Monthly Archives: April 2004

Saving money on your phone bill: VOIP

Posted on by


David Pogue reviews the latest VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, which allow you to call anywhere in the United States for as little as $20.55/month (plus your broadband internet connection):.

This development is annoyingly called voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, which means “calls that use the Internet’s wiring instead of the phone company’s.” When you sign up, you get a little box that goes between your existing telephone and your broadband modem (that is, your cable modem or D.S.L. box, a requirement for most of these services).
At that point you can make unlimited local, regional and long-distance calls anywhere in the United States for a fixed fee of $20 to $40 a month (plus the cost of your broadband Internet service, of course). Overseas calls cost about 3 cents a minute. These figures aren’t subject to inflation by a motley assortment of tacked-on fees, either; voice-over-Internet service is exempt from F.C.C. line charges, state 911 surcharges, number-portability service charges and so on.

Save money, switch! I’ve been using www.packet8.net for some time.
Two alternatives beyond the phone interface: ichat | skype

New proposal would eliminate ?Education? from school district budget

Posted on by

Bizzaro Wisco Column – [Humor]
Filberto Epstein
March 30, 2004
A document released today by the Madison Metropolitan School District
outlines the administration?s proposal to close the district?s $10 million
budget shortfall by eliminating all ?education? activities and focusing on
the district?s core ?child storage? functions. According to Superintendent
Art Rainwater, the increasing cost of ?education? has impaired the
district?s ability to balance its books.

Thanks to Lucy Mathiak for pointing me to this article.

Roanoke’s O. Winston Link Museum

Posted on by


Virginia Postrel writes about the new 0. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia (Link recorded the waning years of steam locomotives)

The museum is in the former Norfolk and Western train station, which famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy redesigned in 1947. As Modernism’s Victoria Pedersen writes: “He completely transformed the 1905 neoclassical station, adding 22-foot ceilings, marble walls, terrazzo floors, a futuristic wall of horizontal windows and a dome. He also designed a concorse leading to the train platform that featured the first passenger escalators in the Roanoke Valley, cutting-edge technology for the period.” The new station was the epitome of streamlined modernism. But what that meant in the Virginia of a half century ago is spelled out in the letters above the door in these photos from the Library of Congress collection, the first of which Modernism reprinted

Madison Property Taxes: “Everybody’s Richer”

Posted on by


According to city assessor Ray Fisher Friday when 2004 property assessments were released. “My house went up 10 percent this year. I look at it as money in my pocket.” – Beth Williams writes. Interesting perspective…. Can’t say that I agree with Ray on that one. Bill Novak writes:

“Last year, assessments went up 8.6 percent and the local real estate tax was up 7.1 percent, according to the Assessor’s Office. In 2002, assessments were up 8.1 percent and taxes went up 3.2 percent. In 1997 and 1999, assessments went up and taxes went down.” What about 1998, 2000 and 2001?

There has been talk in the state legislature of completely shifting school taxes from the property tax to other sources, such as the sales tax. Wayne Wood, a retiring representative from Janesville and Rep Mickey Lehman (R-Hartford) developed a proposal that would have used a sales tax increase to reduce property taxes for schools.

(more…)

Educators Flocking to Finland, Land of Literate Children

Posted on by


Lizette Alvarez writes:

Imagine an educational system where children do not start school until they are 7, where spending is a paltry $5,000 a year per student, where there are no gifted programs and class sizes often approach 30. A prescription for failure, no doubt, in the eyes of many experts, but in this case a description of Finnish schools, which were recently ranked the world’s best.

Finland’s Schools: Yahoo | Google | Teoma | Alltheweb