Hi, I'm Stephen!

Use Skype to save a little cash and beat the bloody telco’s at their own game (in Australia at least)

Using your mobile phone in a foreign land presents a bunch of different problems.  Of course, the best way to deal with it is to travel on business for a company that can’t be bothered to set all of this up and would rather just pay your $2500 mobile phone bills. If that isn’t the case here are my notes saving a few bucks.

Most people know that you can use Skype or Google Voice to make cheap or free international phone calls, but it can be confusing to set-up.  Here’s what i do.

The Basics

Skype makes it really easy to make “calls” and video chats to other skype users with there messaging software.  Pretty much everyone has tried this out with out too much trouble. You can also make phone calls to regular phones from Skype at very low per minute rates.  You just need to add some credit to your account and dialing out using the dial pad.

Skype offers some other confusing (but useful) services:

Online Numbers allow you to create a phone number that people can call that will ring your skype account (or fwd to another phone).  Which can be very handy when you’re jumping boarders.  For example, I have a Skype Online Number in the 310 area code that then fowards to my Skype account so i can answer the call from my computer anywhere in the world, or fwd it automatically to any phone number in the world.  When i arrive in a new place  i simply log into the Skype program on my laptop and enter whatever disposable prepaid SIM card Phone number.  Though, keep in mind you end up paying for the connected call out of your skype credit, though generally it’s about a penny a minute. 

Skype Subscriptions allow you to  pay a low monthly fee and get free calling to a specific country, or part of the wolrd.  For instance, $5 a month flat fee to call China as much as you want, or unlimited global calling for $13, which is what i do.

Skype To Go provides you with a special access number in your area where you can call then dial an international number for super cheap international phone calls from any phone.  I don’t use this service, but I can see how it would be useful for a family

Skype for smart phones is another layer of the Skype onion that I use frequently. A version of Skype is available for most smart phones (iPhone, Nokia, Google Android Phones). These apps very slightly but they all allow you to sign into your Skype account and send messages to other skype users, or Dial regular phones with the same low per mintute rates that you’d expect from the desktop software.  I use the Skype iPhone app to make international calls from far-flung countries with out having to use up my expensive minutes.  I just use up my pre-paid data allotment, which is generally much cheaper.

Google Voice or gVoice allows you to establish a virtual phone number that you give out to everyone and when that number is called it forwards the call to which ever of your numbers is best for you at that moment (or all of your phones at once). This is great if you’re have a mobile a home landline and office line.  Instead of giving out all three numbers you just have one to remember.  Disconnecting your number from your telephone can be very handy if you want to switch your cell phone provider, or you move frequently or, as I have found if you travel internationally a lot.

Google Voice also has some great voicemail features like automatic transcription so you can read your voicemail in an email rather than listen to it. It’s much less tedious to glance through 5 transcripts than to listen to 5 messages. gVoice voicemail settings are also easy accessed on the web so if you need to rerecord your greeting overseas you don’t have to make a $30 phone call.

Google voice also lets you fwd calls automatically to voice mail in selected windows of time.  This is great to prevent your chinese mobile from ringing off the hook all night when you’re trying to get that important first night’s sleep on your rock hard Chinese Jin Jang hotel mattress.  

SIM Cards are very useful.  I wasn’t going to go mention them in detail, but I thought that  I might lose some folks there.  SIMs are little plastic rectangles with computer chips in them that some mobile phones store all of your account info on.  If you switch the SIM card you switch your number.  It’s a little complicated, but very useful.  

The most common phones to use SIM cards are GSM Phones.  Most mobile phones outside the USA are GSM Phones and have SIM cards.  Inside the USA most mobile phones that are on At&t or TMobile are GSM phones and have SIMs that can be switched (if the phones are unlocked, lets just assume your phone is “unlocked” for this article)

How to get all these things to work together

Getting these services to work in concert can be a little bit tricky.   It helps if you use them even when you aren’t traveling overseas so you have some level of comfort when you’re exhausted and frustrated on a late night in an uncomfortable place.

Rerecord your normal voice mail greeting explaining that you’re traveling internationally and wont be checking voicemail and direct people to your gVoice number (or your Skype online number). 

Google Voice is a great catchall, any messages that people leave will be easily accessible from the web, even if you don’t get your mobile phone set-up in your new country for a few days. 

This also lets people know that they may not hear from you for a few days which can be helpful.

If you’re using Google Voice, be sure to add your Skype Online number to your list of numbers.

Get a prepaid SIM in your new country ASAP.  You can usually pick them up at news stands or convenience stores as well as mobile phone shops.

When you have your new international mobile phone number up and running. Log into Skype on your computer and add the new mobile number as a forwarding number.

Using data instead of voice service

All of the above is great when people are trying to get ahold of you, but how do you call them back when you’re on the streets of Sydney with only your mobile phone in hand?

In some countries the international call rates from mobile phones are really reasonable.  In major Chinese cities it can be as cheap as a few cents a minute to call the USA.  In other places, you’ll get raped.  But, you’re not totally stuck if you have a smart phone with Skype installed you can make a phone call over the data network.  

In Australia on the Three network it costs me about AUD$.12 cents for a megabyte of data.  It costs AUD$.30 to connect a call then AUD$.40 a minute after that.  a 10 minute Skype call is less than 5 MB so Its a total win.

When i sat down to write this i thought that I might clear up this mess for a few people.  Looking back at what I’ve written, i doubt that very much.

Bought themes!

Well, I can hardly believe that i just bought a Tumblr theme, but i did.  I was browsing around the paid themes and somehow I just whipped out my AMEX and bought one.  I think it’s similar to the bizarre decision making process (or lack-there-of) that leads someone to buy an album on iTunes or a best-seller on your Kindle.

Where will this wild ride take us!?

A five peice band is setting up in my bedroom. I hope this was a good idea. http://yfrog.com/9godknj

What happened to my Macbook Pro!?

I didn’t drop it, or throw it, or attempt to pry it open with a crow bar.  As far as I can tell, this strange damage occurred when i closed this lid this morning while the notebook lay running on a ottoman.  

I’ll take it to the Apple Store tomorrow and see what they say. 

Update:  Apple said “nice try” and marched me out into the food court.

Update:  I sold this to a nice MD in Saskatchawan.  For all I know, he is very happy with it.

Adopting tumblr, finally.

I realized that I had more than a dozen barren wordpress blogs.  In the spirit of spring cleaning, and simplifying my digital life I’m moving everything to tumblr.  

I’ve had this tumblr account for a while, and like most of the numerous online presences I’ve fired up on a quite Saturday—it has been an empty husk wanting for some content.

We’ll see where this goes.  So far, I’m still really digging tumblr.

Living Low Cost in Los Angeles

While ‘project mayhem’ may not be in your immediate future, you don’t have to look far to start feeling a little like Tyler Durden.

As you might imagine. Living in a tent has advantages and numerous disadvantages. Its cheap, it simplify and you feel like you just dropped out of a frame of Fight Club while you glance around your office thinking, “none of these pansys live in a tent”. Beyond that its just plain roughing it.

Angelenos may associate the Palos Verdes Peninsula with high price real estate, grand sea vistas, and Trump National Golf Course. Palos Verdes (‘PV’ or simply ‘the hill’) has been the quiet conservative refuge for the ‘pony club’ set since the 60s. In PV the condos go for $1000 a square foot and the peninsula grocery store is packed with $100k whips.

I’ve decided to cut the prim and proper city down to size by tenting it long term. Well, I’m not on a crusade or anything. I’m just looking to save a buck, but I don’t mind putting a political bent on it. Two thing are for sure, the neighbors don’t like it and feeling a little bit ‘Fight Club’ is intoxicating.

Living in LA can be expensive, especially if you’re surviving on your blog’s non existent income. Most of the folks at my office are paying between $900 and $1200 a month for their modest SouthBay digs. And that only covers there part of the rent. All of them are sharing apartments or houses with groups of people. It’s the way things are done in Los Angeles. No one likes it, but everyone deals with it.

I’m no longer playing the game that way. Loyal ManyDigit readers may remember my visit to meet Jay Shafer, modern father of the Tiny House revolution. I really wanted to do something like that. Live simply and save my money for other things, like travel, and paying down credit card debt.

While camping in Colorado last month I had a revelation, I should just live in my tent. Most of my ideas go no where. I just talk about them with my friends once then they fade into the darkness. This time the stars seemed to be aligning correctly. The lease on my high priced LA apt. was coming to an end so I poked around to find someone who would be willing to sublease a camping space to me. Half jokingly I placed an add on craigslist.com, and in two days I had a deal worked out with a leaser in Palos Verdes. For $150.00 plus utilities a month I could have his patio/backyard and use of his bathroom and kitchen.

In a marathon effort, I got rid of nearly all of my furniture, I kept my clothes, my laptops, my camping gear and I moved in.. err out. I’ve been living the good life for 2 weeks now and I think I could do in indefinitely.

I’ll be writing some more about the new lifestyle I’ve discovered over the coming days and months, so check back. I will say this; the lady next do waters her garden every morning at 5:50am and inadvertently gives me and my positions a good watering down- a challenge that I’m learning to deal with.

You might ask what I’m doing with the grand a month I’ve been saving. The answer is “Whole Foods”. I’ve been eating like a king.