Author Topic: Well, I guess it’s safe to start the Spring Flickr now. (Read 28003 times)

Angela M... · « **Reply #30 on:** August 15, 2015, 08:26:37 PM »

Hey Betty, I am still using a Samsung Flip phone to make my wireless calls. It does take pictures but not great ones and I may have used it for that purpose only once or twice in fact to take photo's of a collision my son was involved in. The girl tried to say it was his fault until I showed her the photo's I took and reminded her that I had evidence and would go to court if needs be. She backed off and admitted guilt as she was not paying attention and even told the cop she was texting at the time. I don't need a fancy phone as I only make a few calls. If I get a new phone I will give up my hard wire home phone to cut my bills a little.

BabyLock · « **Reply #31 on:** August 16, 2015, 04:08:12 AM »

Back to the original theme/topic

Hey Andy - we are fast into SUMMER so isn't it time to change the:

"Re: Well, I guess it’s safe to start the Spring Flickr now."

To a SUMMER mode !

Thanks for the treasure trove of pictures and I hope others have noted using the
arrows at the right and left edge of the displayed picture to see more.

alison · « **Reply #32 on:** August 16, 2015, 01:51:18 PM »

The plain phone running off the line battery is something that is going away. Verizon is trying to switch people to fiber optic and a unit in the home that runs off house power with a 1 hour battery backup. Even for just plain telephone service. They don't want to maintain the copper lines.

I was having trouble in my line with static every time it rained. They didn't want to fix the copper line, they only wanted to replace it with fiber. I kept telling them I didn't want the fiber. Finally I ported my number to another carrier and got a "mobile home" phone, which is wireless phone in a base station that runs off my house power, has a phone jack for the phone, and the calls go over the mobile network. The advantage of this is that I can now take my home phone number with me, even to another state.

andyg0404 · « **Reply #33 on:** August 16, 2015, 01:54:09 PM »

Hi Babylock,

I was thinking the same thing actually but usually I let the thread run until it get's higher in views. I went too far once and Betty locked it. But I'll consider changing the subject to a more timely one. Glad you enjoy the pictures, hope the blather isn't too boring.

Andy G.

andyg0404 · « **Reply #34 on:** August 16, 2015, 01:59:52 PM »

Hi alison,

I've been reading in the papers as well about Verizon wanting to do away with the copper lines which makes me laugh as my office is in Manhattan and we would love to get FIOS but they're still not offering it in our area. Periodically we get notices that it's available but we call up and it turns out not to be the case.

Never been fond of the phone company myself since the days of Ma Bell. For those who remember the original version of the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane" which starred George Segal and Jane Fonda, there's a scene where they enter a phone store, the kind where people used to go to pay their bills. There's a line of people waiting and they come in and announce that it's a holdup and ask the agent behind the counter to give them the money. As they leave with the money everyone in line applauds. The phone company has never had a very good reputation.

Andy G.

Betty · « **Reply #35 on:** August 16, 2015, 06:22:15 PM »

Copper phone lines (or more likely copper clad aluminum these days) are still dominant everywhere, although phased out in some areas. Where it's not around, all the more reason to have a smart phone in an emergency situation. Basic mobile phone service is usually cheaper than line phone service for basic calling, unlimited international long distance, texting, & usually has Facebook & Twitter messaging at no additional charge.

In an emergency, even if the local cell tower power goes out (but some of them have generator back-up too), there's a good chance you may be able to hit another tower a dozen miles away - esp. if you go out in an open space, or try from a window of an upper floor of a building, or from a hill to increase your range. Most smart phones can get wifi & the internet too, if you don't want to pay extra for a data plan. If the power & tower is out, if you can get within a block from an active wifi spot, you can still get a message out, read about the emergency to know what to do or where to go.

It's essential to get a Facebook account. Many of your friends & family have an account, I find women, young people, mac fanboys, & self employed use it the most. If you can't get a call or text out through the tower, you can message somebody through their Facebook or have them relay your message to somebody not on Facebook if you can find wifi somewhere. People don't check their email frequently or only every few days, so email won't work for emergencies. People check their FB account often, or have FB messages sent to their phone in real time.

In an emergency you can get your communications out near any wifi, through Facebook messaging & texting.

A portable CB radio "walkie talkie" is handy for emergencies too. All state, county, provincial, & some local local police monitor emergency CB channel 9 for emegencies in the USA & Canada. You don't need a license to use one. A CB portable is a lot bulkier than a phone though, using 8-12 AA batteries to have enough power to transmit long at 3-5 watts. With their short antennas they only have a range across half the city, but in an open area, on a upper floor, or on a hill that range can be more. More likely then not, there will be an emergency official monitoring channel 9 within your range.

In an emergency, officials monitoring channel 9 will relay a message to who you need to get it to for you.

And the 8-12 AA batteries in it can serve as spares to use in your emergency LED lights, & a nice portable AM-FM radio. You need a durable sensitive AM radio for emergencies to tune in the news, emergency reports, storm updates, find out what's going on, & what to do. For around $10 you can get a nice sensitive AM-FM sony pocket radio that will run about 60 hours on a pair of AA batteries. Sitting in the dark with no power, perhaps for days, the radio, news, & music can save your sanity. It will bring a sense of normalcy or comfort to a dire or panicked situation. At night AM radio can pull in stations from the entire continent, so you'll have plenty to listen to.

Avoid AAA or button battery powered lights & radios. They don't have enough energy to last the long term. An AA battery has 3 times the power than an AAA battery. For survival you don't want super tiny& miniature, you want long lasting & durable.

However, I have a couple solid all metal keychain LED lights powered by a single AAA cell. They'll run up to 10 hours on a singe cell. Not very bright but pretty good, & after 6 hours they start to get dimmer. I have a couple plastic LED lights that dimmed down to their lowest setting will run 96 hours on a single AAA cell. I also have a couple AA versions of it too. 156 hours of light on it's lowest setting on a single AA cell. The lowest setting is pretty dim, but makes a nice nightlight during a power failure.

There's also my modified Ray-O-Vac LED lantern which will light up an entire room very bright for 150 hours. It runs on 4-D cells. "D" cells have 4 times the power an AA cell has.

If you have an old flashlight with an old incandescent bulb in it, throw it out or replace the bulb with an LED direct replacement. LEDs run 4-20 times longer on the same batteries, & are more reliable. Everybody uses LED flashlights & lanterns for 15 years now. The newer modern ones are very bright for the power they consume, & won't burn out when dropped.

Angela M... · « **Reply #36 on:** August 16, 2015, 09:07:25 PM »

Hey Betty, I just bought a wonderful LED Solar floodlight for my back patio. It has 80 bright white LED light chips and it is great. It can be set to come at dusk and off at dawn or it can be motion activated with an adjustment for the duration of ON time. I have replaced most of the bulbs in my house lights with LED's and got most of them at Lowes on sale and I have noticed a change in my hydro bill so they will pay for themselves soon enough. There was also a promo from our government with coupons for $5 off each bulb I bought so it made sense to change them.

Robyn Jodie · « **Reply #37 on:** August 16, 2015, 10:14:59 PM »

In my area, Verizon is trying to switch everyone to fiber optic. When I got their FiOS internet service I didn't think to retain copper phone service. However they provide a battery backup for their FiOS connection that is supposed to be good for about 24 hours and I've never [yet] had to test it for that long. I just got notice that mine is one of the areas where Verizon is selling their non-wireless services. GTE customer service was terrible; Verizon was a big step up. I can only that hope the new carrier won't be another GTE.