Why you should NOT port your number to Google Voice

  By Eric Rieman | January 30, 2011 - 11:51 am | Mobile Technology, VoIP
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The technology blogs and podcasts have all been buzzing about Google Voice allowing users to port their numbers into the service. Andy Abramson, of the VOIP Watch blog points out that porting your number in makes more sense in you have an Android Phone. This is because the integration of the Google Voice application into the Android operating system allows for easy calling or texting from your Google Voice number. However, there are a few reasons that one may not want to port there number to Google Voice.

First, your carrier may determine that by porting your number to another service ends your agreement with them. Anyone that is still in a contract may be subject the early termination fee (ETF). With the recent changes in ETFs by carriers this could be several hundred dollars.

Next, you can not to picture messaging with Google Voice. This is probably less of an issue for most people because the trend seems to be to upload pictures to online sharing or social media sites rather than to another phone. Another issue to consider is the lack of support for short codes. These codes that are often used by businesses to register for coupons or contests. Sending a message to a short code from a Google Voice number only returns an error.

Finally, the ability to port your number out could be an issue. The Google Voice forums have comments from some that have been able to accomplish this task. However, the level of success and amount of frustration in doing so has varied. If you port your number to Google you are relying on them to maintain your number on their mostly free service. While we all like paying little or nothing for the services we use there is something to be said for expecting a certain level of service when you are paying a for a service you receive.

The Day the Internet Closed

  By Eric Rieman | January 28, 2011 - 2:32 am | Web development
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According to the recent headlines the internet is going to run out of addresses in the near future. Evidently the founders of the internet did not realize that 4.3 billion addresses would not be enough. It is hard for anyone to image 4.3 billion of anything let alone a bunch of connected electronic devices. According to a CNET article one of founding father’s of the internet, Vint Cerf, is taking the blame.

Currently, most devices on the internet utlize Internet Protocol version four (IPv4). Version four of the Internet Protocol used to assign addresses to various devices is done using a four 8-bit numbers system, or 32 bits in total. This current system uses a dot-decimal notation that indicates an address assigned to a device such as 174.16.254.5. Not to worry there is a solution, change the way addresses are assigned on the internet.

Version six of the Internet Protocol or IPv6 uses uses four 32-bit numbers, or 128 bits in total to assign addresses. This create 3.403×1038 unique addresses. The only problem is IPv6 does not work with IPv4. The data used by either version of the protocol  will still travel the same internet but a system running version 6 can not talk to a system running version 4 without a translator in the middle. This translator known in the industry as a tunnel broker would allow a device using IPv4 to communicate with IPv6 devices. This tunneling is going to be a key part of being able to access content in the future.

This transition is similar to paper checks as a form of payment. Paper checks were a great convince for a number of years but they just are not very practical in today’s world. However, some people just will not embrace newer technology so there must be some backwards compatibly. We can only hope that out Internet Service Providers don’t become the old lady at the supermarket that fails to embrace the benefits of modern technology and still has to dig the checkbook out of her purse.

From the Printer to Evernote

  By Eric Rieman | February 24, 2010 - 2:09 am | Mobile Technology, Paperless Office
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Ever since I first discovered Evernote I knew that it was an amazing tool. I previously talked about trying to use Evernote to go paperless but was concerned about security. There was also an issue of trying to upload images of documents to Evernote without having to turn on my computer each time.  I was able to get around this by using an HP All-in-one and an Eye-fi card. The only problem with this is that all my digital documents had to be jpegs. I would prefer they be saved as PDFs.

It appears that Lexmark has developed a solution to my problem.

I see a new Lexmark All-in-one in my future.