Background:
SInce 2002, I have kept a VOIP number with Vonage, one of the first companies in US which had such service. Recently, after their locked adapter refused to work, and bad experience with theirBlackberry dialing application, I decided to consolidate this number to my Broadvoice account (an extra number costs a cent shy of $2 a month.)
Attempts to just close the number through Vonage customer servce were met with "this is another department, let me transfer you" line.
Timeline and Results
nov04: submitted online LNP request to broadvoice - no paper letter to send!
nov05: broadvoice asked for phone service address; replied to them
nov12: notified by Broadvoice about nov17 effective date
nov19: vonage account cancelled automatically after porting to broadvoice completed
Vonage Monthly Customer Count
In my account portal, there was an invoice history; based on that, somebody can reconstruct size of their customer base since company started offiering the service (I was within first 300 customers, it seems.)
Here is the link.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Cragslist in Ukraine - finally
As a diligent user of Getting Things Done method, I regularly check my "waiting" list.
Anyway, today I found that it was over two weeks since my request to Craiglist to add Ukraine to its list of countries. Living here for over a year now (this is net time, taking into account occasional trips abroad), I greatly miss this easy to use method to find things for sale, apartments for rent, and of course missed connections (a fun to read.)
So, it is there - Craigslist for Ukraine, seeded with few posts with UAH in their subject (probably automatic procedure), plus a genuine Russian-language spam posted on November 11th (a day after my request), which I am flagging as I post, three posts about housing (hostel in Simferopol, hotel in Vinnitsa, and apartment in Yalta), some custom furniture maker in Kyiv, somebody looking for a pen pal (preferring non-smoker), and a genuine craiglist item, a used bicycle for sale..
Go on, fellow ex-pats, use it!
Anyway, today I found that it was over two weeks since my request to Craiglist to add Ukraine to its list of countries. Living here for over a year now (this is net time, taking into account occasional trips abroad), I greatly miss this easy to use method to find things for sale, apartments for rent, and of course missed connections (a fun to read.)
So, it is there - Craigslist for Ukraine, seeded with few posts with UAH in their subject (probably automatic procedure), plus a genuine Russian-language spam posted on November 11th (a day after my request), which I am flagging as I post, three posts about housing (hostel in Simferopol, hotel in Vinnitsa, and apartment in Yalta), some custom furniture maker in Kyiv, somebody looking for a pen pal (preferring non-smoker), and a genuine craiglist item, a used bicycle for sale..
Go on, fellow ex-pats, use it!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
blackberry international calling - vonage mobile is not the way
This is quickly turning into blackberry-oriented blog - well, it would not be forever, but please bear with me as I fine-tune my device. Look for cost- and time-saving tips on calling in future posts.
On my unit, I use T-Mobile service, which allows to make free calls to US numbers via wi-fi connection - so-called UMA protocol. This is nice feature to use when calling to US when travelling -- you drink your coffee sitting outside somewhere by the sea, all while causally chatting to your friends sitting in their cubicles tied to Meridian switches.
But what about calling to non-US numbers? One solution I have right now is Telna mobile - a contract SIM card from calling card provider, previously called 3U Telecom, which integrates GSM SIM toolkit to intercept calls and convert them into callback to your number, then establish a conference to your destination. Rates depend only on country of residence, which is very budget-friendly (See telna mobile web site for details.) But what about a solution which does not require me to swap a SIM card (my blackberry serves me with email as well, and I do not want to carry two phones)?
There are calling card programs -- one is called berrydialer (costs $20 but a cent) and anoher is free, installs in Options screen, and written by Titas Raha (somebody who was born in India, lives in US, and calls a lot.) I would try it later. (Update: it works great!)
I had used two voip carriers, Vonage and Broadvoice; the latter is priced lower, and allows use of SIP software phones, multiple registration points, and customer own equipment. I recommend Broadvoice to everybody who travels a lot and/or makes many international calls; the only problem with them is changing credit card on file now requires submission of authorization form with passport and credit card photocopy; fraud department policy I suppose. But this is a separate device (voip adapter plus regular phone handset, or computer.) As far as I know, nobody makes softphone app for blackberry. Perhaps there would be a truly integrated Google Voice application soon?
I had a phone number with Vonage since 2002; I was actually going to transfer it to Broadvoice (LNP now works, and one can even submit LOA elecronically with them.) When visiting their site, I found that they now offer separate Vonage Mobile service for Blackberry and iPhone. It is a prepaid account (auto-refill by credit card) which intercepts calls from phone UI, calls their US number, and conferences outbound calls in. Pretty convenient.
Well, the application is nothing but an brightly-orange disaster (yes, this is a color it uses to fill entire screen while placing an international call.) Sorry, but I prefer standard one - which shows clock, unread message count, volume and speakerphone indicators, etc. Here is a list of deficiences:
-- It does not detect call termination (hang-up) on remote end. So bad it is, I left it running for half an hour.
-- It does not work with conference calling, or call hold. Probably due to substitution of native UI with its own.
-- Did I mention bright orange?
-- It displaced my Google maps application in "Downloads" folder (overlapped with its icon position).
-- It requires reboot immediately after install, disabling native UI prompt (now or later.)
-- It does not have a "disable" option (for example, when I use local SIM card in my phone.)
-- they give you a trial credit of one dollar (nice), but every time I launch the application, it asks me if I want to refill. Nonetheless, the web site UI for adding credit card is broken (I use Firefox on Mac OS.)
-- After manual deletion of application through Options | Advanced options | Applications, and reboot, I found that my device generates exceptions during boot, and none of my email messages could be opened (application hangs.) To properly get rid of it, one have to delete the module too, see this advice on crackberry forums.
Thanks Vonage, just another reason for me to part ways with you.
On my unit, I use T-Mobile service, which allows to make free calls to US numbers via wi-fi connection - so-called UMA protocol. This is nice feature to use when calling to US when travelling -- you drink your coffee sitting outside somewhere by the sea, all while causally chatting to your friends sitting in their cubicles tied to Meridian switches.
But what about calling to non-US numbers? One solution I have right now is Telna mobile - a contract SIM card from calling card provider, previously called 3U Telecom, which integrates GSM SIM toolkit to intercept calls and convert them into callback to your number, then establish a conference to your destination. Rates depend only on country of residence, which is very budget-friendly (See telna mobile web site for details.) But what about a solution which does not require me to swap a SIM card (my blackberry serves me with email as well, and I do not want to carry two phones)?
There are calling card programs -- one is called berrydialer (costs $20 but a cent) and anoher is free, installs in Options screen, and written by Titas Raha (somebody who was born in India, lives in US, and calls a lot.) I would try it later. (Update: it works great!)
I had used two voip carriers, Vonage and Broadvoice; the latter is priced lower, and allows use of SIP software phones, multiple registration points, and customer own equipment. I recommend Broadvoice to everybody who travels a lot and/or makes many international calls; the only problem with them is changing credit card on file now requires submission of authorization form with passport and credit card photocopy; fraud department policy I suppose. But this is a separate device (voip adapter plus regular phone handset, or computer.) As far as I know, nobody makes softphone app for blackberry. Perhaps there would be a truly integrated Google Voice application soon?
I had a phone number with Vonage since 2002; I was actually going to transfer it to Broadvoice (LNP now works, and one can even submit LOA elecronically with them.) When visiting their site, I found that they now offer separate Vonage Mobile service for Blackberry and iPhone. It is a prepaid account (auto-refill by credit card) which intercepts calls from phone UI, calls their US number, and conferences outbound calls in. Pretty convenient.
Well, the application is nothing but an brightly-orange disaster (yes, this is a color it uses to fill entire screen while placing an international call.) Sorry, but I prefer standard one - which shows clock, unread message count, volume and speakerphone indicators, etc. Here is a list of deficiences:
-- It does not detect call termination (hang-up) on remote end. So bad it is, I left it running for half an hour.
-- It does not work with conference calling, or call hold. Probably due to substitution of native UI with its own.
-- Did I mention bright orange?
-- It displaced my Google maps application in "Downloads" folder (overlapped with its icon position).
-- It requires reboot immediately after install, disabling native UI prompt (now or later.)
-- It does not have a "disable" option (for example, when I use local SIM card in my phone.)
-- they give you a trial credit of one dollar (nice), but every time I launch the application, it asks me if I want to refill. Nonetheless, the web site UI for adding credit card is broken (I use Firefox on Mac OS.)
-- After manual deletion of application through Options | Advanced options | Applications, and reboot, I found that my device generates exceptions during boot, and none of my email messages could be opened (application hangs.) To properly get rid of it, one have to delete the module too, see this advice on crackberry forums.
Thanks Vonage, just another reason for me to part ways with you.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
twitter integration: rememberthemilk, gtalk
My blackberry now is integrated with my google calendar and rememberthemilk todo list (both show up in built-in calendar app with two-way syncing.) I am going to use "rmilk" instead of rememberthemilk from now on.
Now I am going to add twitter - for rmilk (another way to add and query tasks), and general.
In rmilk, one have to add twitter "rtm" user as a friend (follow him), receive one-time confirmation code, and send it back via twitter as direct message. From now on, direct messages to twitter rtm user would be added as tasks, or can be used to query task list - see http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/twitter/ for syntax.
Now, how I can use twitter on blackberry - for rmilk, too? (faster than syncing tasks by MilkSync?)
For this, there are several clients, described at http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup
For me, I think either Twibble (http://www.twibble.de/) and BBTweet (http://code.google.com/p/bbtweet/) would be best.
I can also integrate twitter into gtalk - a nice description of doing it for on desktop (firefox) and blackberry is at http://www.techlifeweb.com/2008/07/07/how-to-set-up-twitterspy-in-google-talk/
To be updated.
Now I am going to add twitter - for rmilk (another way to add and query tasks), and general.
In rmilk, one have to add twitter "rtm" user as a friend (follow him), receive one-time confirmation code, and send it back via twitter as direct message. From now on, direct messages to twitter rtm user would be added as tasks, or can be used to query task list - see http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/twitter/ for syntax.
Now, how I can use twitter on blackberry - for rmilk, too? (faster than syncing tasks by MilkSync?)
For this, there are several clients, described at http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup
For me, I think either Twibble (http://www.twibble.de/) and BBTweet (http://code.google.com/p/bbtweet/) would be best.
I can also integrate twitter into gtalk - a nice description of doing it for on desktop (firefox) and blackberry is at http://www.techlifeweb.com/2008/07/07/how-to-set-up-twitterspy-in-google-talk/
To be updated.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
blackberry curve 8900 - first impressions
impressions:
great screen; thin and light; round-shaped.
design, visual:
new icons too cold and mechanical-looking.
mechanical -
new trackball is better; charge and headset on right side bad.
micro-usb and new battery break my investment.
builtins:
contact list has useless spaces between them - 6 on screen instead of 12 before; partial words search works - "a g" finds both alex.somebody@gmail.com and peter.good@a.company.net.
wifi setup sketchy - did not detec my hotspot@home from t-mobile.
applications:
google set - gtalk and gmail (usual), maps (latitude included), sync (calendar only 6 months forward; contacts - no pics, birthdays, categories)
facebook - merges facebook notifications to messages screen; syncs calendar and contacts into blackberry apps
rememberthemilk - pending.
great screen; thin and light; round-shaped.
design, visual:
new icons too cold and mechanical-looking.
mechanical -
new trackball is better; charge and headset on right side bad.
micro-usb and new battery break my investment.
builtins:
contact list has useless spaces between them - 6 on screen instead of 12 before; partial words search works - "a g" finds both alex.somebody@gmail.com and peter.good@a.company.net.
wifi setup sketchy - did not detec my hotspot@home from t-mobile.
applications:
google set - gtalk and gmail (usual), maps (latitude included), sync (calendar only 6 months forward; contacts - no pics, birthdays, categories)
facebook - merges facebook notifications to messages screen; syncs calendar and contacts into blackberry apps
rememberthemilk - pending.
Friday, April 10, 2009
First Post
Welcome to yet another web log of Dmitry Kohmanyuk, now on blogger.
My other internet presense points:
- Twitter: dk379
- DNS: kohmanyuk.tel
- Facebook: Dmitry Kohmanyuk
- Livejournal: dk379
- Flickr: kohmanyuk
- Linkedin: kohmanyuk
- Blogs: Diary Farm Daily
This is planned as mostly English-language blog, with occasional posts in Russian or Ukrainian.
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