Satellite -- Light

[Lee Gold XP]

(to be sung to a Bill Sutton rewrite of "MacNamara's Band")

"NASA's building its new sky eyes from the cellphones at the mall."


http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0424/Tiny-satellites-cellphones-cheaper-eyes-in-the-sky-for-NASA

[Lee Gold XP]

On 4/30/2013 5:11 AM, Gary McGath wrote:
> X-no-archive: yes

> Makes sense. I've sometimes been tempted to hurl my phone into orbit.
>
*Giggle*

Rick Weiss used to have a tagline saying "I used to wish that my
computer were as easy to use as my phone. Now my wish has come true...
I can't figure out how to use my phone."

Barry and I have two land line phones at home and a non-smart cell phone
in his purse for emergencies, that we picked up a year ago so we could
phone the Auto Club in case we ever had a car break down when driving
the I-5 through the deserted farmlands of the Central Valley on the Way
to San Jose or othr northern cities. The non-smart cell phone costs us
$100/year total, and gets used once or twice a month, and has lots of
minutes on it. We try to remember to use it for long distance.

--Lee

[Joe Kesselman]

On 4/30/2013 9:38 AM, Lee Gold XP wrote:
> The non-smart cell phone costs us
> $100/year total, and gets used once or twice a month, and has lots of
> minutes on it. We try to remember to use it for long distance.

For that usage pattern, consider prepaid. My prepay costs me about
$40/year, at 11.5 cents per minute. (Less per minute if I was buying
more minutes at once.) And if you've already got (or can scrounge) a
compatible phone you don't necessarily have to buy a new phone -- let
them give you the freebie soap-bar phone and then move the SIM over.

No data plan, of course, but I don't especially want one. If I need
mobile data, I'm willing to pay for a coffee to use a store's wifi.
Always-on Internet is indeed a nice thing, but I don't have any real
need for it.



--
Joe Kesselman,
http://www.love-song-productions.com/people/keshlam/index.html

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[Lee Gold XP]

On 4/30/2013 3:14 PM, Joe Kesselman wrote:
> On 4/30/2013 9:38 AM, Lee Gold XP wrote:
>> The non-smart cell phone costs us
>> $100/year total, and gets used once or twice a month, and has lots of
>> minutes on it. We try to remember to use it for long distance.
>
> For that usage pattern, consider prepaid.

We're using prepaid, $100/year..

The point is that we want prepaid with a connection to Verizon network
rather than to other networks which in California don't cover non-urban
areas like the highway that goes up the Central Valley.

--Lee