John Dvorak is ga-ga for Skype. I just tried Skype for the first time over the weekend with my friend, Ken. In addition to Skype, we also tried out SIP Phone both over software and with hardware, and finally hardware based BroadVoice.
Honestly, I was blown away. VOIP is so much better quality than I could have imagined. Skype sounded absolutely fantastic. SIPPhone had some bad interface issues, but was still quite good. And BroadVoice was also pretty amazing. My jaw really dropped with all of them… POTS phones are in big trouble. I will never have a land-line based phone again.
Archives for April 2005
Yipe! Skype!
How not to argue your appeal.
Wow. And you thought you were unprepared for moot court?! Just listen to that guy! (It’s short, only 4 min.)
Overheard Conversation
You think you are a procrastinator. This was the conversation overheard in class the other day:
Slack Master, “Hey, do you have the reading for contracts?”
Classmate, “Um, hold on, let me look it up… it wasn’t bad, 25 pages or so.”
Slack Master, “Twenty-Five pages for the whole semester?”
Classmate, “Um, no, for tomorrow. The semester’s assignments are basically the entire casebook.”
Slack Master, “Really???!”
And I thought I was behind because I’m just starting my outlines! This guy has over 900 pages of reading to do!
Surprise, surprise
American Cities That Best Fit You: |
55% Chicago |
55% New York City |
50% Boston |
50% Honolulu |
50% Los Angeles |
The Devil is Beating His Wife
The title of this post is a new phrase I learned for when it’s raining and the sun is shining… thanks to the “What Kind of American English Do You Speak?” quiz. That has got to be a phrase from the south.
According to the quiz, I speak:
- 85% General American English
- 10% Dixie
- 5% Upper Midwestern
- 0% Midwestern
- 0% Yankee
Which I find interesting since: (1) I grew up in the Midwest; (2) I was educated entirely in the Midwest; and, (3) I still live in the Midwest.
So what does that mean? Apparently, we of Midwestern ilk have mastered English cold. Ain’t we?
[Via divine angst]
A Paper I Need to Read…
Heidi writes about a classmate presenting a paper in Federalism which started out:
“So, I went to Professor Halberstam and said that I wanted to write a paper about states rights in zombie movies. And he said, ‘Well, nobody’s going to take you seriously if you write about states rights.'”
I so want to read that paper…
[Via Letters of Marque]
Free Government Ringtones!
Yes! Free Government Ringtones, you know, for kids!
They are about as good as government cheese. Wait, I think these are government cheese. Oh no, they are the latest appeal from Uncle Sam to help kids get the message that saying no to drugs is cool. I particularly love this copy:
“We bet that you’re getting sick of hearing Justin, 50 cent, or Ring 5 every time one of your buddies calls.”
Yeah… because teens hate conformity and popular music. They would much rather have lame ass tones produced by bureaucrats!
My favorite is “Pick up your phone“. That one is begging for an industrious teen to mix to say, “Hey, pick up your phone… biatch.”
Update: It gets even better! You can get free anti-drug graphics for your website! Now who thought up, “Life: my anti-drug”… sheesh, it’s the existential crisis of adolescence that drives most of the kids to drugs in the first place.
The Most Intelligent Thing Ann Coulter has Ever Said
“My feet are the size of the Atlantic Ocean and my head the size of a pea.”
(Commenting on her Time Magazine cover photo. Sounds pretty much like a whiney liberal, doesn’t she?)
This Post is Rated NC-17
Give me a f*ing break.
Hey, MPAA: bite me.
[Via Tech Law Advisor]
BIGLAW Takes on the Billable Hour
Sort of…
In this article in today’s Tribune, McGuireWoods is taking on the billable hour by offering “alternative billing arrangements.”
Note, the article does go out of the way to avoid saying, “flat fee”. However, any step towards predictability and management of legal costs is welcome, I’m sure.
I wonder if that means associates at McGuireWoods would have reduced billable hour quotas? Or if they would have actual dollar amount goals instead–or god forbid–reduced quotas all around.