Google Voice: Can I Make Calls and Receive Them Without Using My Air-time Minutes?

It's tricky, and I have wasted $55 by not understanding this. You always can make free calls to continental US if you place the call from the GV website. But, how about calling from you cell phone?

Scenario: GV Account with GV Mobile Application
If you:

• open a Google Voice (GV) account and add you cell phone number to it
• download to your mobile device a GV application (I'm using Android, G1)
• make a call, or receive, a call selecting Google Voice for this, when asked,  

The call will use your minutes! I have experienced this and it costed me. I know.

Scenario: As Above with myFavs
If you:

• have myFavs or a similar service on your cell phone plan, and 
• you add your GV number to your favs
• receive a call or call you GV voice mail: your minutes won't be used
  
• place call: your minutes will be used

Scenario: As Above with A Twist
If you add to your favs also the number that GV calls when you initiate a call, no minutes will be charged. However, for some reason, this number changes. So, this is not a robust solution.

Using Derby aka JavaDB

• The database package is included with j2ee package or download.
• To start the server: go to bin folder and fire-off the startNetworkServer.bat or the like on other OS's.
• To create a database: connect to the server with the following JDBC URL: jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/fiber1;create=true. Replace fiber1 with the name of the DB you want to be created upon connect.
• There is a tool called DdlUtils freely available from Apache that allows migration from one DB vendor to another. That means migration of the schema and the data. Can be used via Ant or from a Java program.
  

Connect To A Remote Windows Workstation To Provide Support

So, someone from you family, living far away from you, asked you to help him/her with her windows computer and you would like to help, but are not willing to spend $450 for air tickets. Well, sometimes it may be a good idea to spend this money and spend some time with your family. But if there are reasons you can't do it right at this moment, but you would still like to help with the computer problem, what do you do? Especially, if it's your older relative or friend? Not really technical savvy or even scarred of this new and strange technology.

One simple approach I have found (after trying two other approaches with only partial success), is a product called TeamViewer. The personal/non-profit use is free. The thing works like this:

• The person that receives the support, downloads and runs the TeamViewerQS, which generates a random ID and password.
  
• The supporter downloads the TeamViewer and starts it. It asks for a user and password.
  
• The supported needs to obtain these to pieces of information from the other person (phone, email, text message, etc.) and enter.
  
• The rest is simple. Just like the MS Remote Desktop or VNC.

A really cool part of this is, you can actually test the TeamViewer first without getting your relative at all. The company provides a "test" machines you can connect to for testing. Easy, they're probably running just a bunch of windows virtual boxes. But still, it's a good idea.

Enjoy! And do make at another time a trip to visit your family in person. In my case, the relative I needed to help, lives in Poland. I live in Oregon. TeamVeaver was helpful.