Many of you may recall that I switch from Qwest landbased system to Sunrocket VOIP. I ran it side by side question for 90 days to just check it out. Then I had my Qwest number, (number we have had for over 20 years) to Sunrocket. It was seamless and painless. Now instead of an average $80 per month I have paid $199.00 for the entire year with all free longdistance in USA, Canada. We sometimes have a scratchy sound in the phone line but that is rare.

You must have broadband to take advantage of it.

If your internet goes down, how do you call Mumbai?

My HughesNet went sour Monday, and I was 2 1/2 hours talking to a script-reader I could barely understand. Finally, he turned me over to a guy in the US who straightened everything out in a few minutes.

There are three cellphones in this house. It is remarkable how few land line calles we get. I don't think my daughter has got a single land line call in a year with the exception of school loan telemarketers.

And, not to be contrary, but Deb and I bought our first PC in 1982, we went through that whole thing when we were upgrading twice a year. PC, PC Turbo 12 Mhz, AT, 386, 484, P1, p2, p3, etc. etc. We have had to call tech support a lot, heck we've owned two Compaq Presarios.

I have had two wifi routers plus printers etc... I find the foreign tech support folks are mucn more knowledgeable and helpful than the average American dude. This has just been my personal experience. I should say though that the worst tech support is Cable. I had Time Warner but is now Comcast... Here's the problem, it's never their fault.

"Hey my cables not working", "Do you have a radio in your house", Why, yes of course", "Oh, I'm sorry we do not provide support on radios, good by".

I've had 5 Macs in the past 12 years. Had a monitor go out under warranty on the first one. Called after lunch, & had a new one by FedEx the next AM. Called Mac tech support twice over all those years. Once it was great, once not so hot.

Ordered a Plantronics headset from an East coast supplier. Had trouble with delivery, it didn't work, had trouble with tech support, threw a tantrum & demanded replacement, got action, but altogether it was 6 weeks too late to use with my new IBM ViaVoice voice recognition software which, itself, turned out to be an idea whose time had not yet come.

Any more, if I doesn't say Apple on it. I look several times before I leap. My daughter & son-in-law use both Macs & PCs in their business. He says the next time the PC (a Dell) goes out, he's scrapping it & sticking with the Macs. They've had 3 or 4, & never had a hardware problem, nor have I but for the one monitor.

I've been thinking of buying a cheap PC laptop, but I think i just talked myself out of it.