RE: This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff
10-06-2012, 02:21 PM
Guys I had one of those "wow cannot get over how surreal technology is" moments.
A friend and I can have phones which are computers which can connect to the internet, we can then both install Skype on said phones, and when we see we are both using said phones proceed to have a phone call. On phones. On opposite sides of the world.
I get that this is nothing new for phones, which were doing this shit way before the internet was a thing, but I always perceived some kind of difference between Skype calls and phone calls overseas. I'm familiar with the latter; I've got family in Japan. Phone calls were expensive and infrequent - the one phone company at the time would advertise weekends when calls overseas were cheap, and we'd talk and have a yearly (sometimes years-ly) catch-up by the hour. If they happened to be home at the time.
The internet changed all that - now I can be effectively-constantly in touch with people all over the world. That's seriously cool, but vocal/aural communication remained a novelty. Skype eats bandwidth (compared to IRC). It's not very efficient for large groups. A lot of the visual cues are missing, because you rely on flashing avatars to figure where noises are coming from, and half the time at least one person won't have a proper headset so your mike's picking up keyboard-smacking and hard discs purring and family screeching and your own dang voice in the background. Video lags, and the quality's lacking.
A phone just seems like a more intuitive device for one-on-one calls, at least where your connection's less than blistering and you weren't wanting video or instant messaging or the ability to switch to a tab on your browser every five seconds. It feels weird as heck to be using modern technology to recreate old (at a fraction of the operating costs), but it feels so primitive. It's been ages since I've used the phone to plain call someone, and if it weren't for natural disasters it would've been a forgettable forever ago when I last used a phone to get in touch with someone overseas. It still feels like the way I'm supposed to hear the voices of people thousands of kilometres away.
In summary: Skype - pretty awesome. Phone calls - even more awesome.
A friend and I can have phones which are computers which can connect to the internet, we can then both install Skype on said phones, and when we see we are both using said phones proceed to have a phone call. On phones. On opposite sides of the world.
I get that this is nothing new for phones, which were doing this shit way before the internet was a thing, but I always perceived some kind of difference between Skype calls and phone calls overseas. I'm familiar with the latter; I've got family in Japan. Phone calls were expensive and infrequent - the one phone company at the time would advertise weekends when calls overseas were cheap, and we'd talk and have a yearly (sometimes years-ly) catch-up by the hour. If they happened to be home at the time.
The internet changed all that - now I can be effectively-constantly in touch with people all over the world. That's seriously cool, but vocal/aural communication remained a novelty. Skype eats bandwidth (compared to IRC). It's not very efficient for large groups. A lot of the visual cues are missing, because you rely on flashing avatars to figure where noises are coming from, and half the time at least one person won't have a proper headset so your mike's picking up keyboard-smacking and hard discs purring and family screeching and your own dang voice in the background. Video lags, and the quality's lacking.
A phone just seems like a more intuitive device for one-on-one calls, at least where your connection's less than blistering and you weren't wanting video or instant messaging or the ability to switch to a tab on your browser every five seconds. It feels weird as heck to be using modern technology to recreate old (at a fraction of the operating costs), but it feels so primitive. It's been ages since I've used the phone to plain call someone, and if it weren't for natural disasters it would've been a forgettable forever ago when I last used a phone to get in touch with someone overseas. It still feels like the way I'm supposed to hear the voices of people thousands of kilometres away.
In summary: Skype - pretty awesome. Phone calls - even more awesome.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow