Misleading bloggers and the use of "free".

| Yes, that's true. I don't lose any sleep over the
| chance that once every five years someone might
| not be able to reach me for 20 minutes. It's not
| like I'm running a nuclear power plant. If the machine
| doesn't pick up, they'll call back.
|
| where do you live that power goes out only once every 5 years and only
| for 20 minutes?

Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
Montana? Equatorial Africa? The last time the power
went out here was about 3 years ago, when a squirrel
got into a nearby pole transformer. I don't remember
when it might have happened before that.
Once in awhile my UPS clicks a couple of times, but
not enough gap to disturb anything. I wouldn't know
it had happened if I didn't have the UPS.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| Yes, that's true. I don't lose any sleep over the
| chance that once every five years someone might
| not be able to reach me for 20 minutes. It's not
| like I'm running a nuclear power plant. If the machine
| doesn't pick up, they'll call back.
|
| where do you live that power goes out only once every 5 years and only
| for 20 minutes?

Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
Montana? Equatorial Africa? The last time the power
went out here was about 3 years ago, when a squirrel
got into a nearby pole transformer. I don't remember
when it might have happened before that.

likely in 2011 during hurricane irene, which was a lot longer than 20
minutes.

http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/specials/110826_irene_outages/
Four days after Irene, power outages remain
By Thursday morning, about 65,000 customers still lacked power in
Massachusetts, down from a high of nearly 700,000 on Sunday night.

buy a lottery ticket.

In article , Tony Cooper
wrote:

| Yes, that's true. I don't lose any sleep over the
| chance that once every five years someone might
| not be able to reach me for 20 minutes. It's not
| like I'm running a nuclear power plant. If the machine
| doesn't pick up, they'll call back.
|
| where do you live that power goes out only once every 5 years and only
| for 20 minutes?

Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
Montana? Equatorial Africa?

In my case, a place less civilized: Florida.

This time of year we can expect power outages every couple of weeks.
Usually it's everyone in the grid turning on their air conditioners at
the same time and it blows a fuse or whatever it is that regulates the
power.

If it's not the heat, then a tree falls on a line. No underground
power cables except in the newer subdivisions.

or a drunk slams into a utility pole.

| Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
| Montana? Equatorial Africa? The last time the power
| went out here was about 3 years ago, when a squirrel
| got into a nearby pole transformer. I don't remember
| when it might have happened before that.
|
| likely in 2011 during hurricane irene, which was a lot longer than 20
| minutes.
|
No, we didn't lose power then. It's typical that
people lose power in the more rural areas, where
a lot of trees come down. The same is true of ice
storms. We don't have much problem with that in
metro Boston. Not that it matters. I wouldn't see
any reason to stop using an answering machine
just because I lost power in a hurricane. That's
nonsensical. Meanwhile, I've likely saved over $400
since 2011 by not paying the phone company to
answer my phone.

The only real reason I can think of for using that
service is either laziness or a phobia toward gadgets
of any kind. But at least those reasons make more
sense than paying through the nose because some
day you might have a hurricane, and someone
might call you during the storm, and you might miss
the call.

| In my case, a place less civilized: Florida.
|
| This time of year we can expect power outages every couple of weeks.
| Usually it's everyone in the grid turning on their air conditioners at
| the same time and it blows a fuse or whatever it is that regulates the
| power.
|

I didn't realize there were places in the US with
such bad service. Not that I would see that as a
reason to pay the phone company to answer my
phone, but I am surprised.

We did have one episode in 2001. Remember when
NYC was out and people had to walk home across
town? During that afternoon I was on the computer
when it suddenly rebooted and came up dead. I didn't
have a UPS or surge suppressor at the time. The
motherboard/CPU were gone. Later I learned that
the Massachusetts system sensed the power failure
in the larger grid and-auto-disconnected. We never
lost power, but I suspect we had a big surge when
the disconnection happened. That was sometime
around when my computer died.

At one time I lived in Boston proper and we sometimes
lost power for maybe 20 minutes at a times, apparently
because an old cable died. That would happen perhaps
3 or 4 times per year.

The last time I remember losing power for more than
a few minutes was, I think, hurricane Betsy, which
was something like 1962.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| In my case, a place less civilized: Florida.
|
| This time of year we can expect power outages every couple of weeks.
| Usually it's everyone in the grid turning on their air conditioners at
| the same time and it blows a fuse or whatever it is that regulates the
| power.
|

I didn't realize there were places in the US with
such bad service. Not that I would see that as a
reason to pay the phone company to answer my
phone, but I am surprised.

We did have one episode in 2001. Remember when
NYC was out and people had to walk home across
town? During that afternoon I was on the computer
when it suddenly rebooted and came up dead. I didn't
have a UPS or surge suppressor at the time. The
motherboard/CPU were gone. Later I learned that
the Massachusetts system sensed the power failure
in the larger grid and-auto-disconnected. We never
lost power, but I suspect we had a big surge when
the disconnection happened. That was sometime
around when my computer died.

do you mean this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

At one time I lived in Boston proper and we sometimes
lost power for maybe 20 minutes at a times, apparently
because an old cable died. That would happen perhaps
3 or 4 times per year.

The last time I remember losing power for more than
a few minutes was, I think, hurricane Betsy, which
was something like 1962.

you might be thinking of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
| Montana? Equatorial Africa? The last time the power
| went out here was about 3 years ago, when a squirrel
| got into a nearby pole transformer. I don't remember
| when it might have happened before that.
|
| likely in 2011 during hurricane irene, which was a lot longer than 20
| minutes.
|
No, we didn't lose power then. It's typical that
people lose power in the more rural areas, where
a lot of trees come down. The same is true of ice
storms. We don't have much problem with that in
metro Boston.

trees in boston can come down just as easily as trees anywhere else.

power grids may have outages for other reasons, such as heavy loads
during a heatwave or someone knocking down a utility pole.

it isn't just rural places that have outages.

Not that it matters. I wouldn't see
any reason to stop using an answering machine
just because I lost power in a hurricane. That's
nonsensical.

nobody said to stop using one. use whatever you want.

put the answering machine on a ups. problem solved. you said you have a
ups already and an answering machine uses negligible power so it won't
have much effect on runtime.

Meanwhile, I've likely saved over $400
since 2011 by not paying the phone company to
answer my phone.

i've saved nearly double that in less than one year by switching to
voip *and* i get voicemail and call filtering and a whole ****load of
other stuff. wish i did it a lot earlier than i did.

The only real reason I can think of for using that
service is either laziness or a phobia toward gadgets
of any kind. But at least those reasons make more
sense than paying through the nose because some
day you might have a hurricane, and someone
might call you during the storm, and you might miss
the call.

or as i mentioned, that you can access voicemail from anywhere.

also, that calls can roll to voicemail when your phone is in use.

as for the cost, voicemail is normally included with the service plan
at no additional cost.

a phone answering machine costs money to purchase.

some systems can even send text transcriptions via email, although that
tends to not be all that accurate. however, it's usually good enough to
figure out whether it requires an immediate response or if it can wait.

On 6/19/2016 4:13 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , PeterN
wrote:


Also, the battery power does
not last for more than about a day.

actually, it lasts for about 5-8 hours.

it also prioritizes phone service when on battery versus internet. for
most people, that's the appropriate choice, but for those who use voip
or just prefer internet, there's a hack to fool it. another solution is
use a standard ups and then it thinks it's still on ac power.

I though about VOIP, but when the power goes down, so does the power to
the router. Yes I could get a bit more time with my auto backup
but not anything meaningful. I have a battery backup for my cell, and
like the last time, we make a temporary move to an area where there is
power.

plug the ata and the fios ont into a good size ups. you should be able
to easily get 10 hours, likely more, depending on how big the ups is.
neither uses any significant amount of power.

wire the ata to the demarc and your existing house phones are now on
voip. be sure to disconnect it from the regular phone lines.

bonus points for using a multi-line ata, where each room can have its
own extension.

or get a voip phone for each room in which you want a phone, but then
they each need backup power.


That would work, but not worth the effort.

My friends use text & wireless phone. Our Docs know there is a power
outage, but they all have my cell for calls. I have no real need for the
landlines. We only have them because my wife wants them, so for a few
bucks a month she is happy.




--
PeterN

On 6/19/2016 6:39 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Sun, 19 Jun 2016 17:57:27 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

| Yes, that's true. I don't lose any sleep over the
| chance that once every five years someone might
| not be able to reach me for 20 minutes. It's not
| like I'm running a nuclear power plant. If the machine
| doesn't pick up, they'll call back.
|
| where do you live that power goes out only once every 5 years and only
| for 20 minutes?

Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
Montana? Equatorial Africa?

In my case, a place less civilized: Florida.

This time of year we can expect power outages every couple of weeks.
Usually it's everyone in the grid turning on their air conditioners at
the same time and it blows a fuse or whatever it is that regulates the
power.

If it's not the heat, then a tree falls on a line. No underground
power cables except in the newer subdivisions.

If it's not weather, then it's a squirrel getting fried on one of
those pots up on a pole.

Most outages are fixed within a couple of hours. The hurricane-caused
ones last days, though.


I remember one business trip to FL, we had a hurricane party.
The best of all worlds is when you are being paid to have a hurricane
party. (I was not in business for myself at that time.)


--
PeterN

On 6/19/2016 9:17 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| Near Boston. Where do you live that it's undependable?
| Montana? Equatorial Africa? The last time the power
| went out here was about 3 years ago, when a squirrel
| got into a nearby pole transformer. I don't remember
| when it might have happened before that.
|
| likely in 2011 during hurricane irene, which was a lot longer than 20
| minutes.
|
No, we didn't lose power then. It's typical that
people lose power in the more rural areas, where
a lot of trees come down. The same is true of ice
storms. We don't have much problem with that in
metro Boston.

trees in boston can come down just as easily as trees anywhere else.

power grids may have outages for other reasons, such as heavy loads
during a heatwave or someone knocking down a utility pole.

it isn't just rural places that have outages.

Not that it matters. I wouldn't see
any reason to stop using an answering machine
just because I lost power in a hurricane. That's
nonsensical.

nobody said to stop using one. use whatever you want.

put the answering machine on a ups. problem solved. you said you have a
ups already and an answering machine uses negligible power so it won't
have much effect on runtime.

Meanwhile, I've likely saved over $400
since 2011 by not paying the phone company to
answer my phone.

i've saved nearly double that in less than one year by switching to
voip *and* i get voicemail and call filtering and a whole ****load of
other stuff. wish i did it a lot earlier than i did.

The only real reason I can think of for using that
service is either laziness or a phobia toward gadgets
of any kind. But at least those reasons make more
sense than paying through the nose because some
day you might have a hurricane, and someone
might call you during the storm, and you might miss
the call.

or as i mentioned, that you can access voicemail from anywhere.

also, that calls can roll to voicemail when your phone is in use.

as for the cost, voicemail is normally included with the service plan
at no additional cost.

a phone answering machine costs money to purchase.

some systems can even send text transcriptions via email, although that
tends to not be all that accurate. however, it's usually good enough to
figure out whether it requires an immediate response or if it can wait.


A classic speako!

It's hare to recognize speech.
It's hard to wreck a nice beach.


--
PeterN