A sip of the kool-aid

I spent several hours yesterday installing something called SIP on my mobile phone. It wasn't horribly complicated, but it somehow took me awhile to get all the settings right. Now that I have it, I can make long distance calls on the cheap from my cell phone--for less than a penny a minute in Canada and about the same to the US. Now that it is set up, Ron can use it from his phone too.

Chances are I'll seldom use it, after all, I have VOIP at home that includes every place I would ever need or want to call included in my monthly rate. As soon as Skype gets its act together and comes up with a decent app for Android phones, I'll probably use that instead. I use it now to make long distance calls from work.

I did this particular techie dance because it somehow felt necessary to have very cheap long distance on this phone that I seldom use, but carry with me everywhere. I did it because I was damned if I was going to toss more gold into the deep pockets of Rogers Communications by adding on a long distance plan. I did it because this particular thing felt somehow subversive.

I am deeply ashamed that I have been sucked into this must-have-more vortex. I am also deeply ashamed because I used to be subversive in ways that really mattered.