Preferences

This is exactly why Google, Meta, etc shouldn't have the power to own such a huge part of the (western) web

lrvick
We, the users, gave them that power. We can also take it away.

You actually can lead a productive socially rich life and even run a tech company in the modern world without using any products by Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, etc.

There are open source alternatives to everything if we do research beyond what is advertised to us.

OccamsMirror
What kind of mobile phone do you have?
kldg
lol, unrelated to anything, but I had a police detective in my house about a year ago for something unrelated to me, though he did question me. At the end, he asked for my phone number. "Oh, I don't do phones. I've got a VOIP number if you want." He was so friendly up to that point, but then he clearly SCOWLED at me; I was so taken aback that I laughed at it.
dredmorbius
I know this is OT for the thread, but I'd be interested in hearing how you're using VOIP, provider(s) you've used, and any interesting hacks.

I'd recently twigged that I don't want a mobile phone that forwards to, say, an Asterisk server I control, but an Asterisk server (and VOIP number(s)) I can optionally forward to a mobile or other service (e.g., possibly Jitsi Meet or Signal).

That last I could then interact with on a subnotebook laptop or tablet device. The phone would principally exist as a tether or true-emergency comms.

kldg
We used Asterisk at work for a long while (and probably still do, but I've been out of professional IT for nearly a decade) which routed to hardware SIP phones or else Zoiper on both PC and Android on-call phones. While I maintained the Asterisk server environment and set up new SIP phones occasionally, the in-the-weeds VOIP stuff was handled by a technician at our local VOIP company, and the Asterisk setup existed prior to me joining, so I'm sorry to say I don't have much insight to offer.

I can say Zoiper worked just fine for employees and Zoiper installs were set up very similarly to how we set up take-home phones; they had/have a browser extension to click-to-dial numbers in our ticketing systems, which was nice -- there may be good FOSS software out for these tasks now.

I don't do anything special at home; I just use a headset connected to PC for Google Voice with a free (in the US, at least) number and don't even see when calls come in unless they leave a message or I know someone's going to call and I leave a Google Voice tab open. Messages get forwarded to email. There are sometimes services I can't sign up for as a result of only having a VOIP number -- Anthropic in particular comes to mind as a company which blocks VOIP numbers for signup, but no essential services (e.g. bank, broker, kids' school) in the 10 or so years I've been phoneless. Yealink makes a really nice DECT headset I use (a WHB640) in and around the house, but it's way too expensive; fantastic range, though.

dredmorbius
Thanks!

This item has no comments currently.