Ooma vs Vonage

My Ooma just arrrived.  Sorry, I can't resist saving money any longer.

Lets do the simple math.  Ooma Telo is $199.99 on Amazon right now.  Premier service with free number port is $119.99 for 1 year, with $11.99 regulatory fee recovering (starts from the second year, but I'll count it in right away).  For one year of usage the price is $331.97.  

Lets do the Vonage math.  Nothing counts (I already got the whole set), but the monthly fee.  I'm paying $33.13 total for $24.99 plan in Los Angeles county. (That's a lot of different fees!)  The annual usage of the plan would be $397.56.

So Ooma wins.  If even I'll change Vonage to annual plan with $59.98 (20%) of savings, it's still $337.58, more expensive then Ooma.  And the second year is when we're either making (Ooma) or loosing (Vonage) money.  

I can also downgrade Ooma to the basic plan, still have all the features (but the call forwarding when the device is offline), and pay $11.99 a year.  With Vonage, the second year is still $300+ more.  And so on and so forth.

By the way, I am not going to use either Vonage or Ooma much.  That's why keeping the costs as low as possible is very important.

Do your math, stop wasting money for something with no value. P.S. And Ooma looks better.  Even if I keep it hidden in the closet, it's always nice to know. :)

# Posted via email from opportunity__cost

How to Brew

There are many good books on homebrewing currently available, so why did I write one you ask? The answer is: a matter of perspective. When I began learning how to brew my own beer several years ago, I read every book I could find; books often published 15 years apart. It was evident to me that the state of the art had matured a bit. Where one book would recommend using baking yeast and covering the fermenting beer with a towel, a later book would insist on brewing yeast and perhaps an airlock. So, I felt that another point of view, laying out the hows and whys of the brewing processes, might help more new brewers get a better start.

via howtobrew.com

You can enjoy the great book on home-brewing online, the first edition, on the site of the author, John Palmer.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937381888/prokhorenkous-20

At the same time, I've downloaded the latest, third edition, into my Kindle and going to spend a few hours tomorrow morning with this book, getting into insights of beer brewing.

Have fun!

# Posted via web from opportunity__cost

Working from Home: Why It Sucks

Geeks in Boston: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

Man, if this is your style, it will suck for you wherever you're working from.

I used to work from home for pretty much 11 years. Well, yeah, there were periods of time (less then 2 years in total), that I used to stay in office in a 9am-6pm-style. These days were pretty much okay for me, but nothing I can remember about as necessity.

And I used to work at home when I had my kid. Let me tell you this, that is the hardest part of working at home, especially, in 1 bedroom spot where is no place to hide.

I had no typical day, I had no problems leaving out with my friends (and didn't forget my laptop and cell phone to get connected anywhere). I always had something to do, I always kept a track of what I am doing and, damn, I am not going to have meeting with about something "with phone muted, can watch youtube videos".

Feeling lonely? Come on. Get a life, man. ;) Your day job is definitely a good place to get new connections and start networking. But this is not the place to develop your networking. Let me make it straight, just do your job. If you're there to chat with Dan from HR, or with John from IT, you better not be wasting your employers money and your time for that.

My networking was okay without need to spend my time-for-work for it. Definitely, meeting other people is extremely important. So do this during the events that are designated for networking. (And you still have your phone while working at home. Use it.)

What is the difference of working in the big organization, where you either don't know or don't want to know anyone, sitting shoulder to shoulder (literally) to you. You still call your friends or other people who don't share the depression of working within the same company. ;)

It's all about who you are and how you get your job done. If I'm there to call it a day as soon as possible, damn, nobody needs me sitting there anyway.