Talk is Cheap

Talk is Cheap
Author: James E. Gaskin
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2005
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780596009601

Fed up with the high tolls charged by your ordinary telephone service? If you're itching to cut the copper cord with your costly, traditional phone service, you need Talk is Cheap, the new, easy-to-understand guide to understanding and using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other Internet telephone options.Technologies such as VoIP are gaining a great deal of attention these days as more people switch from standard telephone service to phone service via the Internet. But while the cost savings are outstanding, there are some issues with Internet telephony that you should know about. Are the connections reliable? Is the quality comparable? Will it include 911 services?James Gaskin's Talk is Cheap addresses these issues and many more by explaining how to make the switch and what the tradeoffs will be if you opt for Internet telephony over traditional phone services.Talk is Cheap focuses on the increasingly popular services from Vonage, which uses VoIP, and Skype--a free service that operates as a peer-to-peer (P2P) network with the ability to turn any PC, Mac, or Pocket PC into a telephone. The book explains your options; explores the background behind, the workings of, and differences between VoIP and P2P networks; and discusses the advantages and drawbacks of both technologies (including service offerings, quality, capabilities, completion rates, and more).Talk is Cheap then goes into detail on what you can expect in Internet service from traditional phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T. In addition, you will learn more advanced techniques, including how to turn your Palm or Pocket PC into an Internet phone and how to work with Wi-Fi phones and videophones.A straightforward, quick introduction to the ins and outs of using Internet telephone services, this book provides everything you need to make informed telephone decisions--whether you're thinking about the switch from traditional phone service or have already made it and want to get the most out of your new Internet telephone.

Talk Is Cheap

Talk Is Cheap
Author: John Haiman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 1998-03-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0198027508

Putting aside questions of truth and falsehood, the old "talk is cheap" maxim carries as much weight as ever. Indeed, perhaps more. For one need not be an expert in irony or sarcasm to realize that people don't necessarily mean what they say. Phrases such as "Yeah, right" and "I couldn't care less" are so much a part of the way we speak--and the way we live--that we are more likely to notice when they are absent (for example, Forrest Gump). From our everyday dialogues and conversations ("Thanks a lot!") to the screenplays of our popular films (Pulp Fiction and Fargo), what is said is frequently very different from what is meant. Talk is Cheap begins with this telling observation and proceeds to argue that such "unplain speaking" is fundamentally embedded in the way we now talk. Author John Haiman traces this sea-change in our use of language to the emergence of a postmodern "divided self" who is hyper-conscious that what he or she is saying has been said before; "cheap talk" thus allows us to distance ourselves from a social role with which we are uncomfortable. Haiman goes on to examine the full range of these pervasive distancing mechanisms, from clichés and quotation marks to camp and parody. Also, and importantly, this text highlights several new ways in which the English language is evolving (and has evolved) in response to our postmodern world view. In other words, this study shows us how what we are saying is gradually separating itself from how we say it. As provocative as it is timely, the book will be fascinating reading for students of linguistics, literature, communication, anthropology, philosophy, and popular culture.

Talk is Cheap

Talk is Cheap
Author: Robert W. Crandall
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815719701

The rapid pace of technological change is placing the world's telephone companies in a very difficult position. Fiber optics cables, wireless telephones, digital signal compression, and sophisticated new switching equipment are lowering the cost of providing service and opening the gates to new competition. At the same time, these new technologies are providing the telephone companies with a wide array of new market opportunities. Unfortunately, their status as regulated carriers makes it difficult to exploit these new opportunities and to fend off competitive assaults on their traditional telephone business. As long as they are regulated, they can be accused of using their monopoly services to cross-subsidize new competitive ventures. But partial deregulation and open entry would be a catastrophe for them unless they were allowed to revise their rate structure. There is a widespread misconception that the U.S. telecommunications industry has been "deregulated" and that Canadian authorities are following the U.S. lead. In fact, most services remain regulated, even though some markets, such as long-distance services, equipment sales and rentals, and local services, have been opened up. This book reviews the recent changes in the structure of U.S. and Canadian telecommunications industries and the changes in regulatory policy on both sides of the border. The authors analyze the effects of these changes in regulation on telephone rates in both the local and long-distance markets with particular emphasis on the impacts of regulatory reforms and competition on long-distance rates. They use their results to suggest how regulation should be structured to allow competition to replace monopoly on the road to the information superhighway. The authors contend that for decades misguided regulation of the telephone sector in both Canada and the U.S. denied consumers the benefits of competition, distorted local and long-distance telephone rates, and blocked en

Talk Is Cheap : Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language

Talk Is Cheap : Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language
Author: Minnesota John Haiman Professor of Linguistics Macalester College
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 234
Release: 1998-02-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0195354060

Putting aside questions of truth and falsehood, the old "talk is cheap" maxim carries as much weight as ever. Indeed, perhaps more. For one need not be an expert in irony or sarcasm to realize that people don't necessarily mean what they say. Phrases such as "Yeah, right" and "I couldn't care less" are so much a part of the way we speak--and the way we live--that we are more likely to notice when they are absent (for example, Forrest Gump). From our everyday dialogues and conversations ("Thanks a lot!") to the screenplays of our popular films (Pulp Fiction and Fargo), what is said is frequently very different from what is meant. Talk is Cheap begins with this telling observation and proceeds to argue that such "unplain speaking" is fundamentally embedded in the way we now talk. Author John Haiman traces this sea-change in our use of language to the emergence of a postmodern "divided self" who is hyper-conscious that what he or she is saying has been said before; "cheap talk" thus allows us to distance ourselves from a social role with which we are uncomfortable. Haiman goes on to examine the full range of these pervasive distancing mechanisms, from cliches and quotation marks to camp and parody. Also, and importantly, this text highlights several new ways in which the English language is evolving (and has evolved) in response to our postmodern world view. In other words, this study shows us how what we are saying is gradually separating itself from how we say it. As provocative as it is timely, the book will be fascinating reading for students of linguistics, literature, communication, anthropology, philosophy, and popular culture.

Doing Our Own Thing

Doing Our Own Thing
Author: John McWhorter
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2004-09-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0593330544

“McWhorter is a gifted young linguist who seeks to understand the change in our verbal habits rather than just bemoan it, and his analysis is insightful, richly documented and, yes, eloquently written.”—Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct In Doing Our Own Thing, critically acclaimed linguist and cultural critic John McWhorter traces the precipitous decline of language in contemporary America, arguing persuasively that casual everyday speech has conquered the formal in all arenas, from oratory to poetry to everyday journalism—and has even had dire consequences for our musical culture. McWhorter argues that the swift and startling change in written and oral communication emanated from the countercultural revolution of the 1960s and its ideology that established forms and formality were autocratic and artificial. While acknowledging that the evolution of language is, in and of itself, inevitable and often benign, he warns that the near-total loss of formal expression in America is unprecedented in modern history and has reached a crisis point in our culture such that our very ability to convey ideas and arguments effectively is gravely threatened. By turns compelling and harrowing, passionate and judicious, Doing Our Own Thing is required reading for all concerned about the state of our language—and the future of intellectual life in America.

Cheap Talk

Cheap Talk
Author: Joshua St. Pierre
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2022-05-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0472055348

In Cheap Talk: Disability and the Politics of Communication, Joshua St. Pierre flips the script on communication disability, positioning the unruly, disabled speaker at the center of analysis to challenge the belief that more communication is unquestionably good. Working with Gilles Deleuze’s suggestion that “[w]e don’t suffer these days from any lack of communication, but rather from all the forces making us say things when we’ve nothing much to say,” St. Pierre brings together the unlikely trio of the dysfluent speaker, the talking head, and the troll to show how speech is made cheap—and produced and repaired within human bodies—to meet the inhuman needs of capital. The book explores how technologies, like social media and the field of speech-language pathology, create smooth sites of contact that are exclusionary for disabled speakers and looks to the political possibilities of disabled voices to “de-face” the power of speech now entwined with capital.

Talk is (not!) Cheap

Talk is (not!) Cheap
Author: Jim McCann
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0544114329

How to lead through conversation from the founder and CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com, the world's largest florist. "

Trouble Talk

Trouble Talk
Author: Trudy Ludwig
Publisher: Tricycle Press
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2008-05-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1582462402

Maya's friend Bailey loves to talk about everything and everyone. At first, Maya thinks Bailey is funny. But when Bailey's talk leads to harmful rumors and hurt feelings, Maya begins to think twice about their friendship. In her fourth book for children, relational aggression expert Trudy Ludwig acquaints readers with the damaging consequences of "trouble talk"-talking to others about someone else's troubles in order to establish connection and gain attention. Includes additional resources for kids, parents, and teachers, as well as advice from Trudy about how to combat trouble talk. Trudy Ludwig's books have sold more than 50,000 copies. Includes foreword by Dr. Charisse L. Nixon, author of Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying.

Talk Is Cheap, the Mirror Never Lies

Talk Is Cheap, the Mirror Never Lies
Author: Gary McDonald
Publisher:
Total Pages: 118
Release: 1916-07-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9780997834000

Written for the student-athlete, this short read is filled with precise steps to guide any student to excel in both academics and athletics. Gary McDonald has created a road map to success that, according to a parent of a committed college baseball player, "opened my son's and my eyes with a specific program that attacks and defeats the blocks in the mental side of life. That's LIFE, not just baseball. Gary's program answered questions for us in a matter of minutes that I had spent two years trying to find the answers to. This program should be instituted in everyday life. In one day, I have seen a change in my son's focus and performance levels. I, too, have begun to follow these steps in my own life. I sense a change in how I see and do things. Being mentally lazy is what holds everyone back from achieving success in all parts of life. Many thanks to Gary and Kelly. This is the best thing I have learned in my 50 years of living. I wish I had learned it earlier." "This book is a must read for all kids playing baseball and, more importantly, all parents of kids playing baseball." -Jodi Hetzel, parent of a college baseball player.