{"id":115,"date":"2006-09-13T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2006-09-13T12:54:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-13T12:54:00","slug":"geography-alert-minnesota-suddenly-moves-closer-to-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/13\/geography-alert-minnesota-suddenly-moves-closer-to-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Geography Alert: Minnesota Suddenly Moves Closer to Singapore!"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most difficult aspects of living in Singapore is being so far from my family and friends back home.<\/p>\n

One solution has been using instant messaging and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal)<\/span> programs such as iChat or the free Skype<\/a> program. I also put money into a Skype Out<\/a> account so that I could use my computer to call people’s telephones. To get a Skype Out account, I just followed the link within Skype. I used a credit card to purchase ten euros worth of talk time. I’m paying USD $0.02 cents per minute when I call the USA. <\/span>[NOTE: Skype Out is free until the end of 2006 for making calls from computers in the USA to telephones within the USA.]<\/span>
<\/span>
Sound quality with Skype Out is better than it was with many of the calling cards I used to purchase in Malaysia. It helps that Kent purchased an Altec Lansing headphone\/ microphone combination. It plugs into a USB port and greatly improves the sound. Without a headphone, the microphone would pick up the other person’s end of the conversation that was playing through the speakers. This caused annoying echoes.<\/p>\n

When I first arrived in Singapore, I discovered that my iBook G4 didn’t play nicely with Skype when running on battery. It would work fine for a few minutes, but then the person I was talking to would suddenly not be able to hear me at all. I could hear them, but nothing, including hanging up and calling them again, would restore the sound for them. Kent didn’t experience this problem on his Powerbook.<\/p>\n

Recently, Skype became even better. There is a beta version out that allows people using Macs to video chat. Although it is a beta<\/a>, we have found it to be stable and easy to use. The video capabilities have been available in the Windows version of Skype for a while, so it’s good to see it finally available for the Mac.<\/p>\n

In the past week, my life took a good turn. Since moving to Singapore, I had not had much contact with my parents. I did not yet have a telephone in my home, and my parents had virus-plagued, old Windows computers so they were not able to get onto the internet at home. Tired of this situation, I bit the bullet and purchased a refurbished iMac for my parents. A great friend back home configured it and spent a few hours helping them make it play nicely with their Comcast account. This is their first foray into broadband. This is also their first Mac.<\/p>\n

The day she brought them the computer, I received a photo they snapped of themselves using the built-in iSight camera. I am now receiving regular emails from them, and they are having fun exploring the iapps such as iTunes.<\/p>\n

The best part came two days ago. I had the pleasure of opening Skype and seeing that my parents were online. I called their computer and within moments, I could see them and they could see me. I was able to turn my camera around so they could see my apartment and watch the cats scampering past. I could see them sitting at the desk in my childhood home. All of sudden, Minnesota feels much closer to Singapore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most difficult aspects of living in Singapore is being so far from my family and friends back home.<\/p>\n

One solution has been using instant messaging and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal) programs such as iChat or the free Skype program. I also put money into a Skype Out account so that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}