What About Skype And Gizmo,

Skype has changed the life of many with their SkypeIn and SkypeOut service. At least for me, this is very true as I had depended on this service for an international relationship. But now that I live in the U.S. SkypeIn and SkypeOut equivalent service for free. Maybe I should add "for now", since this is taking advantage of Google's beta program: GrandCentral. Users who sign-up (currently in private beta and requires an invite if you want to avoid long wait) will be provided a U.S.

All of this is free during the beta period. There is no information on when or how they might charge this service in the future. Anyways, lets get started. First, you need to sign up for a GrandCentral account. I recommend you get an invite to get started right away. Next, download the Gizmo Project VoIP software and sign up for an account if you don't have one already.

It's similar to Skype but uses a common SIP protocol instead of a proprietary one. Don't worry, we won't be using any of their fee based service. I completely understand how you feel; I wished the same too. SkypeOut equivalent. Go to your profile in Gizmo. Take note of your SIP number which starts from "1747".

Then, login to your GrandCentral account on the web. In the Settings page, click on "Add/Edit Number" and add the Gizmo SIP number. You are now all set! So, what does this do, When a call is received at the GrandCentral number, it will forward the call to your Gizmo via SIP which will be free.

If you are not available, GrandCentral can take voicemails. Then, you can retrieve your message via any phone or preferably the web. What's equivalent to SkypeOut, The click-to-call feature that is. In the address book, a call button will appear next to the phone numbers. Click on it and make GrandCentral call your Gizmo. Again, this is done via SIP and is free.

After you pick up the call on your Gizmo, GrandCentral will make a call to the number on your address book on the same line and you will immediately start to hear the ring tone. This only works in the U.S. GrandCentral is providing service but so far so good for me.

I have been using this method for work and personal use and has been working great! So what is the future of GrandCentral and other Google services, What about Skype and Gizmo, Any good ideas using with iPhone or other mobile devices, Let me bring up this topic on another post.

When we see something as gray, it’s, more often than not, anything but gray. But our brains “figure out” that due to the lighting conditions, it ought to be gray. Hence we see it as such. The light reflected from a white building will be vastly different in the light of the morning sun than in the evening.

But our brains figure out that the building did not turn from one color into another. This may seem obvious, because we’re used to our brains doing this all the time. Our brains are capable of chromatic adaption — it is color balancing for us by independently regulating the sensitivity of each cone type. In addition to that, our brains pull some very complicated tricks beyond just simple adjustments.

How the brain interprets the color signals from the cones depends on local, spatial, and temporal effects. Akiyoshi’s illusion pages show some mind-boggling examples of what our brains are up to. When it comes to photos and color, the important takeaway is that a camera cannot simply capture the color it sees, because that would look very wrong to us. When we take a photo with a camera, the camera is not as clever as our brains are. But cameras have an automatic white balance algorithm that tries to figure out what the neutral color/gray in the scene is.