
phone line.

Paul

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I more often hear it referred to as 'naked DSL', but either term works.

I don't _think_ any operator in the UK offers the option; "line rental"
always includes at least evening and weekend calls.