Technology is wonderful...and lazy.
I find it fascinating just how much is available for keeping in touch with people. But what really made me laugh was how I talk to a friend of mine in the states. We talk a lot, and finding the easiest way to communicate quickly has been a slowly evolving process.
So the setup is like this. Two webcams, one here and one there. Visibility is achieved. This is all good, but what if one person isn't actually at the computer at the time of connecting the cams? Messenger Plus! comes in handy there - it has an auto accept feature, so now whenever either of us open the the others cam (and limited to only that other person, thankyou very much!) it will automatically open, be the other person in bed sleeping, or sitting on the couch watching a movie, or whatever. I've noticed that i pick my nose when in front of my computer a lot less now. Just. In. Case.
If we're both sitting at the computer, then there's nothing else to do. Type away in messenger, or talk on the mic, depending if it's turned on. I only remember to plug it in half the time, so i forget a lot and just type without thinking about it.
But when she's sitting on the couch, what i type can't be read from there...but that's easily sorted. She's got a blackberry, and every email i send gets delivered (eventually) to her phone. And she can reply on her phone. Sorted.
But that can have some delays. Now we've moved on to the next option. Yahoo messenger *shudder*. I really don't' like the yahoo brand, but every im sent to her on that gets delivered to her phone as an SMS instantly. And when replied to, it's delivered back to my IM window jsut as quickly. Nice.
Damn americans have it good. Unlimited SMS for a flat fee. We don't get that here.
If i want to be lazy and sit on the couch or lie in bed too, then i'm stuck with paying $1 for every 5 minutes i spend online on my phone checking my email. And on my phone, which has no actual buttons, typing stuff takes ages - the stylus and screen area is small, and my hands are very big. Pretty crappy, but workable. And expensive.
But still, technology is cool. Enabling people sit on the couch and do things with very little effort everywhere. This is where we've ended up as a society. All things are pretty much possible now without getting up off the couch. No wonder i'm so overweight :)
Side note: I've been looking into austrlaian prices of diffferent deals you can get. I can't find an unlimited international SMS deal, but i have discovered that vodafone (my mobile carrier) does has a $5 a month unlimited data deal (the Email & Messenger pack, which is part of vodafone live) provided you only connect to windows live (mail and messenger only) or yahoo (mail and messenger only). There's very little on the web site about it, so i guess i have to make a phone call, dammit. Anyone know any more about it?
And that sounds like too much effort :)